Tag Archives: Dry rose

Another Fine Agenais Rosé

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“…it has a welcome place in our rotating selections of dry rosé…”

I haven’t reviewed many of the Mary Taylor Wines lately, because, frankly, I haven’t seen many of them around here in the Royal Oak, Ferndale and Southfield marketplace. The Plum Markets in Ann Arbor have been bringing in new MTW selections fairly regularly, but we don’t get over to A-Squared as much as we used to, and while the Bloomfield and West Bloomfield locations tell me that they can order any of them I like, it’s hard to know what I’m ordering without access to the distributor’s list of what is and what is not available.

I did find the latest vintage of an MTW rosé that we liked a lot back in May of ‘23, at Holiday Market in Royal Oak. It costs $3 more than the previous effort, but it’s still well worth the money.
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Rosé for May

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“You can pay more for a good rosé, but you don’t have to.”

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I’m starting to see more new vintages of wines I’ve reviewed in the past year, which of course, offers plenty of new scouting opportunities for this taster, along with the corresponding chances to compare them with their predecessors. This is fun for a wine geek like me, because I can gauge the continuity of styles as they progress, or sometimes digress from those that came before.

This dry rosé is a good example. I’ve enjoyed more than a few Campuget wines over the years, but this is the one I’ve seen most often lately. Like last year’s model, it’s a solid value at a very good price (and a buck cheaper to boot, go figure). It’s not entirely clear how or why a wine that has previously been designated as produced in Costieres de Nimes is now listed as an IGP, when even the tech sheet still says it’s from Costieres de Nimes. Whatever the case, the important thing is what’s in the bottle, and this stuff is much to my liking. Continue reading →

Cote des Roses

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“…a great choice for an everyday dry rosé.”

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A few days ago, I played my first music gig in almost two years, blowing harp in a small ensemble backing the very fine Detroit singer-songwriter Emily Rose in her tribute to Townes van Zandt. It was a marvelous night of music, and when I got home, it was too late to open any bubbly or a big red, so I celebrated with a couple of glasses of dry rosé, and that was just fine by me. Continue reading →

Sancerre Rosé

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“…both of these offer excellent value for their respective price tags…”

When casual wine drinkers think of wine from Sancerre, they are almost always considering Sauvignon Blanc, because that’s what is in the majority of bottles with “Sancerre” on the label. However, this small Loire Valley district also produces Pinot Noir, some of which is vinified to make rosé, and that’s what I found in my most recent visit to (where else?) our friendly neighborhood Costco.

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These two have been in the bins of the wine department for the last few weeks, and after looking at them during preceding visits, I decided to give them both a try. I couldn’t find any background information on either of these producers, not even on the importer’s website, but, happily, the wines themselves tell me all I need to know about them. Continue reading →

Two More Dry Rosés

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“It’s always open season on dry rose at our house…”

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I keep finding more good specimens of dry rosé at our friendly neighborhood Costco, and last week, I brought these two home. Both are follow ups on previous wines featured in this blog, and offer good bang for your buck.

When I like a wine from a particular producer, say Domaine Lafage, I’m often inclined to try another bottling from that same producer. Because we enjoyed the Lafage red blend so much a few months ago, it wasn’t a difficult choice to give this one a try. 

Domaine Lafage is located in Cotes Catalanes, in the Roussillon region of southwestern France. This is only the third wine I’ve had from this area as of late, and all three have been much to my liking. The QPR (quality-price-ratio) of the three is even more to my liking, as they are quite pocketbook friendly.
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Two Dry Rosés

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“This is what dry rosé is all about.”

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Since rebooting Tasting Notes from the Underground this past February, I’ve reviewed no fewer than 10 dry rosés. We’re unabashed fans of this style, and take great pleasure in trying examples from all around the world. Happily, there is a boatload of the stuff available around here, and a lot of it is pretty good. What’s more, it seems like every retailer has at least a few selections that the last place I stopped at didn’t, so there’s always something new to try.

I picked these two bottles up last week at Plum Market West Bloomfield. I was checking the first one out when my friend Paula Hartson, who was working in the department, came up and confirmed my suspicion that I was eying a good one. She then also recommended the Slovenian rosé, telling me, “Those are my two George wines for the day!”

That Paula, she always hits the mark when it comes to suggesting the kind of wines I like to drink!
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A Fine Agenais Rose

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“There’s nothing pretentious about this wine; it’s straightforward,
well-made, and boy, do I like the price.”

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I’ve been on the prowl for anything from Mary Taylor since I first tried three of her wines in February. I love her concept of importing “the kind of honest, authentic wines that the Europeans have been enjoying for centuries,” and those I’ve tasted have been much to my liking.

But, I’d only managed to track down one other specimen, the very nice 2020 Mary Taylor Pierre Vidal Costières de Nimes, until now. Then, yesterday, I stopped in the Westborn Market in Berkley specifically to find something new and interesting, and there this sat stacked and waiting for me. It’s the first Agenais I can recall seeing around here, and it’s dry rosé, so it was an easy choice for this taster.
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Dry Rose x 3

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“…these are all good variations on the dry rosé theme that deliver solid QPR…”

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I’ve been seeing a lot of ads in the last few weeks telling me that, with the weather warming, we’re now into dry rosé season. I’m not about to quibble with this commonly-held perception, despite the fact that we drink the stuff all year around at our house. If it’s “dry rosé season,” there should be more selections to sample, right? We may have our favorites, but we like to explore the varieties of the dry rosé experience from around the globe, and it seems like there are more good selections to choose from all the time.

Here are just the three latest examples that have crossed our paths. They are all worthy of your consideration.
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Following Up

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“A blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault, this has good intensity,
making it a food friendly, worthy contender in the $15-20 range.”

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I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting wines, and these two caught my attention during my travels over the last few weeks. Both are connected to others recently reviewed here and measure up favorably to those previous selections.

Trader Joe’s sells a lot of discounted wine, much of which is perfectly acceptable for the casual non-geeky wine drinker. They also carry some higher quality items that cost a little more, but are still priced less than most other retailers charge around here. One of these is a very good dry rosé from Gérard Bertrand, whose Saint-Chinian is my current Best Buy in reds.
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A Classic Provence Rosé

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“Like any good dry rosé, this pairs nicely with a variety of foods,
and it performs quite well as a solo sipper.”

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(Update: I just found a goodly amount of this one at Market Fresh, located at 31201 Southfield Rd, Beverly Hills, MI, for $13.99! Now that’s a value!!! 4/14/23)

I’m always on the lookout for a good glass of dry rosé. It’s a wine for every season here in the underground, and, as it gains in popularity, there are ever more options available. We’re especially fond of Provence rosé, and we’ve enjoyed previous vintages of this one a number of times. Costco was selling it for a while, but hasn’t stocked it for a few years, so when I happened upon a stash yesterday during a scouting mission to Westborn Market in Berkley, I didn’t hesitate to pick one up and see what the current bottling has to offer. It turns out that it’s showing quite well, thank you very much.
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