Domaine des Jougla 2007 Rosé Enjoy the wine of Summer from the South of France
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The Saint Chinian market. A bottle of Rosé and ten minutes here and you've got the perfect summer picnic.
Now it really is vacation time & time for a summer good Rosé
Here we go again. Last summer I imported my first Rosé. I always loved Rosé on my trips to the south of France where they drink it like coke with virtually every meal. But suddenly everyone here kept saying Cynthia - "how about some Rosé for us? " OK, I found a very good one and it sold out immediately. Who knew it was becoming an American favorite!
Rosé! It makes you feel so good. A few sips and you know it is summer and with a few more sips you're chillin'. You can almost feel those grains of sand running through your fingers and the cool beach breezes ruffling your 'do. I've never met a more evocative wine.
But, I'm picky about what goes in my glass. I'm not about to fall for something just because it's pretty in pink.
It took me a long time to find a Rosé that was glass worthy to compete with my Chiroubles Beaujolais Cru during Saturday lunch or my white Macon, Saumur or Vouvray on the patio at the end of the day.
But, I was willing to admit that as the quality of French wine has gotten better and better, so has the Rosé. I went on a rotation throughout France recently and I drank every Rosé I could find, which was not the romp through the vineyards you're undoubtedly envisioning since there are still a number of slackers out there passing off their leftovers as Rosé.
But with some perseverance, I found one. It's not surprising that my Rosé was right in my own backyard of existing growers. I like to work with the small "indy" growers who put quality ahead of practically everything. These are the folks who are not about to short-change their Rosé.
My Rosé is from Domaine des Jougla. I discovered this estate a few years back traveling around the Languedoc Roussillon (which stretches all the way from where the Rhone empties into the Mediterranean, west along the rim of the sea to Spain). There are a lot of very gulpable wines here coming out of places like Minervois, Saint Chinian and Coteaux de Languedoc. Domaine des Jougla is a Saint Chinian wine, one of the best vineyard areas.
I was pleased to see that France's The Wine Advocate, La Revue du Vin de France, backed up my good feeling about Domaine Jougla's Rosé by naming it one of the Best Rosés in France.
"A well-built personality around savory minerals, Spicy fruit reminiscent of kumquats. A real mouthful!"
That's impressive! These La Revue folks tracked through a lot of Rosé territory to pick their favorites.
Skip this part, if you've already read it, but I get asked this question a lot: How do you make Rosé? The best Rosé is made by pressing the grapes, the way you normally would for any red wine. The juice is allowed to sit with the grape skins (briefly) picking up color, but also tannins, pectins and proteins which give the wine structure. Then the juice is drained off, put into another vat without the skins and the fermentation proceeds. This is called the saignée process.
The Jougla Rosé has pure fruit flavors of raspberries and strawberries and, just as important, freshness. By freshness, I mean good, lively acidity. Rosé has to be perky and it's the acidity that gives it that zing. This is a full-flavored Rosé made from Syrah and Mourvedre. The color has a brilliant "salmon" tint. The Mourvedre is very successful around Saint Chinian and provides wonderful fruit flavors
So, start the Rosé chilling. Cynthia Hurley
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