Domaine les Hautes Cances – 2007 Rosé Is this the best Rosé made in France?
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Don’t you want to be at this lunch. It just takes some shade and good Rosé (Image www.winepictures.com)
Last Supply of this Summer Favorite.
Okay. Stop everything. It’s time to start summer right now! One of the best ways I know of is to slip your hand around a sweating, cool neck of shimmery salmony-pink Rosé and get that corkscrew twisting. It’s like a sunset in your glass. Suddenly you’re on v-a-c-a-t-i-o-n. Uh, I’ll have a second glass if anyone’s getting up…
But, here’s the very important part: there are a lot of Rosé out there – some with those ultra-modern abstract labels that just don’t seem very authentic and they certainly can taste very boring or poorly made. They are nothing like this Rosé born in Provence where the sun splashes over the vineyards all day long and folks know what a good Rosé has to taste like to warrant the name.
The Rosé from Domaine Hautes Cances was named one of the best Rosé in all of France and it’s no surprise. This Rosé comes from 50 year-old vines. That’s right. Anne Marie and Jean-Marie, the proprietors of Domaine Hautes Cances don’t make their Rosé from leftovers or inferior plots as a lot of wine makers do. They reserve a special parcel of old-vine land just for their Rose.
This small parcel is 100% classified Cotes du Rhone Villages-Cairanne, one of the best vineyard areas of the Cotes du Rhone.
This is a Rosé that’s made just like a very expensive red wine. It’s 37% syrah with some Cinsault, Grenache and Carignan in the blend too. The soil is that perfect combination of clay and limestone soil. The yields are an amazingly low 35 hectoliters per hectare (nobody does that for Rosé) and every grape is sorted through meticulously to eliminate all the bad ones. Does this sound like Rosé? Yes, it’s just a very extraordinary Rosé.
Oh, and if I haven’t convinced you by now that this isn’t some hosed-out factory stuff. There are only 900 bottles made. I bought nearly the whole production. I wanted more, but the cellar had run dry. This Rosé is made without chemicals and pesticides. Anne-Marie and Jean Marie are environmentalists.
By the way, do you know how they 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 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 process is called saignée.
The best Rosé shouldn’t taste like pink white wine; there should be always be a slight red wine presence. But, the most important thing is that little zing of acidity on your tongue. That’s what makes great Rosé. That and the crisp, freshness which makes it perfect for a hot day.
Start that Rosé chilling. Summer’s here. Cynthia Hurley