I don’t have to buy rosé. That’s not how I’ll earn enough to buy a little stone house overlooking the Mediterranean. Nor do I have to put up with the incredulous expressions on my clients’ faces when in the shop I recommend a rosé. “What do you take me for, a hick?” their expression demands. Or “Try that one on the next sucker, mister.” Or, “Let’s move on to something more serious.”
     In the course of my buying trips I run across excellent wines with a rosé color. I don’t look for them. They appear.
     What can I do? I’m in the cellar with a serious winemaker; there is a glass of something special in my hand that happens to be neither red or white. I can’t ignore it simply because the quality of California rosé has created a credibility problem for rosé in general. So I buy them anyway. In small quantities. No reason to lose money over it. But I have found some beauties for those of you with an open mind. And now, summertime, is their season.
                                                                                                                                         —August 1983

1977 CHINON ROSÉ “CUVÉE JEUNES VIGNES” • CHARLES JOGUET
Winner of the Gold Medal of all the Rosés of the Loire, 1977. It is of the dry style, but soft and full of charm. It has traveled well, retaining its abundant fruit and delicacy. Drink chilled, with summer salads and light cuisine, or for itself. An uncommon treat. —August 1978

2005 REUILLY “PINOT GRIS” ROSÉ • DOMAINE DE REUILLY
A Pinot Gris on the rosé page? I don’t think anyone will argue, because this wine combines two great pleasures in one wine. Have your Pinot Gris and rosé, too. The grapeskins provided the tinge of rosé color.
     I was surprised when the winemaker poured it, but in fact there is a tradition of Pinot Gris rosé in the lost little village of Reuilly, in the Loire, about forty miles from Sancerre. According to James Wilson’s book Terroir, “a rosé from the Pinot Gris is given quite high marks.” The soil is sandy with some Kimmeridgian chalk.
     Enjoy the aromatics of the Pinot Gris in this light, racy rosé. —June 2006