The second half was a house exchange with a family in Nîmes, France. We had a wonderful time while we stayed there from the first night where we spent the evening with our exchange family (it's funny how much my French improved as I drank more wine) to a day at the Chateauneuf du Pape wine festival to seeing a multitude of ancient bridges, aqueducts, buildings and statues to enjoying the wonderful food and wine in Southern France.
At this point in our lives, we had started to drink better - not just the crappy stuff I used to make in my basement. But we were a bit snooty about white wine. "Sorry, we're red wiiiine drinkers (you poor ignorant twit)!"
Nîmes was really hot. Like 40 degrees Celsius hot. Like over 100 degrees Fahrenheit hot.
Have you ever tried to drink a bold red wine in the heat? Forget it.
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| Drinking a fine rosé on the patio of our exchange home. |
We unabashedly bought wine at the hypermarché (supermarket) and it was really, really good! We sipped on our chilled rosé in the evening on the patio of our exchange house while we ate the most wonderful food - little lamb savoury pastries, bull sausage, fresh, hot baguettes, a French cake with wonderful filling and sugar bits stuck on the outside, foie gras (yes, I felt bad for the goose but it was overwhelmingly delicious), and a host of other foods. And with it all, rosé and more rosé!
After that wonderful summer, we decided that rosé would be our summer drink. Since then, I have gotten over my prejudice against white wine but I still have a fondness for rosé.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago when we were in the Okanagan. We stopped at Hester Creek and had a wonderful wine tasting with Sarah.She poured a nice range of wines and the one that we liked the most was their rosé. We also like Sarah as she was particularly friendly, knowledgeable and welcoming.
When it came time to choose a wine to accompany a turkey at our house for our family dinner, I thought about the rose and served it.
The 2016 rosé (currently on sale at BC liquor stores for $15.99) is made from Cabernet Franc, a grape that I don't usually associate with rosé. It was very drinkable - still fairly dry but also quite fruity. It was crisp and clean on the palate and paired well with the turkey. It would pair even more favourably with a hot day on the deck....
Excellent blog. I like the clever title. A good wine of a variety we don't expect to like can surprise us. I don't typically like champagne. A couple of weekends ago, at Toni and Chad's house in Napa, we shared a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premiere Champagne that I'd received as a gift. As executive chef of Hess Winery, Chad knows his wines. He's not a champagne man, either, but he enthusiastically praised this one and we all really enjoyed it. It's been too long since you and we got together with Chad at Hess. Put that on your to-do list.
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE to get together with Chad at Hess again - maybe I need to blog about the great time we had! I've learned a fair bit about wine wince then and would most likely appreciate the time there even more! That was such a lovely day and it is definitely on my to-do list.
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