COOLING DOWN WITH A TEXAS ROSE’ OR BLUSH
I believe we can all agree that our current Texas weather calls for some cool wines to chill the heat. Try a Texas Rose’ or Blush to cool you down. Both the Rose’ and Blush has that pinkish, shrimp color, but they are different. Rose’ wines are made from grapes that are normally used only for red wines like Sangiovese, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Mourvedre, Montepulciano, Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, Carignan, and other red wine grapes. The difference between the red wine and Rose’ wine is the amount of time the grape skins are in contact with the grape juice. Short contact times with the red grape skins produce a pinkish juice to make the Rose’ wine a lighter wine that is more fruit forward without the tannin backbone found in the constituents found in those red grape skins. The red wines get their deeper red color and tannin structure by keeping the red grape skins in constant contact with the grape juice. A Blush, on the other hand, is a mixture of red wine with mostly white wine. The emphasis is the Blush is a blending of two or more finished wines to make a Blush similar in color to a Rose’. There is a slight hint of tannin in this wine, but it is slight since the dominant wine in this blend is a white wine. The red pigment in the red wine must be diluted with much more white wine to provide a pink, shrimpy-looking wine. As a result, the fruit in the white wine(s) used in the blend to make a Blush is dominant. Most of these pinkish wines are made to have very little residual sugar with the sugar converted to alcohol, being between 11.5% to 13% alcohol. This is much lower than the alcohol content of the bigger red wines since the grapes are normally picked with higher sugar levels. Texas Rose’ wines and Blush wines are readily available at your local grocery stores like HEB and Kroger’s, wine shops like Total Wines, along with SPEC’s and other liquor stores. These wines include:
• Llano Estacado Blush
• Becker Vineyards Provencal
• Messina Hof Mama Rosa Rose
• Wimberly Valley Vineyards Sweet Blush
• Lost Draw Cellars Texas High Plains Rose
• Kiepersol Rose of Malbec
• M Lambert Electric Pink Blush
• Messina Hof Rose in a can
• Bernhardt Aggie Blush
• Messina Hof Grenache Rose
• Wild Stallion Pink Horses Blush
These are just a few of locally available Rose’ and Blush Wines made from Texas grapes. Since our Summers are so hot, it is acceptable to ice down your Summer sippers with an ice cube or two.
Texas Wines in our local Texas Restaurants
If you have read my earlier wine columns, I have challenged my readers to ask for Texas wines in the local restaurants they visit. I want to feature these restaurants periodically in my WINE WALK Column to help make readers aware of these Texas establishments. Please email me the name of your favorite restaurant that serves Texas Wines to [email protected]. This week’s featured restaurant is Saltgrass Steakhouse which features Messina Hof “Texas Hold Em” Red Blend. This red blend pairs nicely with the fine steaks at Saltgrass Steakhouse!