The wine for the night was a 2003 Iridesse Zinfandel Rose. Patrick and Genevieve brought this out to DC for us when they were in town a few months ago. The wine hails from the Russian River Valley, clocks in at 13% alcohol by volume, and the fruit comes from the Rodgers Family Vineyard.
On the nose I found strawberry rhubarb pie, white pepper, orange, spice, red berries, and candied cherries. I loved the nose on this Rose. In the mouth I got flavors of crisp strawberries, raspberries, oranges, cherries, blackberries, and citrus. This was one of the darkest Roses I've seen, most definitely influenced by the Zinfandel grapes.
Overall, the wine was incredibly dry and very refreshing. I served it with my easy bbq ribs and it was perfect. It was a nice complement to the spice of the bbq sauce. The wine retails for $12, which is already a great deal, but Patrick and Genevieve are currently running a summer sale and offering 50% off a case. That's an incredible value and I'd definitely run to scoop that up for the summer months.
Many thanks to Patrick and Genevieve for sharing this wine with us!
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Thanks, Sonadora, for further fueling the desire for a wonderful rose' that has been burning for about a good hour...& it's only 11:45. I won't get home to what's on my mind until at least 7:00 tonight - this is gonna be a long one!
I've never heard of Iridesse, but I intend to check them out. I adore rose', & well, wine in general, so I'm always looking for new ones. What you described is right up my alley (which seems to be rather wide when it comes to vino). Who knows, we might take a risk & have a case of unknown shipped...
7/31/08, 12:47 PM
Marshall & I had the pleasure of trying the Iridesse Rosé with Patrick & Genevieve too, along with Tim Elliot and Penelope of Coral Mustang, back in April. The rosé (and all of their wines for that matter) was wonderful and unusual, and it was made that much more enjoyable by the fact that they're really lovely, warm people! They just make you want to buy wine from them, don't they? :)
8/1/08, 12:02 AM
Wow, you don't usually see a Zin Rose. They really got some color on that.
What a sale too.
8/1/08, 2:02 PM
I don't go for rose too often but this sounds like a good one. I just picked up a garnacha based one, Las Rocas, at a tasting yesterday.
8/3/08, 2:20 PM
Thanks for all the comments everyone. I'm a Rose fiend in the summer! This is definitely an excellent one for the price!
8/14/08, 11:05 AM