Should Rosés always be consumed in their first year?

There are some generally accepted rules in the world of wine which are duly observed by the public. According to one of these golden rules rosés should always be consumed in their first year. But is that really true?

With the harvest completed many people are eager to get a taste of the new vintage and St. Martin’s Day has become the traditional festive occasion to taste the very first wines of the year. These wines are typically fresh, crispy and light and they are pleasant reminders of the flavours of the summer before the winter period sets in.

In recent years there has been a growing number of wineries that treat rosé with special care. This is not something without precedent; the widely acclaimed rosés of Provence for example represent a very different style from what we are accustomed to. These wines are often aged in barrels making them stand apart from reductive winemaking. Another established practice is ageing on fine lees which adds weight and creates a creamy texture.

These are the methods adopted by Nagygombos Winery in the Mátra wine region. The foundations of the winery were laid by the late Tibor Gál and it’s a testimony to his adventurous spirit that gamay noir the variety made famous by the Beaujolais region in France was planted by the winery. Rosé is the main focus at Nagygombos and in terms of quality they have set the bar high.

„We lavish care on our vines as we believe that the old adage „Great wine is made in the vineyard” applies to rosés as well. After harvest vinification is not rushed, we let our wines take their time. This way for example the amount of fining agents can be kept to minimal as the natural clarification process is allowed time to run its due course. For the same reason our rosés are released only in spring”,

says Anna Takács-Barta chief winemaker at Nagygombos.

„For example our gamay noir rosé which is partly aged in barrels is still in great shape after several years. One of our restaurant partners is still serving the 2015 vintage because they love it so much. Needless to say some people are wary of older rosés so in order to alleviate their fears we decided to give customers the chance to taste three vintages of our wines at the Rosalia and Gourmet festivals.”

So if your curiosity is piqued by the idea of tasting side by side three vintages of the same rosé we urge you to visit the above mentioned festivals. Heralding the arrival of summer the Rosalia Festival puts rosés on center stage and will be held between 11 and 13 May in the City Park in Budapest, while the large scale gastronomy fair, OTP Bank Gourmet Festival will be held a week later between 17 and 20 May at the Millenáris.

As we wrote before, the state’s pre-emption right introduced this January in north-east Hungary’s renowned Tokaj wine region in the case of contracts to sell vineyards and cellars serves to protect its world heritage status, the deputy state secretary for social and heritage protection and priority cultural investment has told the daily Népszava. Read more HERE.

Photo: Furmint Photo

Source: Wineglass Communication