I'm a girly-girl. Ask anyone who knows me. I don't like sports. I can easily spend $20 on a lipstick and my wardrobe is heavy on the pink. I mean a whole lotta pink. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that I like pink wine. I'm not talking about "white zinfandel", but rosé.
The reason I like rosé really has less to do with the color than the the fact that it pairs well with food and is often quite reasonably priced. Like hip hugger jeans rosé has been out of fashion for so long that it's finally cool again. Even more so in the Summer when it is wonderful served chilled.
While my knowledge of wine fits fairly neatly into a wine glass, I will nonetheless share what I know about pairing food with rosé. The reason it works so well with food is that there is not just one style of rosé. There are sparkling, dry, fruity, light, medium and full-bodied rosé. A sparkling rosé makes for a wonderful aperitif, a dry rosé is great with seafood, especially shellfish and a full-bodied rosé can work with meat, even steak.
Jeff Morgan's new book Rosé A Guide to the World's Most Versatile Wine is a great book to familiarize yourself with the different types of rosé and the regions where it is produced. The book has a tasting guide that includes 200 wines and as an added bonus there is a whole section of a dozen or so recipes designed to pair well with rosé. The recipes lean towards the more hearty than delicate with offerings inspired by the cuisines of France, India and Mexico. I'm planning to try the Fish Soup with Aioli next week and I will make a mental note to pair pasta and pesto with rosé as Morgan suggests. Proving once and for all, you don't have to be a girly-girl to drink pink.