Rosé Saves the Day (as usual)

So originally we had planned to write about the Kirkland Signature (Costco) Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (which was good!) but between drinking the wine and writing the blog our tasting notes were...misplaced. Fortunately, Alejandra had a $4 bottle of Chilean rosé sitting around so we were able to salvage the day! The wine was intensely aromatic and floral- seconds after the bottle was open the whole room smelled of perfume. Beautifully pink with a hue similar to blood oranges the wine is slightly sweet and a bit unbalanced but surprisingly pleasant for $4.49 at Trader Joe's. A good summer aperitif wine, try it with some dark chocolate for dessert or use it to pregame your dinner. Plus it's an import so people will think you're fancy if you bring it to the party.

2014 Viñas Chilenas Rosario Estate Reserva Rosé Wine
12.5% ABV
$4.49 at Trader Joe's

Tasting Notes

Theme: "Let's get this tasting over with so we can drink and watch Friends"

Sight

Beautiful pink with the slightest tinge of salmon orange, it resembles a very low concentration blood orange juice. Lots of rim variation.

Nose

Immediately after opening the bottle the whole room smelled fruity and floral, like somebody had spilled a bottle of perfume, or like being in a meadow of wildflowers.

Very strong aromatics: sweet lemon-perfectly ripe, like a lemon tree at the height of the season. Strawberry candy, like those little ones that come wrapped in foil in grandma's purse. Almost like artificial strawberry, intensely sweet. After a minute grapefruit starts to shine through, offering some complexity.

Palate

Tastes like fresh citrus with sweet notes of honey and a short strawberry draw. It's not as crisp as it smells, it's a little round and syrupy at first, but the acid develops in your mouth and feels almost a little effervescent on the back of the tongue. The wine is a bit unbalanced, the acidity is much more prominent than the alcohol, which is almost undetectable despite the wine being over 12%.

Overall we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the wine compared to the price. The wine definitely provides a good bang-for-your-buck (really, you're pretty much getting 3% alcohol per dollar) and is at least worth a try, even if you don't generally like rosés. It's a little sweet and completely approachable, a good summer wine if you aren't feeling like drinking something super crisp. Poking around online it appears that this is primarily a rosé of cabernet.

7.5/10

The wine gets a score bump for the price, but it was still unbalanced and didn't blow our socks off. It's a solid everyday drinker, and one that we wouldn't be ashamed to take to a casual occasion.

Cheers,

A&P