We've revealed the Top 10 Wine Values of ! See the full list, including the Wine Value of the Year. The best of them are wonderful. It was a good point. And I admit that at that precise moment, I didn't have an answer. But it did get me thinking. To that contingent I can only say: You haven't tasted the good stuff. As a category, it's weak.
There, they are not just called rosato but, depending upon the zone, are given names such as cerasuolo Sicily and Abruzzo and chiaretto Lake Garda. It takes, admittedly, a little looking. In the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo zone, the cerasuolo —the word refers to "cherry"—is made exclusively from the namesake Montepulciano grape variety. In the hands of a producer such as Torre dei Beati, the result is remarkable. In the Lake Garda zone, their chiaretto the word, like that of the old Bordeaux term clairet , which was anglicized into "claret," refers to a light, clear wine is composed of several local varieties.
Why is that? This is the key word. If a wine does not reach out and pull you in, they by definition see it as lesser, even undesirable. Put simply, a lot of people—most, I would venture to say—don't want to be involved with their wine. They just want a pleasant drink that enhances their meal or lubricates a social occasion.
Allow me to take this one step further and ask: Do we now have too many wines that demand involvement? Do you really want to listen only to symphonies? Is anything less than a symphonic blast of flavor and power somehow intrinsically lesser?
An awful lot of wines are now made to be "serious"—whether the wine deserves it or not. We see and taste this all the time—all that oak, all that overripe fruit. All to signal a seriousness of purpose and stature as well as justify a higher price.
