Celebrate Mother’s day with a bottle of home-grown British Columbia Rosé!
Often subjected to derision and defamation of their vinous character, Rosé wines are made all over the world. All of British Columbia’s various growing regions make these light pink wines.
Rosés can be made by mixing white wine grapes and red wine grapes and co-fermenting them together.
In some regions Rosés are traditionally made by blending semi-finished red wines and white wines.
Other winemakers leave fermenting red wine grapes in contact with the grape skins for a very short time, until the developing alcohol strips some pink colour from the dark purple skins, then press off the pink juice.
On Boucherie Road in West Kelowna, in the Okanagan Valley, Beaumont Estate Winery is a family operation established in 1995.
Unabashedly off-dry Beaumont Harmony Pinot Noir Rosé (245092) $16.00 offers luscious aromas of strawberry, cranberry and pomegranate. A little chilling goes a long way to tame this lovely wine!
Keeping it seriously local the next quartet of Rosés are grown and finished on Vancouver Island.
Choosing the right varieties for this ‘cool climate’ region ensures that the wines are crisp and refreshing, regardless of the seductive berry fruit aromas and flavours.
Made in a light and dry style from 100 per cent Cowichan Valley grown Gamay Noir, Blue Grouse’s Quill Rosé (170316) $18.20 has a bright redcurrant colour with ripe fruit aromas of crushed raspberry and cranberry and a touch of summer rose petal.
Surprisingly lush fresh strawberry flavours lead into candied fruit and rhubarb.
Think of Rosés as white wines with a serious case of red-berry attitude. Try them with a full range of different cuisines.
While many benefit from some chilling, a sweat-frosted bottle usually means the Rosé in question is a little too cold to really flash its subtle fruit flavours!
Famous film maker James Cameron and his wife Suzy Amis Cameron purchased Beaufort Winery in early 2014 from Jeff and Susan Vandermolen. The Camerons hired Mark and Freya Timmermans to manage Beaufort Winery and the Vandermolens were retained as consulting winemakers.
Beaufort Rosé (680801) $19.75 was crafted from Beaufort Estate and Comox Valley grown wine grapes. Whole cluster pressing preserves the fresh fruit flavours and aromas and extracts colour from the Marechal Foch.
Classic Foch flavours of sweet strawberries and cherries bloom over very subtle hints of mocha and milk chocolate.
The long-awaited release of the new vintage of incredibly interesting and fascinatingly unique wines from 40 Knots Estate Winery at 2400 Anderton Road, just outside of Comox, on the route to the Powell River ferry, included their Rosé.
A crowd pleasing pink wine, 40 Knots Rosé (81943) $19.99 is a blend of Gamay Noir and Pinot Noir is destemmed and rested on skins for 24 hours for a delicate salmon colour.
The aromas of bright red berry fruits with a touch of spice explode on the palate, overlapping a lush, dense mid palate, balanced by zesty acidity.
Nestled in the foothills of Mill Bay, surrounded by pasture and minutes away from the Pacific Ocean, Unsworth Vineyards’ Cowichan Valley setting provides the perfect coastal climate for growing some of the world’s finest and most unique wine grapes.
At the 2015 All Canadian Wine Championships Unsworth Rosé (425389) $19.20 was awarded a Double Gold!!
Handcrafted from 100 per cent Vancouver Island grown Pinot Noir it is salmon pink with vibrant red fruit notes of strawberries, cranberries and light herbal overtones.
Matthew Sherlock and Ross Hackworth make their wines on the Naramata Bench in the Okanagan Valley.
Their uncompromising wines are inevitably high quality, single vineyard, small production wines that are reasonably priced and invariably interesting.
Off dry but fresh and bright and perfect on a sunny patio, Lock & Worth Cabernet Franc Rosé (82307) $20.40 is made from 100 per cent Cabernet Franc with a mere three hours of skin contact then aged in neutral French oak for six months.
Enjoy a medley of strawberry, plum, and red apple skin flavours and marvel at the lingering subtle notes of sun baked dried herbs.
Surprise you mother, favourite aunt, girlfriend or sister with one of these seductive Rosés this Mother’s Day! Actual roses – the flowers, that is? – would not go unappreciated either. And of course there’s always chocolate!
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