She was pretty and she was French. The evening in question, three quarters of the way through a bottle of Tavel, I asked her back to my table. Mainly to hear her accent again. I had to think of a wine related question. She was the sommelier after all.
"Tell me.....I think Tavel is the greatest rose' in the world. What do you think"?
"Unquestionably. It is the only rose' with its own appellation."
My hero A.J. Liebling introduced me to it in his marvelous book "Between Meals-An Appetite For Paris" and I have been drinking it ever since when I can get it. Luminous in the bottle, its color alone foreshadows a wine of character. A wine that should not be drunk too cold but at room temperature. A wine that perfectly compliments fruit, cheese, or much hardier fare such as steak tartare or trout amandine. The only rose' that has this sort of backbone. In other words, a Rhone wine through and through.
Liebling said:
"Tavel has a rose-cerise robe, like a number of well-known racing silks, but its taste is not thin or acidulous, as that of most of its mimics is. The taste is warm but dry, like an enthusiasm held under restraint, and there is a tantalizing suspicion of bitterness when the wine hits the top of the palate. With the second glass, the enthusiasm gains; with the third, it is overpowering. The effect is generous and calorific, stimulative of cerebration and the social instincts. 'An apparently light but treacherous rose', Root calls it, with a nuance of resentment that hints at some old misadventure."
This is National Rose wine day in the USA. If you can find some Tavel I heartily recommend it as your companion over the oncoming months of summer. Should you find yourself in my company we will share a bottle.
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