Chateau d’Aqueria Tavel Rose 2020

“This delightful dry rosé should delight red and white wine lovers alike.” – Wine Enthusiast

Usually, the official start of Rosé season comes around springtime, though some serious bottlings (like today’s) really shine throughout the year. I’m not a big news guy, so I’m not sure whether or not that giant gopher in PA saw his shadow, but my guess is spring is still a few weeks away. But with Saint Valentine’s Day right around the corner and with the occasional random 60 degree day poking its head in, I figured that I’d go shopping for a pink wine for the people.

Luckily, when it’s February– you have the pick of the litter like the New York Jets every year in the draft. But unlike that sorry franchise, I didn’t miss with my selection– I got a super highly scored gem from arguably the best place in the world to make Rose.

The region of Tavel in the southern Rhône, right across the Rhône River from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, is lauded for making some of the best Rosés every year. It might be the only region in the entire world that makes pink wines that actually can benefit from aging. That makes sense when you consider the grapes that go into the wines are similar to CDPs, Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Carignan to name a few. These wines are gorgeous to look at, gorgeous to drink and can age– they’re pretty hard not to love.

I sourced this one from arguably the finest wine made in the appellation each year, from the superstar winemakers at Chateau d’Aqueria. Those guys always knock it out of the park which is probably why this has double 92-point scores from the most respected wine critics in the world while most Rose fails to earn even 90-point scores. The Wine Advocate in their unheard of 92-point review called this one a “solid effort from one of the appellations most consistent producers”.