Culture / Foodie Events

Even Bros Love This Wine: The Power of the Pink and a Great Houston Restaurant Where You Can Find It

BY // 08.13.16

Rosé has gone mainstream in America. Finally. I’ve been drinking pink for a long time — not in the summer only —and it’s good to see the wine getting the respect it deserves. Some great stuff is being produced, especially in Provence, and Americans can’t seem to get enough, as evidenced by this fact: The market here for Rosé wine increased 56.4 percent in 2015 compared to the previous year. (Yes, bros are drinking it.)

“It is a fun product and I think, a real movement,” Sacha Lichine, owner of Chateau d’Esclans, told Fortune. “A lot of people are trying to get into the Rosé game.” Lichine is one of the wine’s big boys. He wears pink shirts and spreads the word about Rosé incessantly.

Here’s another stat: In 2008, Lichine sold 3,500 cases of Rosé made on his estate; today, that figure is in excess of 200,000.

This week, I tasted a Rosé from another producer, the 2014 Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo from Francesco Cirelli. It’s made from Montepulciano d’Abruzzo grapes, and it’s a beautiful red/pink/orange in color. Cirelli owns Agricola Cirelli; it’s a small organic farm, a special place that cultivates figs and geese and olives, plus grapes. This Rosé offers a bit of mint, some herbs, and raspberry. I bought a bottle for apéritif time last weekend while waiting on some friends to join me for dinner, and I was pleased from the first taste.

It’s low in alcohol — 12.5 percent — and is a thirst-quenching powerhouse. I drank it with some spuma di mortadella at Giacomo’s — where you can get if for $28 a bottle — and when my dining companions arrived they did the same. Smiles all around. I’ve seen this wine online for about $14, and Houston Wine Merchant stocks Cirelli bottles, so check there as well.

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