Great Value Rosés

La Vieille Ferme Côtes du Ventoux Rosé 2009
 
Drink up the 2009 La Vieille Ferme Rosé, one of the winning wines from our 2011 wine awards, because the 2010 vintage will hit the shelves later this month. Fortunately, the 2009, from a lovely, sunny year in the southern Rhone Valley, is still very much in the pink thanks to its screw cap—pale coral, with lots of juicy cherry fruit and hints of toffee and spicy licorice. Bet the Ferme—in red, white, or pink—because the label, from the famed Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel, is always great value. The pink’s for drinking with anything Mediterranean, from vegetable salads to cold Dungeness crab to grilled sausages—just so long as it’s outdoors.

Quails’ Gate Okanagan Valley Rosé 2010

Inspired by the success of Joie Farms, nearly every winery in B.C. now makes a rosé and gets it to market early in the summer after the vintage—just in time for lazy days on the deck. One of the more distinctive, also screw-capped, is from Quails’ Gate. Made from earthy Gamay with a touch of Pinot Noir, it’s pinky-orange, prettily floral, notably reminiscent of fresh summer flavours of rhubarb and strawberries. B.C. drinkers have happily adopted the European custom of drinking rosé all summer with just about everything, but I want this one with some pink grilled lamb, tabbouleh salad, and smoky eggplant purée.

SPOTLIGHT: Sommelier Kim Cyr of C Restaurant

Kim Cyr, head of C Restaurant’s wine program, has big plans for summer, including a feature with Naramata’s Joie Farms, as well as a spotlight on Alsace-style Muscat, with more Joie, Albert Mann, and Zind-Humbrecht wines pairing fiddlehead and asparagus, as well as her summer-long “Molly Ringwald” Pretty in Pink festival: 25 to 30 rosés (the most in the city) from the West Coast, France, Italy, Spain, even Lebanon. An army brat who grew up on a small German farm, Cyr drifted into wine by accident, hanging out with former Vancouver magazine sommeliers of the year Neil Ingram and Sebastian Le Goff, then taking new wine courses every year. In charge at C for the last 18 months, she’s got a firm philosophy for the list: “global, sustainable, and good value; esoteric, quirky, spiced with joie de vivre.”