Style: A rosé by any other name would still taste as dry

I am still relatively new to wine, so pink wines recall the fruit juices known as white zin and wine coolers. Those sickeningly sweet beginner wines that my generation started with (though research shows the generation immediately after mine is starting on Pinot Noir and Shiraz thanks to the post-sideways craze).

So, I had been reluctant - despite professional commentary to the contrary - to take up rosé. After all, there's plenty of good red and whites, so why bother to mix it up.

Then a bottle came into my possession via a local wine shop. This shop offers a monthly cellar-in-a-box. A combination of 12 wines (approximately half red, half white) from different regions throughout the world. My wife and I have found ourselves succumbing to the temptation of this varietal and style grab bag, usually based on one or two bottles that sound interesting. On this particular occasionn there were several offerings that we couldn't miss, and a bottle of rosé.

I was intrigued, I was anxious, I was excited. About a rosé. Finally, a chance to try this style that was supposedly so great. Plus, our wine shop had never steered us bad, so this should be great.

It was utter crap. Almost as sweet as a white zin with no complexity and no substance. My first experience with rosé was a loss. Yuck. (For the record, the rest of the box was superb.)

So, a few weeks later finds my wife and I preparing for a rare barbecue - knowing anyone with outdoor space in New York City is rare, so the invitations to barbecues are exceedingly rare. With the temperature predicted to reach 90, a red just wasn't going to cut it and we didn't have any whites that would work with hamburgers and sausage. So, off to a different wine shop. I let the friendly wine merchant know what I wanted - something chilled to go with hamburgers and sausage - and asked if he had any suggestions.

"How about a rosé?" he said.

I can't recall my exact repsonse, but I'm sure it involved a groan of copmlaint and explanation of that last offering. But he happened to have a bottle open for tasting, and who am I to pass up a free glass of wine? So, I steeled myself and took a sip. And it was good. Dry, refreshing, complex, it even had tannin. Everything I had heard a rosé was, and nothing like I expected. I was sold.

In my wine experience there have been three wines that all the winos tout, and I just didn't get. Until thatranscendentendent bottle. The one that finally convinced me about Pinot Noir, or Zinfadel. And now, rosé. I guess that's the lesson here. If everyone praise a particular variety or style, especially friends and experts you trust, there's probably something to it. You just have to find the right bottle.

Rosé review to come.