WTN: Dirty and Rowdy rosé

Last night, facing the perennial problem of what to drink with pesto (usually resolved by a crisp herbaceous Italian white or a rosé), we opened a Dirty and Rowdy 2020 Chalone Syrah Rosé, Brosseau Vineyard. Not so much pink as the color of a slightly faded bruise, or, to use language Hardy would probably like better, a raspberry thunderstorm sky. This tastes like you’d expect a rosé of Syrah to taste, except with the tannins dialed up a notch or three, and the resolutely dry fruit and the raspy edge work really well with the pesto, as it turns out. This won’t win any contests for elegance, nor for chuggability, but it’s interesting in the best way.

[David M. Bueker]

Ooh...the final Dirty & Rowdy wine.

Do you get the sense that it was saignee to increase color and extraction on a red wine, or was purpose-made for rose?

I’m guessing purpose-made, since I don’t think Hardy is such a fetishist of extraction, but that’s really only a guess. David might know actual facts. (And was that The End? I didn’t know that. I have one more, I’ll save it for an appropriately terminal occasion…)

[David M. Bueker]

Do you get the sense that it was saignee to increase color and extraction on a red wine, or was purpose-made for rose?

It was planned as Rosé. Hardy never tries to increase extraction on anything.