Forget French Rosé, Italy’s Under-Explored Pink Wines Offer Big Value
If you’ve spent your summer guzzling Provence’s famous bottles, go beyond their pale color and thirst-quenching style with a diversity of rosatos to complement any meal or mood, all year long.
Source: Vendors
For the past month, I’ve been dreaming of Italy and the summer trip that never happened. Past memories of beaches with views of the blue Mediterranean, winding paths to hike in the Dolomites, and trabocchi fishing platforms in the Adriatic Sea, where you can dine as the sun sets, play like a film loop in my fantasies. Not to mention the freshly made pasta, the espresso, the gelato, the truffles, and, of course, the vino.
So this August, I’m taking my much-longed for visit via a tour through the country’s little-known rosatos, or pink wines, which are produced in some of Italy’s most beautiful places. Members of a new movement, Rosautoctono, want to chart its future as high-quality wine made from native grapes and to remind people that it has a long history as an everyday wine. They’re pushing the term “rosa” to describe the country’s best pink wines, though so far, only a few wineries are putting it on the label.