Bogle Vineyards

California

Alcohol: 13%

Suggested Retail $13

“Rosé wines are more popular than ever in this country. There’s good reason for that. In this category there are more options available to the American consumer than ever before. The competition has meant higher quality wines and a greater diversity of styles. With more people drinking pink wines, the stigma (not sophisticated enough, not dry enough, not a “manly” drink, etc.) is less of an issue. Also, cool-to-chilled rosés taste pretty damned good—especially in the summer. They taste good in lieu of a beer and they taste good at the table where they’re versatile food-pairers.

“At the very least, decent rosés should be refreshing and thirst-quenching. But if you drink them too chilled, that’s all you’ll get.  They will taste simple and one-dimensional, no matter how much you paid for them or how nuanced others say they should be. However, let them come closer to that proverbial “room temperature” and you may discover a little depth. Our experience with today’s Wine Pick of the Week, the 2017 Rose from Clarksburg’s Bogle Vineyards, demonstrated that aspect.

“Making a rosé can be accomplished several ways. One of them is to just add some red wine to a lot of white wine and ouila!, as the French say, you have a (more or less) rosé wine. The French also say saignée, when describing a process in which some of the juice is bled off from a quantity of red wine that’s just starting to ferment. The resultant juice has some of the color and a bit of the aroma and taste of the red wine it might have become had it stayed with that original lot. This saignée method was used by Bogle to make their rosé. In this case, the juice was taken from three separate fermenting red wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel. The resulting wine exhibits a hint of the characteristics of those varieties and some of that personality comes through, but not if it is suppressed by too much chilling.

“Taste California Travel always quotes the suggested retail price for wines we review. Prices can vary, of course, and sharp-eyed shoppers can often find lower pricing. We purchased this wine from a Nugget Market in California for about $8 oe $9 and put it into the fridge, A couple of hours later, we poured a glass. It was crisp and refreshing, all right, but nothing more than that. Two or three hours later we revisited the bottle, which was cool by then, but no longer chilled. It made all the difference in the world. Hints of the parent varieties could be detected. We found subtle aromas and flavors of strawberries and Bing cherries. The winery says there’s a bit of white pepper quality in their rose. This was harder to pick up, but as the sample continued to lose that chill, it did begin to show itself. We’d guess it is a contribution of the Zinfandel component.

“While the Bogle Rosé retained that fresh and crisp quality, it also exhibited fullness in the mouth that we liked and this seemed to give this wine more substance than many of its brethren.”

Food Affinity: “Rosé wines can be fine companions to food, as well as just thirst quenchers. We know this wine would be a great choice with chicken, marinated in an oil/vinegar dressing and slowly grilled over charcoal. Would also work with many preparations of salmon (just don’t it too cold).

Editor’s note: Wines reviewed in Taste publications are encountered by our staff in several ways. They can be discovered at trade tastings or visits to wineries. They may also be purchased by staff members for their own tables or be those sent by wineries for possible review. This is an editorial feature, not advertising, and appearance cannot be secured by payment. More information can be had by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.