2016 Dept. 66 ‘Fragile’ Rosé
Maury, France
Regular Price $22.99
Sale Price $17.99
I had a completely different wine in mind to write about this week, but that one will have to wait. This wine is really and truly the proper wine for this week.
Nearly everyone has now heard of Dave Phinney, the architect behind the Prisoner and Orin Swift wines. While still wet behind the ears, Phinney crafted full-bodied, powerful wines that took the market by storm…and then sold the brands to big wine conglomerates at the height of their popularity. He then took his $300 million (or so) and invested in a variety of different projects, among them, some 300 acres in SW France, where he built a winery called Deptartment 66. This wine is the fruit of those vines. Literally.
Phinney’s wines are straightforward, even though the names and labels are anything but. I assume that this big, rich and full Rosé is called Fragile because its not. Fragile. Made mostly of old-vine grenache with some syrah and carignan its a huge Rosé…with an alcohol level above 15% yet with enough fruit, depth and weight to carry the heat. Its anything but a light and tight Provencal Rosé made for leisurely lunches and poolside sipping. It’s a uniquely big, brassy, American styled Rosé made from grapes grown in France.