Many years ago, at a time when domestic rosé wines were sweet and didn't pair well with foods, we traveled to southern France and discovered dry Provencal rosé. We were in a supermarché and were surprised that the rosé section of the wine department was much bigger than either the red or white wine sections. Out of curiosity we purchased a bottle not knowing what to expect. We opened the wine for lunch; it was dry, delicious and resembled a white wine, only rounder with more body and flavor. Provence produces twice as much wine as California and two-thirds of their production consists of dry rosé wines. How could we have missed these jewels? There are three major ways to produce rosé wine: by blending in a red wine (permitted in Champagne), by saignée (or bleeding off some juice, a method used in Burgundy primarily to produce more robust reds) and by skin contact (or allowing destemmed red grapes to macerate in the juice, a method used in Provence and in the production of most top-tier rosés). At Navarro, after destemming Pinot Noir into a tank, we take juice samples from the macerating grape-must every half hour and retain the samples, side-by-side, to compare them. We taste for increased body and flavor, which we want, versus undesirable astringency which we avoid by immediately draining and pressing once the desired body and flavors are attained.

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