LA Times praises ros√©s…while we introduce the Wine Intelligence Egg…

So the LA Times ran an article in the August 7 Food section on ros√© wines. Good for them. The theme is familiar to readers of tBoW….ros√©s are for summer. They connote fresh, sunny, summer splashy wines. The article went into how pretty ros√© wines can be. We have seen shimmering orange the color of transmission fluid this summer in addition to salmon pink, light copper almost terra cotta and the more standard brilliant red almost ruby.
There was a second topic that was even more interesting…the idea that wines can correspond to the season. We posed this idea under Wine Intelligence Part 1: Time of the Season. Sure we love the Zombies too; we just don’t have to act like one when selecting wine for the occasion…whatever it is.
Well of course wines match the season. But how can one be certain s/he is not bringing a dunderheaded wine to a special occasion (like dinner?) Why advertise your ignorance with the safe chardonnay and/or cabernet bets? Here is a chart I have developed to illustrate this basic concept and provide guidance to the dunderheaded oeno-snob-wannabe. Of course, I have made it a bit complicated but I hope in the end this will help illustrate how to match the wine to the season with corresponding foods and seasonal characteristics. Some of these wines cost more than $20…especially around those money-draining big holidays.
This is not terribly original. There are tons of sites with tasting instructions. Here is one that covers “cat piss”. Worth a look for fun and info. Actually, before embarking on this project I had no idea how many of “wheels” are available for sale on the Internet. You have the Aroma Wheel developed by a UC Davis PhD (I have linked to her sniffing biz site); there is a BBQ wheel and cheese wheel and several food/wine pairing wheels – I have linked to the one I liked best. I even found two wine wheels at a German wine institute. How’s your Deutsch? The most original is a wine industry wheel that is quite serious!! Yeh, I looked at lots of them. No, I did not rip any off. The wheel as metaphoric platform is downright ancient standard. Master webmeister Dr. Dionysus contributed graphics and suggested a color palate. He’s good. Real good.
Here is what we came up with. With our wine intelligence egg you will always be the smarty-pants who wins praise from the wine-snob host because you will always know what wine to bring to the Xmas or July 4th party. Send praise and/or outrage as applies. Just remember, this one’s on me! Click on the image to download the full sized version suitable for printing, framing, and placing on the wall where you store your vino.