A spritz-y, summerweight rosé perfect for the heat
This rosé used to be sweet, but has evolved to be a lovely, off-dry number, perfect for porch sipping on a sweltering day.
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Mateus Rosé Portugal
$12.99
11% alcohol
PLCB Item #98622
Sale price through Aug. 4; regularly $15.99
A sad truth about wine is that acquiring wine knowledge usually instills a certain amount of, well, snobbery. This can be hard to avoid as one learns the ropes, since so much of wine education focuses on label terminology whose purpose is to provide indicators of quality potential. Generic wines like this Portuguese rosé, whose labels claim no regional appellation besides their country, are rarely taken seriously by those who take their wines seriously. However, there comes a point in the development of wine expertise where professionals learn to look past the label and taste wines with an open mind, to evaluate wines on their sensory properties alone. Approached in this way, this particular rosé delivers a very pleasant surprise.
Mateus is pronounced ma-tay-us, not mah-toose, and was one of the big name brands of the sweet rosé craze in the 1970s. However, it tastes different nowadays. The wine was always a lightweight and affordable, spritzy rosé. But where it used to be quite sticky sweet, it now has only a faint kiss of sweetness. Its style was inspired by the vinho verdes, or green wines, of northern Portugal’s Minho region. When 20th-century technological advances made it possible to capture the magic of these simple refreshing wines and preserve it well enough to ship them globally, Mateus became an overnight sensation. The wine has changed considerably since that time, becoming paler and drier to satisfy our modern tastes, and its vintner has improved the wine’s quality as well. With delicate flavors of strawberries and tart red plums, this wine is ideal for serving with Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, and all sorts of spicy foods, from curries to buffalo wings.
Also available at:
Joe Canal’s in Lawrenceville, $8.99
Wine Legend in Cherry Hill, $9.44
Cork ‘N Bottle in Mt. Holly, $9.99