THE CHRONICLE'S WINE SELECTIONS

West Coast Rosés

W. Blake Gray

Friday, May 25, 2007

You can't tell a good pink wine by its color, but you can tell a bad one.

A great rosé is light and refreshing, food-friendly and interesting to drink without requiring a lot of thought to appreciate. We want to quaff, not ponder.

What we don't want is a baby red wine, as some of the 81 wines we tasted from California, Oregon and Washington were. If we want a big body and high alcohol, we'll just stick to red.

So if a "rosé" is medium to dark red, skip it and buy a red wine. Some of our favorites were the lightest colored of all.

We learned that when rosé is good, it's a lot of fun, but when it's not, it's horrible. So shop carefully.

We also discovered that Pinot Noir is our grape of choice. We tasted 16 pink Pinots and are recommending 6, including all 3 of our favorites. We could philosophize on why that is, but that would be entirely too much pondering.

TWO STARS 2006 David Girard Vineyards El Dorado Rosé ($16) David Girard is an education lawyer and former U.C. Berkeley teacher who bought an 85-acre property in Placerville in 1992. He first planted Merlot, but Oakland winemaker Steve Edmunds helped convince him Rhone grapes would do better on his property. Here's the proof: Made from Grenache, Mourvedre and Counoise, this wine is quite citrusy with cranberry fruit, herbal notes and a long finish.