Being a big, burly, cussin’, red-meat-eating, southern boy, there’s not much I like more than pink wine. Rosé, vin gris, rosato, blush- whatever you want to call it, I’ll drink it.
There’s just something about this time of year that calls out for a crisp, cool glass of booze with just a slap of color on it.
Luckily for me, my friends over at Vino Vino feel the same way, so I was stoked about attending their 3rd annual Pink Fest. They close off their spacious, tree shaded parking lot and for a small fee you get to edge through the caution tape and into a world of 50 or so of the tastiest late spring/ early summer beverages possible.
They broke it down into three categories: Sparkling, Still, and Sweet- with each table offering their own selection of each. Our game plan was to start at the beginning, work our way through all of the bubbly, rinse, and repeat with the other two groupings.
It was a hell of a plan.
The wines ran the gamut from classic grand cru champagnes, to syrupy lambruscos, to an exotic offering from Lebanon, fermented in cement using only wild yeast.
With the sparkly wines, I was attracted to the cava for some reason. The Avinyó Cava Rosat Reserve was particularly tasty.
With the traditional rosés I found myself skewing French. The Terrebrune Bandol ’08 was nice and dry with good minerals and an under-ripe strawberry tang.
The Mas Jullien Coteaux du Languedoc ’08 had thyme on the nose and reminded me strongly of train rides through southern France.
Representing the funky side, the Goudichaud Bordeaux Rosé ’07 had kind of a blue cheese and apple thing going that really worked for me. Odd but tasty.
Probably the most unusual (and one of the best) wines of the day was from Basque country. The 2008 Getariako Txakolina from Ameztoi is super light, a little effervescent, and full of fresh lime flavor. It’s the kind of wine I want out on the boat with me.
You gotta teach 'em young.
As for the sweet wines, well, they were sweet. I’m working on my appreciation for this particular category but listening to my recommendation now would be like taking my advice on the best Fox newscaster- suspect at best.
Speaking of news, did I mention that Obama was there? Yes the big man himself had pride of place at one of the tables. The bust was actually just a teaser for an enormous 18-foot sculpture of the prez by artist David Adickes, that’s going to traveling around Texas.
You can check it out yourself in all of its enormity this Sunday the 7th from 4-10pm at Vino Vino. How can you miss that?
-Logan
4119 Guadalupe St
Austin, TX 78751
(512) 465-9282
