The Flavour of Barbie Pink

Tasting wine drawn from tank just days or weeks after the grapes were crushed to a juicy mush is pretty much like watching a football team warm up. At this early stage, the new wine has yet to become a truly united outfit. The fruit, tannin, acidity, flavour and aroma are still separate ingredients, acting like individual players.

The task is to sample and think forward in time, which is always a bit like reading tea leaves. Actually, at this stage the liquid is still hazy from the appearance of the suspended yeast and other tiny solid grape particles and tastes partially sweet since not all grape sugars have yet finished fermenting into the final amount of alcohol.

But when the winemaker shares his vision for the new vintage with you, it helps to envisage the taste of the bottled wine. Matthew Delicata talked me through a flight of 2016 wines in the making. Surprisingly, it were two pink wines that impressed the most.

When it comes to colour, Matthew takes the Delicata winery’s rosés very seriously, spending time to get the perfect shade and hue. Both rosés are visibly bright Barbie pink.

Maybe that’s why they taste as plush as they do?

A perfect Barbie pink colour for new tasty 2016 rosé wines.

Research has demonstrated that the colour of our food, drink and, of course, wine determines not only whether it is enticing but also its actual taste. For all the talk of the nose and palate, our eyes have it first and the sense of sight is right up there with smell in flavour’s ‘premier league’.

So, what is the taste of Barbie pink, you ask?

A sip of the 100 percent Syrah sample turns out very much as anticipated and leaves me, if you will, tickled pink. Direct pressing has resulted in a very fresh, yet spicy and incredibly fruit-forward palate of cut watermelon, cherries and strawberries. The vat is likely to get bottled as the 2016 Classic Collection, Rossini Syrah Rosé. Already it tastes very much like scrumptious previous vintages, and I guess that the new wine will also have that special candyfloss-like texture.

The juice of Merlot and Tempranillo grapes, which were hand-picked the same morning, immediately crushed, pressed and left to ferment together in stainless steel tanks, seduces with heaps of intriguing fruit. Its palate manages to be ripe and refreshing at the same time. Slightly more cranberry tinted, with a whiff of rose petal and packed with heaps of raspberry fruit flavours, it mostly hints of Tempranillo. This unique blend is destined to make up Delicata’s 2016 Pjazza Regina Rosé.

Between now and the time of bottling, much thinking by the winemaker will go into the finishing of these vats. The vivid, palatable result will be lovely, luxurious rosé wines: bright and dreamily pink so they can be enjoyed cheery without effort or much reflection.

This article by Georges Meekers appeared first in the Times of Malta, 16th September 2016