I thought I was done writing about rosé for the summer. Really, I did. Not because I’m done drinking them. I may be a little burned out after trying so many recently, but I drink pink year-round.
Still, I figured it was time to stop writing about them for the summer.
Then some good friends of ours pulled a box of Bridge Lane 2015 rosé out of their refrigerator part-way through a pool party they were hosting. I thought, “Wow, what a perfect wine for this situation.”
It wasn’t a big party — just a few families — and there were other drinks on offer. But there is just something fun and casual about pouring rosé from a box into a plastic poolside tumbler and sipping your afternoon away.
Lieb’s Bridge Lane label rosé isn’t the most intensely flavored or concentrated rose you’ll find, even on the North Fork, but that isn’t the goal here. According to general manager Ami Opisso, “The stylistic goal for our rosé first and foremost is a bright and juicy mouthfeel — a zippy, refreshing rose. Over the past few vintages, we’ve gone lighter in color and more delicate in flavor, which has taken our rosé to the next level, I think.”
The wine is good, fresh and clean. Cabernet franc makes up the bulk of the blend and its gentle herbal quality serves as a reminder of that. There are high-toned floral aromas and flavors, but strawberry and peach character lead the way here. It’s not a wine to ponder. It’s a wine to drink, by the pool like I did, or on a boat or on a camping trip. That it’s available in a three-liter box and in kegs is just a bonus.
Those kegs are all gone though — all 590 of them. Most of the boxes are, too. “We’ve sold 1,900 boxes of rosé in 2016,” Opisso told me via email. “(We have) about 100 left, so we’ll be sold out in the next week or so.”
Bottles are $18, boxes $38 and kegs were $240.
Get a box before they sell out. It might be a good wine to have stashed in the fridge for Thanksgiving — you know, for drinking while you’re cooking and your entire family is in the other room. They never have to know.
