It’s that time of year again…time to Clink & Drink Pink! With the longer days, tulips bursting & the temperature rising, all the signs are that summer is around the corner. And we can’t wait!
To jump start the summer sipping season, make room in your fridge for another sign of summer – Rosé wines. Refreshing, dry, crisp & delicious, there is a Rosé wines for absolutely everyone.
You may have noticed at your local LCBO that the store shelves have ‘changed’ colour. More shades of pink are now available. With so many to choose from, where do you start?
Enter in stage right: Bouquet of Rosés. It’s our new & improved Savvy Sommelier service this summer – a different assortment of Rosés wines each month – all are made in Ontario and you won’t find them at the LCBO. Why? These wines are made in small batches and frankly, they are so good that the winery sells out of them – quickly.
Our Sommeliers started thinking about summer in the middle of the freezing cold. We have been chatting with winemakers about their Rosé wines and as soon as they are ready, cases have been set aside for us to feature in our Bouquet of Rosés.
Every month is different!
Our Sommeliers have tasted and tested all of the Rosés and have picked the best of the crop. Every month we are offering a different assortment of wines for you to enjoy. New this year, we are offering 2 sizes of ‘Bouquets’ – a small one (contains 6 different bottles of Rose wines) and a large bouquet (2 bottles of each of the 6 featured Roses.) You can order month by month or auto-magically have a bouquet delivered each month all summer long. Yup, its PINK MAGIC!
What to serve with Rose wines?
A few suggestions our Sommeliers blurted without hesitation when the question was asked: a book, a sunset, picnic lunch, grilled shrimp, strawberry spinach salad, BBQed burgers…even pork chops. How’s that for anything goes!
As you can see, pretty much any summer time favorite food can go with Rosés wine. Even a thick BBQed steak – try it!
Summertime reading
To give you even greater enjoyment of this year’s crop of Rosé wines – with every monthly bouquet, we will publish “The Rosé Report”. May sound formal for a not-so-formal drink, yet it is full of our Savvy Sommeliers’ tasting notes, tidbits about the featured winery & winemaker and best of all…our favorite summertime recipes for you to try when you have a bottle of Rosé chilling in your fridge.
For starters, here is one of Debbie’s favorite – Watermelon & Black Olive Salad. Serve as a salad or as a different twist on skewers, this is delicious with any Rosé wine – from light to medium bodied, from pale pink or almost red. Here’s to summer! I’ll drink to that!
Watermelon Black Olive Salad
From Savvy Sommelier Debbie’s kitchen
Serves many
Ingredients
4 cups seedless watermelon cut in ½ inch cubes
1/3 cup chopped black olives
1/3 cup chopped green onions
For Vinaigrette
1 Tbsp garam marsala (An East Indian spice mixture that generally includes coriander seed, black pepper, cumin, cardamom, tumeric, nutmeg, cloves & cinnamon. Purchase a package of this spice mixture at an Indian grocery store).
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
¼ cup olive oil
Method
Place cubed watermelon, olives & onions in a large salad bowl & set aside.
Mix together all ingredients for vinaigrette. Gently toss vinaigrette to cover watermelon mixture
Chill until ready to serve.
This can be enjoyed as a salad or thread watermelon cubes on a skewer with black olives and pour vinaigrette over top and serve as a kebab. Refreshing with a crunch and a zing!
Get it before it’s gone!
May’s Bouquet of Rosés is only available to order until Sunday May 15th. Place your order with us – call us on 613-SAVVYCO (728-8926) or order online – and we’ll deliver your Bouquet of Roses to your home, office, even cottage…and shipping is FREE.
Click & pick a small or large bouquet…then kick back on your lawn chair to enjoy the summer!
It’s time to Clink & Drink Pink!