Refosco: rosé with a little funk.

As many of you know, I am sucker for interesting rosé.  Well, rosé of all kind, really… but the ones that cause a pause—that demonstrate considerable complexity—really steal my heart.

One such wine found itself in my glass last night at Napa & Co. in Samford Connecticut—a brief overnight away from New York City.  The rosé was a 2008 Bastianich from Friuli, Italy.  Though I often reserve the terms ‘pretty’, ‘elegant’ and ‘fun’ for rosé, this was quite another animal altogether.  It was made entirely of the Refosco varietal–a grape that finds itself in northeastern Italy, Slovenia, and Istria.  Rather than delicate, such as traditional rosés from Provence for example, this hearty rosé had guile—a presentation of earthy fungi, minerality and briny bitterness on the finish.

In short, she had some funk.

Excellent.

This rosé called for food.  Seafood.  Perhaps lobster, seared scallops or king crab.   I was struck by its almost orange-tinted, deep rose-colored hue.  It was not a fragile creature to pass by the sun-kissed hours of summer.  This muscular wine was built to last for years in the bottle.  In fact, a little research about this wine revealed that four to ten years or so allows this wine to come into a very floral expression.  A curious rosé this one was…

I am having difficulty finding out if I can get it in Colorado.  The importer: Dark Star Imports, out of New York, doesn’t seem to make it so far west.  But we’ll see… In the meantime, now, if I ever see Refosco rosé on a menu again, I know what I’ll be getting into…gladly.