Wine: Provençal rosé

[Mike Buckley]

A friend coincidentally gave me this bottle of rosé from Provence, not knowing that just a couple weeks later my wife and I would be vacationing there and that I was looking very forward to tasting various rosés. I had never acquired the taste when I tried decades earlier and was eager to try again.

Rosé has a lighter color than red wine. The primary way of producing the color is to leave the skins in contact with the juice just a few days during fermentation, as opposed to leaving the skins in the juice much longer when making red wine.

As hard as I tried, I still was unable to enjoy rosé wine. That's because on a hot summer day, I want a crisp, acidic white wine such as a bright Pinot Gris, Albarino or Sauvignon Blanc. Almost all rosés are made from grapes that are more tannic than acidic, so they don't deliver the refreshing taste or feel that helps provide relief I want from the heat and humidity of summer. As an example, this rosé is made of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault (also called Hermitage). Indeed, we were in Provence not just in the middle of the summer but when temperatures were considerably higher than normal for that time of year.

I made this photo hoping that it would be reminiscent to the viewer of a bright summer day in Provence when rosé is especially popular. (Having said that, I read that rosé is more popular in France than white wine throughout the year.) Doing so required in part bringing out the embossing in the bottle which displays the sun and some vegetation that seems to be the iconic lavender blossoms of Provence.

Setup
The rear wine label was removed, allowing the bright color of the wine to be displayed around all sides of the front label. First capture: The tabletop is glass. The background is a gradient printed on vinyl lit by two medium continuous-light lamps on the left and right. They are positioned at 45-degree angles to it to light it evenly and to produce a relatively bright background that would define the shape of the bottle and much of the embossing in relatively dark tones. The lamps were also positioned to create pairs of direct reflections on the shoulders, neck and top of the bottle that add a lighter feel to the scene. Second capture: A small continuous-light lamp on the right side was shining toward a white reflector on the left side, which redirected light onto the front label. The label displayed in the second capture was merged with the first capture.

[terrib]

What you do with light and glass is beyond my capabilities but is always well thought out and explained. It is a pleasing photo.

[bje07]

Nice picture and very clear explainations.
Bravo.

[bnnrcn]

Another great image MikeDoes the bottle have a plastic cap ?

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

Binnur: The closure has a translucent, flexible, plastic gasket (seal). The main part of the closure seems to be transparent glass but it might be plastic. I really like the mostly transparent characteristic of the closure.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured, very refreshing wine color and complementary background. I'm a Malbec guy myself; winter or summer, but like Chardonnay for cooling off and Port is slowly becoming a favorite.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, John! I agree that we can't go wrong with Malbec regardless of the time of year.

[Kaye Leggett]

Late to this one as I try to catch up on your Provençal trip. Great photo as usual but disappointed you didn't find a rosé you liked. I have just returned from Brittany where there is no wine produced, so they 'import' it from Provence - can't beat it in my opinion on a hot summer's day with sand in my toes.

[Minerva]

So well done Mike. I love this image.