A whole other kind of sangria (and a drop of rosé)

OK. A real short, fun post, here. My friend Duncan over at the Code Kitchen spends more time cooking virtual stuff (say, e-mail and web apps) than actually cooking. But when the heat is on, he gets out of the kitchen to make this lovely sake-based sort of a sangria, which sounds absolutely lovely. He points to this favorite cocktail recipe of his on the Kitchen’s blog.

Why mention this here? Well, sake is a wine of sorts – a rice wine, to be precise.

And it’s also a good way to discuss summer drinks, like, say, rosé. I started thinking about that because of a funny blog post from Eric Asimov, the NY Times wine expert, called Rosé Reluctance. It’s a nice bit of skepticism about recent hype surrounding rosé: he points to some really serious ones he’s had, including a Sancerre by amazing producer François Cotat (I’ve tasted it, it’s truly exceptional, with its straight-as-an-arrow mineral character and sharply refreshing acidity, and has little to do with the fruity stuff usually called rosé). I must say that I’ve had the same type of rosé fatigue as Asimov, something that a recent tasting of Castello di Ama Rosato, a bone-dry yet very fragrant rosé by this renowned chianti producer somewhat cured.

Yet what is surprising about the Asimov blog is the amount of reaction it got. Even the fun-loving rosé drinkers take their stuff seriously, it seems.

I feel I’m getting carried away. I’ll go ponder that some more over a glass of cucumber-ginger-sake sangria…