The Ever So Lovely Oyster Bay Cuvée Rosé

(My review this week is dedicated to the memory of Lalaine Liston who passed away early Sunday morning after a valiant several year battle with cancer.)

I hope your week was a good one...The snow is falling and it is beginning to look A LOT like Christmas up in the Grouse Mountain area!

My review this week features a cuvée from New Zealand - Oyster Bay's Cuvée Rosé.  This peach colour lovely knocked my socks off.  It is the first tasting I have done not in the comfort of my home but instead I chose to bring this bottle to a great new restaurant in the West End called Forage.  They allow guests to bring in bottles of wine for a corkage fee.  I was celebrating the annual 'Elements' Christmas evening with 3 of my dearest friends.

Oyster Bay really has good reason to have the popularity they have...their wines never disappoint and they taste absolutely like a very good quality New Zealand wine should.  At the BC Liquor stores, this peach/pink lovely retails for $24.99.  It is worth every penny and is made with excellent quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes.

The bottle itself if very pretty with pink foil wrapping on the top.  The sparkling wine was clear with a pale peach/pink colour and had a moderate amount of bubbles.  On the nose, I smelled strawberry, a bit of citrus fruit and a touch of the secondary fermentation autolytic notes of bread and toast.  On the palate, this cuvée rosé was dry and deliciously so...quite mouth watering but not austere.  I tasted again the strawberry and citrus fruit but also some nice fresh red cherry flavour.  It had a medium long finish and I would consider this a very good sparkling wine.

Yes, it is a 'Hell Yes' bottle for me!  I am so glad I shared this with a few girl friends...the colour and the flavour just seemed perfect.  In keeping with my rock band approach to the sparkling wine reviews this month - I am going to give Oyster Bay's Cuvée Rosé the position of kick ass female drummer.  This lovely lady has a host of loyal followers as she never skips a beat and keeps everyone up dancing throughout the concert!  She is an inspiration to every female rock musician out there.

I was reading on the Oyster Bay winery's website that they were a founding member of the Sustainable Winegrowing Programme in New Zealand.  Here is a link to their amazing winegrowing efforts and their sustainable 'best practices' page on their website.  Link to Oyster Bay's sustainability efforts.

It was quite a lovely pairing with forage, located in the Listel Hotel in Vancouver's West End (who is a leader is green tourism practices), as food items are sourced locally and organically wherever possible and conservation is a key part of the menu.  http://www.foragevancouver.com

We are on the countdown to Christmas and I wish you all a wonderful and memorable Christmas season with your family and friends.  Be good to one another...

Enjoy!
XO
C