Dennen Vacationer California Rosé Case
Sold by: JW Thomas Wines
$104.99 $216.00 51% off List Price
2015 Dennen Vacationer California Rosé
What is with the neck, are these corked or screw tops ? And yes this does matter to me before I purchase…
looks like a cork, with a white foil cover.
So, a pack of screaming monkey’s flew over, and a bottle of Dennen Vacationer fell into my hands. So, being the adventerous Wine.Wooter that I am, we had to give it a try.
Being that it is a Rose, and my wife loves a good Rose, I had her help with this review.
At first pour, we looked at the color and saw that it wasn’t a pure pink, but had a peachy tint. Not an orange, but getting there.
The nose - now that is where things got strange. My first impression was that it was dead. Very bland and dusty note, without any initial fruit. My wife agreed, but went further - dusty like an old woman’s house. More on the nose later.
Tasted the first sip, and it was very closed - not something I expect from a rose. Very dry. The wife wasn’t sure what this wine was, it just wasn’t tasting very rose like. FYI - wife loves her a good rose, and we’ve been drinking bottles from all over this summer. Everything from a classic Rhone to bottles from Cali, Canada, and South Africa.
Wife’s test of a good rose, is rosemary. Get a tiny bit of the spice, and see where the wine takes you. Having done that, we discovered a lot of flavors, tart and sweet. A bit of watermelon, and apricot. We tried it with some left over naan and tikka masala, and it held up reasonably well.
At this point, the wine had been open for about an hour. We normally don’t expect a rose to really change much after opening. However this one did. Some fruit on the tongue was now there, and there was a bit of bitterness on the finish as well.
The nose - told you we’d come back to that. The nose got funky. Not as in gym sock funky, but in a Spanish Tempranillo funky way. There wasn’t a description of the blend on the bottle, but it’d be interesting to know.
Overall, this wine is different from most. It is the bastid love child of a red and white, and it just doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up. It would pair well with poultry (think Thanksgiving), but not sure I’d pair it with anything sweet. I think the price point of this is spot on what we were thinking it would go for. But given the selection of rose available for a reasonable price, I’d call this average QPR.
Screw tops. Uncommon to get corks in this price range with a domestic rose. Not unheard of, just uncommon.
Absurd comment. As if price has anything to do with this. Some of the very best wines as well as some of the most expensive wines (which, by the way, also have no correlation) are screw tops in 2016.
There was no suggestion made that there is a relationship between quality and screw tops. The writer simply said that it is uncommon to find domestic rosés in this price range with corks. However absurd you may think it is, that statement happens to be true. Visit any wine shop, and see for yourself. The fact that there are some of the very best wines and some of the most expensive ones in screw tops, while also true, is completely irrelevant.
80% tempe, good nose in that report.
Hey mods…
No QP’s for for Cesare or the the panda-rat?
wazzup with that?
Well said sir!!! Hope you enjoy the Rose, we loved making i!!
Thats a screw cap. We made this sustainably farmed wine to be easy drinking in every possible way. Hope you enjoy!
Thank you! Yes the Temp brings a great nose and a touch of earthiness to this light and refreshing Rose. Hope you enjoy!
I’m just glad you got a chance to try it… we are down to about 300 from the 1000 that we made and I was worried that I was going to drink it all myself in the summer heat. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the next bottle a little more but either way as long as this one brought you a little happiness then we’re happy too.
Hello all!!!
Ian White here, the Vintner behind this killer sustainably farmed rose. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. We love this easy drinking wine and it was a pleasure to make and perhaps a little too much of a pleasure to drink… but what the heck, that’s why we made it.
Happy Friday!
I
It’s a screw cap, we made this wine to be easy drinking in every possible way… I feel like I already wrote that… but it’s the truth.
I hope you dig it!
It’s true… At this price point people prefer screwcaps these days. Frankly, in all the wines I make below $25 I like to use screwcaps because my favorite restaurants prefer them when it comes to pouring and the fans of our wines prefer them when it comes to taking them on picnics, to the beach and out on the boat. Easy drinking wines should have the easiest opening enclosure. But it’s all about whats int he bottle, and that has nothing to do with whats on top.
Either way, I just hope you enjoy!
I already made this comment but figured I’d throw it out to you as well since you clearly know your stuff and own a wine shop…
At this price point people tend to prefer screwcaps these days. At least in my experience making wines. Frankly, in all the wines I make below $25 I like to use screwcaps because my favorite restaurants prefer them when it comes to pouring and the fans of our wines prefer them when it comes to taking them on picnics, to the beach and out on the boat. Easy drinking wines should have the easiest opening enclosure, at least that’s what we decided. But it’s all about whats in the bottle, and that has nothing to do with whats on top.
Either way, I just hope you enjoy and thank you for wooting about our wines!
Ian
Vintner behind this wine
Good Morning Ian and Woot Nation!
Great drinking rose that Ian and I have shared more than once.
On a hot day in St Helena this wine pairs very well with my Southern BBQ.
Best,
Winedrew
Our winemaker Brett Adams and co-vintner Steve Smith will also be on here today. If you have any specific questions about how the wine was made start the comment with BRETT ADAMS and if you have any questions about farming or the business side of the wine start them out with IAN WHITE or STEVE SMITH and we will happily get back to you.
We’re a small winery based in Napa Valley that uses sustainable farming techniques to produce exclusive, limited production wines hat are priced at a level that hopefully everyone can enjoy. There is over 60 years of combined winemaking and wine industry experience that back up our work and we are very proud to pour (and drink!) the wines that we make. Thank you for this opportunity Woot!
From the rat report, I’ll assume this was fermented dry.
Can you confirm with an RS from the labs?
Looks like a Stelvin Lux closure.
Saranex?
OTR?
I’ve had some impressive older Rosé.
How do you think these will hold up?
Thanks for joining us.