Origin & Craft
Where it starts
Pineau des Charentes, and the method is the region's own. Red grape must, stopped with cognac eau-de-vie before it can ferment out, then left in barrel. The colour comes from the skins and from the time in oak, not from anything added later. 17.5% alcohol.
The house
What is in the bottle
Glossy brick red in the glass. Blackberry and blackcurrant on the nose with nuts and spice behind them, then a long, full palate with dried apricot and plum stone. It works before dinner with charcuterie and cheese, and after it with dark chocolate. Ninety four points. Made in the Charente at Vinet-Puranik, from the same eaux-de-vie the cognacs are built on.
The fruit
Red grapes, pressed
It starts in the same rows the cognac starts in, on the same chalk, picked in the same weeks. What changes is what happens next.
Mutage
Stopped, not fermented
Cognac eau-de-vie goes into the fresh must and stops it before the yeast can turn the sugar to alcohol. What is left in the vat is fruit, held.
Barrel aged
Years in the dark
From the vat into oak, in the same cellars the cognac sleeps in. The colour and the nuts and spice on the nose come from the wood and the time.
Ninety four points
Blackberry and blackcurrant
Nut and spice behind the fruit, with dried apricot and plum through a long palate. An aperitif with meats and cheeses, or a dessert wine with chocolate.
The moment it belongs to
When to open it
Pineau Des Charentes Rosé belongs to the hour before everybody sits down, when the kitchen is busy and the first people have arrived.
Serving
Before dinner, and after it
Before, with charcuterie and hard cheese. After, with dark chocolate. It is one of the few bottles on the table that can do both ends of an evening.
Temperature
Eight to ten degrees
Chilled, but not cold. Too cold and the dried fruit shuts down, which is most of what you are drinking it for.
In a cocktail
In a cocktail
Long, with tonic and a slice of orange, as they drink it in the Charente. It is already fortified, so nothing else needs to be.
