Rose & Reese’s: A Disappointing Duo
I don’t think it is a matter of simply being adverse to change, though I am a fan of stability.
That said, I really can’t say how disappointed I was recently when I picked up a domestic rose that I’ve drunk a lot of over the years. It was, sort of, my "go to" rose: it has been truly dry, expressive of strawberries but not overly so, exhibited good acid and really was a beautiful afternoon quaffer that usually came in around 13.5% alcohol at most.
A vintage ago I bought a six bottles not even having tried it. I knew what it tasted like. It always tasted the same…that’s why I bought it. But this time it had sugar in it. The hue of the wine was darker and it didn’t have the structure. I drank it all. Must have been a bad or difficult year I figured.
But this vintage the wine was the same. Sweet and nearly cloying. What we have here is a deliberate change in winemaking style.
I couldn’t help but think of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
They were my Oreo. I used to love to nipple around the edges where the chocolate layer was nice and thick and chunky, leaving the thin coating of chocolate on the top and bottom, sandwiching a firm cache of sweet peanuty buttery stuff in between. What a great candy!
But they went and changed it. I noticed this about 10 years ago. Today the Reese’s outer edge coating of chocolate is a thin layer of waxiness that has no more of that chunky character. This isn’t a bad batch we are talking about. It’s a positive decision to make the Reese’s into a lesser product.
I felt betrayed by the Reese’s folks, but I’d been on their bandwagon since Little League. I’ve only been drinking this particular domestic Rose for about a decade. So, it’s not so much a sense of betrayal I feel. Just plain old disappointment in the changeover to something different.
Tom, I know that you don’t review wines on Fermentation, but you owe it to your readers and fans AND to the winery that disappointed you to tell us what the winery and the wine are. These people should understand that longtime consumers of that wine are disappointed and they should know why. It’s when we DON’T speak up that such dumbing down of products continues.