April 6, 2017

Cupcake Rose

Cupcake.  We’ve all seen the bottles.  They’re everywhere and in a vast assortment of varietals: fourteen or fifteen the last time I checked the website.

Cupcake grapes are sourced – purchased from vineyards around the world.  That doesn’t make the wines bad.  A number of good wines are sourced the same way.

My first experience with Cupcake was Red Velvet.  I promise it tastes like chocolate.  I don’t drink it often, it’s too sweet, but it was good back in the days before my palate really developed.

Today I’m tasting their Rose.  The color is breathtaking.  Pale pink with a hint of peach color. This is a wine that needs to be served at a bridal shower.  It’s beautiful.

There’s a lot of melon on the nose, maybe with a bit of pear and apple.  Lots of fruit.  There isn’t much sweet flowery nose to it at all.  For me, that’s a good sign. 

The melon nose carries over into the flavor.  It’s okay, not spectacular but drinkable.  Honestly, it reminds me of a boxed wine my parents used to drink when I was a kid.  So it’s probably no a great wine, just nostalgic to me.

Surprisingly, it’s not sweet.  There’s a very mild dryness to it I can appreciate it. 

Because it isn’t sweet, I wouldn’t pair it with my go to favorite light wine treat – popcorn.  Popcorn paired with wine needs something with sweetness to offset the saltiness of the popcorn.  (I’ve put a lot of thought into this.)

I’d drink this with something sweet.  Fresh sugar cookies, still warm from the oven.

Or a heavy pasta in alfredo sauce, heavy on the garlic. 

Pair it with something you’d eat with chardonnay.