Rosé is a mediterranean wine that’s extremely refreshing on hot summer days and should be served cooled, between 10 and 12°C, so that it can unleash all its aromas and smooth, rounded flavours. Suitable for a thousand uses all year round, rosé is popular for its versatility in the kitchen, since it can be paired with practically anything.
Rosé wine, in fact, is excellent for aperitifs, with cured meats or sushi. It’s also ideal with fish soups and fried fish, and with any first course or summery dish. Its properties also make it the perfect accompaniment to meats such as chicken and veal. What’s more, it’s wonderful with spiced dishes, particularly curries.
Let’s look at the detail of the best food pairings with this wine and explore together Lake Garda’s rosé par excellence: Bardolino Chiaretto!
The best pairings with rosé wines
Although rosés look more similar to red wines, their flavour is closer to whites. They have a delicate, fruity and floral bouquet, reminiscent of cherries, strawberries or forest fruits, while their flavour is fresh and balanced, with very light tannins and lacking the excess of structured red wines. For this very reason, they are an interesting option from an organoleptic point of view, particularly because they can be matched with dishes and flavours that are difficult to pair with red or white wines.
Rosés are excellent with fish antipasti, fried dishes, rich yet delicately-flavoured dishes such as risotto, some cured meats (mortadella and salami), white meats and vegetable dishes, and also desserts. A classic pairing is with Valencian paella, which contains many ingredients (rice, vegetables, meat and/or fish) which go delightfully with rosé wines.
Lake Garda and rosé wines: introducing Bardolino Chiaretto
Lake Garda is the home of one of Italy’s favourite wines: Bardolino Chiaretto, a wine characterised by its light colour and summer brightness, purple highlights and distinct cherry aromas, and a freshness that makes it perfect for numerous culinary combinations. Its flavour is dry and sapid, slightly bitter, harmonious and subtle, perhaps slightly sparkling.
Chiaretto is the rosé version of the famous Bardolino red, and is made with the same black grapes, vinified in partial contact with the skins (for one night only). Varieties used are Groppello, Marzemino, Barbera and Sangiovese, grown in the famous Valtenesi production area to the southwest of Lake Garda, between Moniga and Manerba.
Chiaretto was one of the first Italian wines to be granted DOC status, on 21 July 1967, and every year it is celebrated in the town of Bardolino with the Palio del Chiaretto and in Moniga del Garda with the Italia in Rosa festival. In 2013 Chiaretto was awarded the Mondial du Rosé, a prestigious international prize.
Which dishes go with Bardolino Chiaretto?
This is a fresh wine, particularly suitable as an aperitif and excellent paired with the lighter dishes of mediterranean summer cooking, antipasti, first courses of fish from both sea and lake, as well as pizza and sushi. But this is a wine that also goes well with soups, cured meats, semi-mature cheeses, grilled and baked fish, roast poultry and white meats.
