Cantaloupe

Tonight smelled of cantaloupe.

Picnic at Caumsett State Park

Impressions of a picnic with Pineau D'aunis rosé

There was some wine left from the picnic, not big drinkers my friends, and so I finished it off. This time the rosé was fruity, watermelon and a hint of grapefruit? It was very different from what I had remembered at lunch the day before.

We were hot. The large leafy trees on the path we took to the bay only partly shaded us and insects buzzed around our heads.

As soon as we caught sight of the bay I wanted in. But my friend wanted a better picnic spot. Finally we found one and I went in the water. Not really swimming, more like a dunk to cool off in. Then we leaned against a big boulder sunk halfway into the beach sand.

The top of a short cliff with a forest of pine trees haunted at our backs while crumbly red dirt underneath the top seemed intent on pushing us, eventually, into the sea. PIneau D'Aunis 2008 Clos Roches Blanches on a rocky pebbly sandy and sea weedy bay beach on Long Island. We drank it with blueberries, a peach, some quinoa salad with corn and peppers, hummus, pita chips, some home made brown bread, cheddar cheese and mozarella cheese.

It was lovely and surprising. It had just enough fruit as to not be austere and had that distinct peppery earthy humus that I recognise as pineau d'aunis. But as it is a rosé wine the undertow of sobriety complecated things nicely. It was as if it were trying to tell us something else.

Sometimes I think maybe I read too much into the wines that I love, but maybe the wines I love have enough in them, enough structure, enough nuance that they inadvertantly create a place where one can hang one's thoughts.

Am I the only one who feels that pineau d'aunis is a somber, almost melancholic cepage? It does seem to me ancient.