Finger Lakes Rosé Soirée 2016 Wrap-Up
Soirée is a French word that means “evening party”. Typically these types of gatherings are posh, require dressy attire, and tend to have a purpose associated (i.e., art or charity) with it. Rosé means pink in French and is the name given to a style of wine, pink in color, that originated in France. Rosé wine is normally made from red grapes but only minimal skin contact with the juice is permitted, turning the wine pink instead of red or purple.
Finger Lakes Rosé Soirée 2016 Geneva, NY - Linden Street
The Finger Lakes version pays homage to this French-style party, and is a great reason to get a group of wine lovers together, all dressed in different shades of pink, on a beautiful Finger Lakes summer evening. This event was also intended to raise awareness and appreciation for the many fantastic dry rosé wines now being produced in the Finger Lakes wine region. The event is sponsored by several organizations, including Microclimate Wine Bar.
Finger Lakes Rosé Soirée 2016 Geneva, NY - Linden Street
The annual event is held in Geneva, NY on Linden Street. Linden Street is a brick alley about 150 yards in length, and home to several boutique shops, trendy restaurants and bars. We typically spend our evenings at one or more of these venues after a day of wine tasting. This year’s sold-out event took place on June 4, 2016, from 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm. The tickets were priced at $16.00, which gave us 6 tasting tickets and a wine glass. The pours were very generous. There was live music, food, and plenty of seating. Many people brought their own food and wine and sat with friends at the tables set up on the street. All of the restaurants and bars were open as well so people could purchase drinks or sit inside if they desired.
Finger Lakes Rosé Soirée 2016 Geneva, NY - Linden Street
Red Newt, Kelby James Russell Dry Rosé
The popularity of Finger Lakes rosé meant that some of the wineries that normally would have attended did not, because they had already sold out of rosé for the season. This was the case with Silver Thread (although we were able to taste it at Microclimate as part of their rosé flight, see below), who had sold-out completely weeks before the event. I estimate that roughly 20 wineries were represented and pouring.
Finger Lakes Rosé Soirée 2016 Geneva, NY - Linden Street
Rosé Tasting at Microclimate Wine Bar
Finger Lakes Rosé Soirée 2016 Geneva, NY - Linden Street
Rosé Tasting at Microclimate Wine Bar
Finger Lakes Rosé Soirée 2016 Geneva, NY - Linden Street
Rosé Tasting at Microclimate Wine Bar
We had already tried many of the rosés at the event so we chose to use our 6 tasting tickets on the rosés we had not tried before. Then we found a great window seat inside Microclimate Wine Bar and fully enjoyed their rosé flight. The flight included rosés from Carneros, USA, Basque Country, Spain, Languedoc, France, Piedmont, Italy, and Finger Lakes, USA. This allowed us to compare the styles of rosés from these different regions.
This was a fabulous event, and we will definitely attend next year. I enjoyed that the event was not over crowed due to the limited number of tickets sold. This meant we spent minimal time in line waiting for a pour, and it made seating and restaurant accessibility easy. Bravo to this wonderful event!
While not all of these wines were represented at the Rosé Soirée, below is a list of my top Finger Lakes rosés, in no particular order. You can also read about our three-day “Discover Dry Rosé” tour, tasting notes and turn-by-turn directions, or by clicking here.