Pre-July 4th Wine Tasting at Wine-Sense

Wine-Sense, Andover, MA

Last night with Richard A.’s (A Passionate Foodie) wine interest group The North Shore Winers I attended a wine tasting at a neat little boutique wine store called Wine-Sense in Andover, MA.  It’s really a tiny store but each wine for sale is carefully chosen by ebullient and personable owner Samanta Turner, shown below.

Owner of Wine-Sense

8 wines were on hand to be tasted.  My favorite had to be the 2007 Jean-Maurice Raffault Chinon Rosé, a 100% Cabernet Franc made using the traditional saignée method.  Saignée means ‘to bleed’ in French which doesn’t sound too appetizing but in this context means the grapes are macerated for a short period of time with the skins still on, and the resultant pinkish juice is bled off from the skins to produce the rosé.  I found a nice page with a high-level overview of rosé wine here.

Cabernet Franc can be vegetal tasting/smelling, and indeed the predominant nose and flavor of this wine are green pepper and strawberries, but with beautiful clarity and refinement and a refreshing quality that I found really pleasant.  Unfortunately, the downside of a small shop is that popular wines sell out quickly and the last 5 bottles of this wine sold immediately before my turn at the register.  I’m pretty sure this wine is readily available and I will find it somewhere soon!

Overall, a fun experience and it’s always great to find a wine shop with passionate owners!