After a lifetime of marketing for a living, I can get tetchy about being even in the slightest bullshitted, even when the BS comes in a beautiful bottle. So I have to admit when something arrived for sampling called "The Pale: Rosé by Sacha Lichine" in a heavy for a pink beveled-bottom bottle with a label that looks like a Roaring 20s New Yorker cover, it was easy to sigh a cynical "oh, please." Sure enough, the brand's website boasts, "An accessible symbol of luxury." At a $16.99 SRP, the accessible is certainly true.
So of course it was important to taste. With the sudden and wonderful appearance of summer in Santa Barbara (where were you?), it seems a perfect time to chill this 2021 down and sip some in our backyard garden. The Pale is just that, a salmon going to copper pour. Not particularly assertive on the nose, there's a whiff of lemon blossom and that pleasingly clean spring smell good rosés seem to have. The wine drinks clean and lean, its fruit a mix of wild strawberry and white peach, and not a hint of flab (it's only 12.5% ABV). While not outstanding, that's actually its charm--it rings with familiarity for anyone who has quaffed a few Provence rosés prior.
They might be selling it as a lifestyle pour, but it's better than that, and you don't need to drink with someone whose voice is full of money to enjoy it. Sure Sacha Lichine "is the creator of the iconic rosé brand Whispering Angel" (as the brand's press would have it--note the terms creator and not winemaker), but that doesn't mean you can't find it worth your warm afternoon's while.
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