Look! What's On Tap? Bota Box Dry Rosé (Orig. Tasting Date: 09/13/19)

Hello Hello! Another week means another wine tasting/review. This week we’re going back to our roots with the Bota Box Dry Rosé. If you weren’t with us last summer, we did a whole blog post talking about the craze that is the rosé trend. I encourage you to check it out here. So, yes. We have technically tried this wine before. However, we haven’t truly tasted this wine until now, if you know what I mean. We’re gonna get all into the aroma, the bouquet, and the flavor of this wine finally. 

So, Rosé. The quintessential summer drink. Depending on where you are in the world, today is either the first day of Autumn or the first day of Spring. In my case, it’s Autumn! We are saying farewell to summer with the perfect summer drink. It’s poetic, I know. 

Anyway. You know the drill. The same rules apply as our previous tastings. Let’s go!

The Set-Up

Light lunch from Panera Bread to start. Both Cindy and Kim (our tasters) remarked how much they’ve liked this box wine in the past. In fact, the Bota Box Rosé is one of our customer’s most popular choices for serving in their Wine Nooks! However, they commented on how they had never formally regarded the bouquet and flavor layers.

The Tasting

 “Both of us felt the nose was mineral. Also, this was not a perfumed wine. Some rosé wines aspire to have a strong rose scent. Bota Box doesn't have that strong floral-forward attack. It’s more laid back and less pretentious.

[Kim] thought the initial taste was clean and delicate, like almost-ripe strawberries, but not sweet like deep-red ripe strawberries. To Cindy it was floral and she felt the flavor was ‘melon’ with a slightly tart finish. Think dry-esque.

Cindy chose to enjoy the wine with a light salad. As I munched away on my frontega chicken panini with tomato, I thought about all of the light fare that would be great with rosé! Like salads and summer garden veggie hors d’oeuvres - especially asparagus.

 The Bota Box Dry Rosé has a beautiful blush color. (It made me wonder, why do wine companies no longer call these varietals blush wines? When did they become rosé? Well, through a little research, it seems that sweet rosés are still commonly referred to as blush wines in the United States, but dry rosés typically don’t receive this term.)”

How Do We Compare?

The description for the Bota Box Dry Rosé reads, “Dry = not sweet. And that’s what you get with this Rosé – crisp, with aromas of raspberries and red rose and flavors of strawberry cake and grapefruit zest.” We definitely got those strawberry flavors. The floral aromas are also there, just not overpowering - the way we like it here. On our next tasting of this wine, we’ll be keeping our nose out for the raspberry flavors we seemed to skip over entirely.

Final Thoughts

  • This rosé is definitely dry.
  • Strawberry flavors meshed well with subtle, floral ones.
  • We would pair it with light fare like salads or veggie hors d’oeuvres.
  • We see this wine being served in almost any daytime occasion; it’s a very laid-back wine!
  • Overall, we would give this 4 out of 5 Taps. It’s a crowd pleaser. 

 – Lindyn Snider