The Curve is a new Scout column dedicated to exploring and feeling out the corners of complex, multi-dimensional, often hierarchical and always completely random subjects. The aim is to inform readers – in progressive, graduating fashion – on everything from gin and poems to cheeseburgers and trees. This week, Scout wine editor Treve Ring continues with a look at Mom wants for Mother’s Day.

—————————————————-

Trust me. Your mom does not want any more flowers. What she really wants is a blooming basket full of ROSÉS. No dumb pinks here; these are all characterful wines of place first and foremost, and incredibly food-friendly. Cook for her, kid, and poor her a glass!

BEGINNER | Château d’Esclans 2016 Whispering Angel Rosé | Côtes de Provence, France | $35

Pouring the palest pink, this luxury rosé is full and glossy, with fine spicing bracketing the plump wild strawberry, roses, light raspberry. The glycerol-lined palate finishes with a flush of warm cinnamon spicing. The cash cow for the winery, there is four million bottles of this made every year (and winery has planning for seven million in the next couple of years). Well constructed, this is THE WINE to be poured on posh patios, yachts this summer.

INTERMEDIATE | Villa Di Corlo Primevo Lambrusco di Sorbara | Emilia-Romagna, Italy | $24

Salmon pink, this effortless, light and charming fizzy is a blend of 80 percent Lambrusco Sorbara (the lightest, most floral of the family) and 20 percent Lambrusco Salamino, from one of the top producers in the region. Two-to- three days of skin maceration (short, by regional standards) aids in the easy freshness of this wine. Balsamic ringed fresh raspberries, cherry, hints of wild cassis all dance on a tingly tight palate that is bone dry, savoury-stained, and streaked with wild herbal scrub. Balsamic lingers on the finish. At 11 percent, this is far too easy to like.

ADVANCED | Lock & Worth Cabernet Franc Rosé | Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, BC | $20

Pale but potent, light but intense, dry but lively: THIS is what I want to drink in pink. Copiously. From 1.5 acres of 2008-planted cabernet franc on the sandy Naramata Bench, this was whole cluster pressed (three hours of skin contact) before resting in neutral French oak for six months. A slight cloudiness attests to the low-intervention winemaking: this was bottled without fining or filtration. Crisp and tight, streaked with mandarin peel and brightened with a juicy quell of acidity, this is all wild strawberries, salted plum, herbal salts and broken stones. Savoury, finessed, and entirely unpretentious, at an impressive 11.6 percent, this is the definition of serious AND seriously smashable.

EXTRA CREDIT | Champagne Pierre Gimonnet & Fils Brut Rosé de Blancs, Champagne, France | $92

Because Champagne always gets you extra credit, yeah? If you shy away from rosé Champagne because you feel it lacks precision or tastes too fruity, this pristine, finessed example will change your mind. Delicate and intense, with rose petals colouring the chalky textural palate. A linear precision reflects the 96 percent chardonnay, while four percent still pinot noir from Bouzy brings the gentle pink hue, gentle cushion of cherries and red liquorice that floats on top. A grippy riff on the finish is lengthy and strawberry tinged. Ageworthy.