Leave the First Impression to Your Sixth Sense

Domaines Ott Chateau de Selle Cotes de Provence, a standout rosé. (By Julia Ewan -- The Washington Post; Bottle Courtesy Of Macarthur Beverages)

We owe Uma Thurman, who believes in the power of intuition, our thanks for inadvertently turning us on to the most elegant rosé we have ever tasted.

A year ago, our author friend Laura Day ("The Circle," "Welcome to Your Crisis") shared a couple of bottles with us from a case of Domaines Ott rosé that Thurman had given to her. We found ourselves smitten with its refined flavor and texture, which echoed the delicate silkiness of the scallops we enjoyed with it. The 2005 Domaines Ott Chateau de Selle Cotes de Provence rosé ($33), whose bottle resembles a gigantic perfume flask, is reminiscent of strawberries and cream.

While there are better deals to be found in the world of rosés -- including Domaines Ott's own second-label 2005 Les Domaniers rosé ($17), the alluringly complex 2006 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Blanc Oeil de Perdrix ($25) and the incredibly food-friendly 2005 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone Rosé ($11), which impressed us during a recent tasting -- we're still very fond of the Domaines Ott Chateau de Selle rosé and its ability to win over every rosé skeptic we've set it before.

Day gets our thanks for writing the book that has inadvertently done more to expand our appreciation and enjoyment of wine than any other: "Practical Intuition" (Broadway, 1997). In his back-cover blurb, Nobel laureate and DNA co-discoverer James Watson describes intuition as "facts hidden in the brain."

Learning to hone intuition has much in common with learning to enjoy wine: Both processes are too often hampered by participants' fears of making complete fools of themselves. But the former can open you to facts hidden in your brain that aren't accessible through your five senses -- and those same facts can serve to deepen your appreciation of wine. Studying intuition with Day included eye-opening exercises: in one, participants who were asked to intuit the mystery contents of a brown paper bag from more than 10 feet away came up with adjectives that included "yellow," "sour" and "fruit" to describe what turned out to be a lemon. After that, being able to detect notes of raspberries and cream in a rosé or hints of violets and earth in a syrah that you're actually tasting doesn't seem crazy at all -- even if it is only fermented grape juice.

Many vintners count intuition among the secrets of their winemaking success. "I stop and listen to the fruit," says Chuck Reininger of Reininger Winery in Washington state. "My greatest tools are my palate and my intuition." He said he uses them to determine how to capture and enhance the best of that fruit in his wines. While his palate registers the flavor and he uses numbers (such as pH levels) as guidelines, he ultimately lets his intuitive, artisanal side steer his decisions regarding when to pick the grapes and how to ferment them to create the balance he's seeking.

Brad McCarthy of Virginia's Blenheim Vineyards credits "100 percent" of his winemaking success to intuition. He says he uses intuition to "see" the path his grapes will take from the vineyard to the bottle to the table.

"Intuition comes in as you look at the grapes on the crush pad and ask, 'What are they going to be?' " he says. "At that moment, I am instantaneously 18 months down the road pouring a tasting for the wine buyer at Charlie Trotter's," the Chicago restaurant, "and hearing, 'We'll take it all, if you give it more structure and intensity.' " He uses intuition to guide the bets he places on that professional relationship and on his winemaking strategy.

Steve Edmunds's Edmunds St. John wine label declares on the front of every bottle, "Produced & Bottled by Intuition and Blind Luck." Whatever the reason, his 2001 Edmunds St. John "Wylie-Fenaughty" Syrah ($30) is the most alluring syrah we've tasted in recent memory. Its power stood up to a broiled rare rib-eye steak and brought to mind France's Rhone region as much as, or more than, it did its native California.

When you sample our longtime favorite 2005 Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare ($13), your intuition might transport you to France. The fact that this is a California wine doesn't make you wrong. Indeed, the winemaker's notes describe this dry, crisp, pale pink wine's "spiritual homeland" as Provence, despite his nontraditional addition of white grapes to the blend. The whole point of wine is to enjoy the trip -- and for a better price than what any airline is ever likely to offer you.

Bonny Doon's Randall Grahm says a biodynamic approach to winemaking affects not only the wine, but also winemakers themselves, giving them "the ability to see the natural world with more sensitive eyes and the gradual cultivation of powerful intuition."

Intuition, not reasoning, is what immediately informs us upon first experiencing a wine that "I don't like this," or "I'm glad I tasted this" or -- in the case of the Domaines Ott rosé -- "I can't wait to taste this again." Identifying what is responsible for that knowing is elusive to even the most aware and articulate among us, but that only adds to the eternal mystery of wine at its best.

Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, authors of "What to Drink With What You Eat," can be reached through their Web site,http://www.becomingachef.com, or atfood@washpost.com.