Try drink of pink for a nice surprise.

Byline: FOOD DUDE By Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

Food Dude wishes he could say he didn't judge food by the color of its skin, but I do.

I can't stand yellow cheese, gray meat, purple ice cream, clear cola (OK, clear is not a color), pink wine, orange potato chips or that teal ketchup they started making for kids.

I do like green beer but that only comes around once a year.

So I'm not color-blind when it comes to food. Call it culinary racism if you like, but I don't think I'm alone. I have a friend who won't eat anything yellow, and my wife tells me she doesn't like monochromatic meals, no matter what color they are.

Scientists say the color blue is an appetite suppressant, which may be why cobalt-colored M&Ms and cerulean Otter Pops are just about the only blue food there is (I don't care what you say, blueberries and blue cheese aren't blue).

So, you see, we're all a bit prejudiced when it comes to food. But food doesn't have feelings, so go ahead and make fun of it. Especially those bright red beef-heart sausages they sell at truck stops. Yuck.

If you've got something to say about food, say it to the address at the end of the column.

Dear Food Dude: So what's the deal with rose wine? Didn't it used to be that this stuff wasn't taken seriously? Now, I'm seeing it on the wine list at restaurants like Marche. Has it just gotten hip and trendy? Or has it gotten better? Or has it always been good, but just got stuck with a bad rep?

- Wine Snob

Dear Snob: You're right, pink wine is hot right now, especially at restaurants such as Marche, which currently offers about a dozen different roses on its wine menu. And, the answer to your question about whether it has always been good is yes and no.

"It's always been good in France and Spain (and other European countries)," says Ryan Dawe-Stotz, wine director for Marche/Provisions. "In the U.S., it just wasn't that great."

Pink wine picked up its bad rep in this country during the 1980s, when it was pretty much synonymous with cheap, white zinfandel. Food Dude still remembers the commercials they ran for the wine, which showed cheesy singles drinking the stuff on sailboats. Although Dawe-Stotz was not a fan of these overly sweet wines, he says the first pink wine craze wasn't all bad.

"In one sense, thank God for white zin, because it was the gateway wine for a lot of people," he says. "White zin started a lot of things."

Those early white zins had sweeteners and white grape juice added to them (a practice that Dawe-Stotz says continues today and that some winemakers don't like to talk about).

During the late 1990s, rose wine began to grow in popularity in this country as Americans began to discover fairly inexpensive roses from southern France.

"It was bone dry, but it was really fruity, very good and a lot of people just took a chance on it," Dawe-Stotz says. "For whatever reason, it's really taken off since then."

Known for being easily paired with a number of different foods, roses also are relatively affordable.

Top notch roses such as the French label Domaine Tempier can be had for $60 (less if you're not in a restaurant).

The roses on the Marche menu range from $20 to $60 a bottle. Provisions carries a number of roses in the $10 to $20 range.

Roses can be made in a number of different ways. Red grapes can be crushed so that juices have very little contact with the skins. Some roses begin as white wine and are then blended with red wines. There are good and bad examples of each of the various methods of production, Dawe-Stotz says.

The color of rose wines vary from light red to pink, and the wine can be bone dry or sweet. It can taste like blackberries and raspberries, or it can taste like cherries and watermelons.

"I think one of the reasons that it's taking off is that people are realizing that roses can be all kinds of things," Dawe-Stotz says. "It's a whole world unto itself."

Still, roses still have a long way to go toward losing their bad reputation, and many people still believe that pink wine can't be anything but sickeningly sweet.

"There's still a ton of stigma," Dawe-Stotz says. "That's one of the reasons the trend is still in a growing phase."

But as wine drinkers become more comfortable with the idea of pink wine, the world of roses is expanding.

Along with French, Spanish and Italian roses, you can find blush wines from Australia and the United States. The Oregon label Patton Valley (located near Gaston) even makes a salmon-colored pinot noir rose.

Roses are great for summer barbecues, but they also can be paired with a number of different foods, Dawe-Stotz says. They go well with pork, chicken, even pizza. Just about anything short of an extremely heavy meat dish can be served with it.

"If there's one general rule in terms of pairing roses," Dawe-Stotz says, "it's that they can handle a lot more than you think."

Roses should be served relatively young (most should be consumed within six months of their release, although a few labels will continue to mature for a decade). They should be chilled, but not served too cold (50 to 55 degrees).

First-time rose drinkers might want to start with a robust Spanish or Italian wine. Pinot gris fans will probably enjoy the Patton Valley label, Dawe-Stotz says.

"Rose will surprise you," he promises. "I think it really does thrive on food."

Talk to the Food Dude at www.registerguard.com/fooddude. Or, send mail to Food Dude, The Register Guard, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2168.