Nothing shouts summer quite like a glass of chilled rosé wine. Times Drinks Editor James Viner selects four delectable examples for seasonal sipping…
Rosé wines are a significant category, offering an array of styles with colossally varying colours. They are made mainly from red grapes, and the pink hue usually comes from the brief contact between the juice and the pigment-bearing skins (the juice of virtually all grapes is almost colourless).
I have chosen four brilliant bottles to celebrate the dog days of summer. They’re all dry, complement most dishes, and are perfect for summertime salads, picnics and barbecues.
- 2018 Asda Extra Special Mas Miralda Brut Cava Rosé, Spain
(£8, Asda, groceries.asda.com)
Trust Asda to stock this wonderfully low-cost, creamy, traditional method (whereby the secondary fermentation, which creates the bubbles, takes place in the bottle), easy-quaffing vintage Cava with lots of zesty citrus and juicy strawberry fruit. It’s a lively, wallet-friendly rosé that everyone will enjoy at the summer bash. Incredible value for immediate consumption. Alc 12%
- 2022 Cirò Rosato Gaglioppo, Santa Venere, Calabria, Italy
(£11.50, The Wine Society, thewinesociety.com)
Cirò, in the wilds of mountainous southern Calabria is famous for its characterful, evocatively sweet-scented ancient Gaglioppo black grape variety. This brilliant, bright pink vino rosato is made from organically-grown Gaglioppo grapes on a hillside less than a kilometre from the Ionian Sea and confidently oozes with the perfume and vibrant taste of red berries. One for condiglione/salade niçoise, barbecued fish or pasta puttanesca. Alc 12.5%
- 2021 Arbousset Tavel Rosé, southern Rhône, France
(£12, Tesco, tesco.com)
Try this particularly thirst-quenching, full-bodied, scarlet-coloured, structured, Grenache-forward rosé from an all-rosé appellation 10 miles southwest of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. All supple red fruit, spice, grapefruit and tangy blood oranges, and consistently my favourite dry French pink at Tesco. Excellent with barbecued fish, lamb chops, ratatouille and Greek/chicken Caesar salads. Alc 13.5%
- 2017 Ripa Rosado, José Luis Ripa Sáenz de Navarrete, Rioja, Spain
(£29.95, Berry Bros & Rudd, bbr.com)
Nab this gastronomic rosado produced from a special one-hectare parcel of old vines in the Najerilla Valley in Rioja Alta. It’s made by José Luis Ripa Sáenz de Navarrete (the husband of María José López de Heredia from Haro’s oldest winery: López de Heredia of Viña Tondonia fame, where José’s also the commercial director). It’s a blend of 85% Garnacha and 15% Tempranillo matured around 18 months in neutral French 500L barrels. Long, refined and age-worthy. Perhaps with grilled lobster? This is only the second vintage. One to watch.
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