Discover a darker rosé wine - 5 of the best
Go beyond the pale with rosé wine and try our critic's pick of the bigger and more robust offerings.
Image credit: Saga Magazine
Go beyond the pale with rosé wine and try our critic's pick of the bigger and more robust offerings.
My friend Gabriel recently described a wine as "boat rosé". I could feel the turn of the cultural tide. I knew what he was talking about: the oh-so-pale pink wines of Provence that taste of little more than overwatered strawberries and the "aspirational lifestyle" of life on a private yacht.
Gabriel is a man on first-name terms with style, a sort of Peter York de nos jours, so if Gabriel says "boat rosé" with a raised eyebrow, it’s time to leave Provençal pink behind and look for deeper, fruitier, more interesting and food-friendly styles of rosé.
"Boat rosé" reminds me of the coinage of Osbert Lancaster, the architectural writer who gave us "Stockbroker’s Tudor".
In this vein, Garage Wine Co’s Old Vine Pale 2022 (13.5%, £21) could be "Rustic Cerise". It’s made in the Chilean back country and is not so much a white wine tinted, as a red wine with a fade. There’s so much fruit, with pomegranate and cranberries, and a chunky mouthfeel.
It’s a pink for steak, or Thai, or beer-can chicken.
All rosé wines are made by letting colour from grape skins soak into the juice. Deep-hued wines are created by letting the skins soak for longer to get colour, character, and food-friendliness. The philosophy is very much, don’t strip away personality in pursuit of paleness.
By this token Arbousset Tavel Rosé (13.5%, £13) is surely "Heritage Crimson". It’s a wine for serious drinkers who thought rosé was underrated even before everyone said so. This is serious stuff. Red-wine seriousness but with white-wine refreshment: juicy strawberries, redcurrant, and a touch of tannin to match charcuterie and cheese.
It’s a mistake to think of pink wines like this as being poor relations. They’re harder to make (even harder to get right). I may not own a caravan, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get the sense of what to do with a wine that’s "Caravan Rococo".
José Rosé (12%, £9.99) oozes sunshine. It’s over-the-top: fruity, blushing, and ever-so-slightly naughty. The sort of thing to make new friends with once you’ve parked your caravan.
Italian winemakers have long bemoaned the need to make pale imitations of Provençal rosé. Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo is one of the world’s great rosé styles, and Contesa 2024 (13%, £9.95) is a stunner. Powder pink in colour, a delicate flower on the palate, a hint of spice on the finish, making it great fun to match.
If Señorio de Sarría Rosado, Navarra 2024 were an architectural style it would be "Cantabrian Deco" (14%, £8.95, thewinesociety.com). It evokes the sun-faded glamour of a week in a 1920s sanatorium by the sea – all watermelon zest and red-lipped elegance.
It deserves its moment in the sun. We can enjoy it in the summer sun, too – just for a moment, obviously.
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