Think Pink

The sun is shining which can only mean one thing: it’s Rosé o’clock!

Rosé (aka “Lady Petrol” amongst some of my classy friends) is a really evocative wine. One sip will transport even the most serious wine critic to the Cote d’Azur. A lot of this is to do with the fact that we only really drink rosé in the Summer, so us sun-deprived Brits associate it with happier, sunnier times. No surprise then that its popularity is going up, up, up!
 

Most rosé wines are made from black grapes, and the usual method of production is by crushing the grapes and leaving the juice in contact with the skins for just enough time to extract the desired colour. Then the wine is fermented, like a white wine, off the skins (whereas red wine is fermented on the skins to extract full colour).

 

Obviously there are a lot of different styles of rosé, from the palest salmon to the deepest fuschia pink, from bone dry to sickly sweet. So how do you know which one to pick?? Generally speaking the darker the hue, the closer to red wine in structure and taste it will be. Old World versions tend to be dry, but for New World styles make sure you ask the sales assistant just to be sure. A good indicator of sweetness is the alcohol level: lower than 12% ABV is likely to be off-dry.

Everyone’s palate is different, personally I’m a fan of the lighter, drier styles. So if you have similar taste here are the wines that I regularly buy for BBQs at home.

 

Provence Rosé

Recently made even more popular by “Brangelina” who now own Chateau Miraval estate (available at multiple retailers including M&S for around £18). The classic Provence style is a lovely pale pink colour (think onion skin through to poached salmon), dry and refreshing, full of redcurrant and wild strawberry flavours with a hint of citrus. Perfect with salads and grilled veggies, tuna steak, or simply on its own.

 

If you’re looking for a bargain, the rosés of the Languedoc region just next door are normally very similar in style but considerably cheaper as they don’t have to abide by the rules and regulations of the Cotes de Provence appellation.

Sancerre Rosé

We all know white Sancerre, that deliciously crisp and mineral white wine made from Sauvignon Blanc. The same appellation can also produce reds and rosés from Pinot Noir and Gamay grapes. The reds I will talk about another time (yes, another personal favourite) but the rosés are definitely worth searching for as they are similarly pale and dry but with more minerality and a silky smooth finish. The perfect, sophisticated picnic accompaniment.

If you like this style it’s also worth searching for rosé from Burgundy, a little harder to come by but they’re made from the same grapes, still dry and a touch fruitier in style.

 

Rioja Rosado

Yes, Rioja comes in rosé and white forms too. Their rosés are predominantly Tempranillo and Garnacha blends, dry in style and fabulously fruity. Absolutely perfect served with paella (funny that) and BBQ-ed meat.

 

Rosé Champagne

Ok, ok, I’m an expensive date – I absolutely adore pink Champagne. Unlike still rosé, the Champagne version is made by blending red and white wines together before secondary fermentation (when the bubbles are made). The UK’s most popular brand of this is Laurent Perrier Rosé but I personally think it’s massively overrated (too much style, not enough substance). Instead look out for Ruinart Rosé, Billecart-Salmon Rosé, or even the great value Oeil de Perdrix Rosé which Majestic is currently selling at £19.99 per bottle (normally £30!)

Happy Swigging!

Prosecco Pinch

According to the news this week, we are facing a global shortage of Prosecco this summer. But before you all dash out to the supermarkets to bulk buy, I thought I’d reassure you that there are other options out there.

 One of the reasons for Prosecco’s huge success is its moreishness. It isn’t a copycat Champagne (the method of production used is far cheaper and less time-consuming than Champagne), but instead it is a soft, fruity and fresh sparkling wine – a great deal tastier than most cheap Champagnes. I will admit that it can be a struggle to find similarly budget wines that are as easy-to-drink but if you’re prepared to stretch up to £10 per bottle I can definitely find you something.

 

Spain

Probably the second-most famous budget fizz is Cava, which is actually much more like Champagne in style than Prosecco because the method of production is very similar. The quality of top-end Cava has improved dramatically in the last decade and brands such as Codorniu are producing sparkling wines that are really rather delicious. Add to this the fact that the most expensive examples in our shops rarely reach above £12, this is really rather an attractive option. One word of warning though: if you go lower than £7 a bottle, you really do get the most tasteless, acidic, headache-inducing fizz, so just don’t.

 

Italy

They may be most famous for their Prosecco, but if you’re looking for something even more easy-drinking, try hunting down a Moscato d’Asti or Asti Spumante sparkling wine. This is made from the Muscat grape and fermentation is stopped early to produce a sparkling wine which is deliciously sweet and low in alcohol (typically 7%). This is what I would class as breakfast wine!

 

France

Crémant wine is a close cousin to Champagne. It is made with the exact same method but in other regions around the country. One of my personal favourites Crémant de Limoux, which is made from Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Pinot Noir grapes grown in the Pyrenean foothills and it is fresh, fruity vibrant and normally available for around £10 a bottle. Also worth looking out for is Blanquette de Limoux, from the same region but made with local grape Mauzac and often even cheaper.

You will also spot Crémant d’Alsace, Crémant de Bourgogne, Crémant de Loire… you get the idea. All of these are worth exploring if you want the Champagne quality without paying Champagne prices.

 

New World

A lot of the New World is far too warm to be able to produce good quality sparkling wine, but where there are high altitude vineyards (Chile, Argentina) or cooling sea breezes (New Zealand, Tasmania) you can find some excellent alternatives.

 

pic courtesy of http://chicvintagebrides.com

Happy Swigging!

 

 

 

High Street Wine Challenge: Freeman's Bay Pinot Gris, ALDI

Another ALDI bargain this week, £5.69 for a New Zealand Pinot Gris!

Pinot Gris (aka Pinot Grigio) is a far more exciting variety than Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand's most famous white grape. Unlike the Italian Pinot Grigio you may be more used to drinking, the Kiwi version (and indeed those from the USA) is much richer in style. So rather than citrus and apple fruit, these wines show ripe tropical fruit eg mango and papaya.

This ALDI version shows all the typical tropical fruit with a hint of ginger spice. However, as is to be expected at this price point, there's not much else going on. That's not an enormous criticism, in fact if you're normally an Italian Pinot Grigio drinker you'll probably enjoy this! Either way, it went down very well with tonight's sticky honey & soy chicken.

Happy Swigging!

Home Grown

23^rd to 31^st May marks English Wine Week, and numerous supermarkets, wine merchants and restaurants across the UK will be running promotions on this country’s fine wine produce. This is the perfect opportunity for me to write a bit about these wonderful wines and hopefully encourage you to explore them further.

 

Last week Waitrose announced that sales of its English wines almost doubled in 2014. This really got me thinking. I definitely don’t drink enough English wine, despite thinking of myself as pretty patriotic, and I’m sure I’m not alone. The truth is that English wines are not cheap (thanks to low production and high labour and land costs) so you can expect to be forking out at least £10 for a decent bottle of still wine and £20 for a bottle of English fizz.

 

Most of our vineyards are down South, where they are planted on south-facing, chalky hills. It’s this very same stretch of chalky soil that extends down to the Champagne region of France, which is one of the reasons why our sparkling wines are making such waves around the World. If you haven’t yet tried an English sparkling wine, you’re missing out – the best can easily compete against Champagne in a taste test. They aren’t cheap (the method of production is the same as in Champagne, which is an intricate, expensive method). In fact, the Queen celebrated her Golden Jubilee with a few glasses of Nyetimber sparkling wine – a Sussex vineyard whose standards are so high that they scrapped their 2012 vintage of around 400,000 bottles because of the poor quality of the grapes.

 

Away from our top notch sparklers, English white wines have a distinctively crisp and aromatic character: think gooseberries, elderflower, grass and asparagus. Whereas for sparkling wines the main grapes planted are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, for our white wines Germanic grapes dominate, especially crossings (eg Muller Thurgau) which were designed to beat the cold. One of the most widely seen grape varieties is Bacchus, which is England’s answer to Sancerre.

 

I have to admit here that I haven’t yet tasted an English red wine that I have enjoyed. The most promising grapes are Pinot Noir and Dornfelder but they are all very dependent on the English weather being warm enough to ripen properly (and let’s face it, that’s not often!)

 

If you would like to try English wine, Waitrose definitely has the best supermarket selection. The Wine Pantry in Borough market in London sells only English wines so their range is by far the best I’ve found, and if you can’t get to London they sell all their wines online (www.winepantry.co.uk).  

 

Of course the best idea is for you to take a trip to see where the magic happens, so here is a list of some of our top English vineyards which cater well for visitors:

 

Camel Valley, Cornwall http://www.camelvalley.com/

An idyllic location with a climate warm enough to produce really exciting wines.

Ridgeview, East Sussex http://www.ridgeview.co.uk/

A great opportunity to see first hand how top quality sparkling wines are made (it’s not easy!)

Denbies, Surrey http://www.denbies.co.uk/

If you’re feeling energetic, they host marathons with wine stations en route!

Chapel Down, Kent http://www.chapeldown.com/

Delicious wines, and they have a fabulous restaurant on site too

 

PS: don’t make the mistake of buying “British Wine” as this is NOT the same thing. "British wine" is made using cheap imported grapes and can be found in some supermarkets for around £3…

 

Happy Swigging!

High Street Wine Challenge: Pezenas, ALDI

I've been hearing a lot of exciting things about the wine range at ALDI so this week I'm trying one of their more premium wines at a "whopping" £9.99.

Pezenas is an appellation in the Herault valley in the Languedoc, where the sun shines brightly and the wind keeps the grapes dry and disease free. This wine is just one of 36,000 bottles, a tiny production which explains some of the price.

A blend of Syrah, Grenache, Carignan and Mourvedre, aged for 12 months in oak, this wine smells of blueberries and liquorice. It took a little while to open up (I'd definitely recommend decanting), and it's quite high in acidity so I made a big mistake serving this with cheese on toast. It would've been far tastier alongside a roast leg of lamb! There is a lot of sweet, ripe blackberry fruit, vanilla spice and rosemary, some lovely flavours once you get past the acidity. I feel like I haven't done it real justice with my food choice as it has the potential to be a very yummy wine - perhaps someone can try it with their Sunday lunch and let me know? An exciting red nonetheless, well done ALDI.

Happy Swigging!

High Street Wine Challenge: Tesco Finest Pazo Torrequintans Albarino

Another supermarket, another Spanish wine.

Albarino (pronounced "al-bah-ree-nyo") is made in the Rias Baixas region of northwest Spain where cooling sea breezes enable winemakers to produce zingy fresh white wines. Unlike most other wines from Spain, Albarino is the name of the grape variety (not the region) which I believe has hugely helped this wine's popularity in the UK. You can also find the same grape from Portugal in the name Alvarinho.

On reading the back label, this wine is made by Martin Codax who is one of Albarino's most famous winemakers (you can find his wine being sold at Majestic for £12.99) so already I'm expecting a good quality product. My top tip would be not to serve it too cold, as if drunk straight from the fridge all you get is zingy citrus fruit and not much else. However once the wine warms up a touch you get lots of ripe peach, orange blossom and lovely mineral notes. Style-wise, if you like Sauvignon Blanc you should love this. For £7.49 this is a great value white and it was perfect with the fish pie that we had this evening.

Happy Swigging!

High Street Wine Challenge: Perez Burton Rioja 2012, M&S

Following on from my blog post on Spanish wines, I sent my husband off to our local M&S Simply Food with the instructions "buy something Spanish for less than a tenner." He returned with a bottle of Rioja for £8.79, evidently embarrassed for being so unoriginal in his choice as he explained that the only other option was a Tempranillo/Syrah blend for a fiver. So we'll let him off.

First observation is that this must be a Tinto Joven wine as there's no sign of any other classification on the label, however this is no bad thing and just means it's likely to be a fruity red.

And on tasting, my assumption was correct. Bags of ripe plum and blackberry fruit, very soft and smooth. As ever with Spanish wine, this may be classed as "young" but you can still taste that it has been aged in oak as you can taste the sweet spices. This is a nice, easy red wine, not very exciting but perfectly decent and would be delicious with roast lamb.

Happy Swigging!