Two notable things in today’s post.
First it responds to the views expressed in earlier comments that many of the current batch of modestly priced rosés are dull and unremarkable.
Here, though, is one I can recommend – and it has surprises for us.
The first is that is its homeland – Southwestern France.
The second is its grape variety – negrette.
Read on for more details.
The other surprise is that neither of today’s Top Tips is from a supermarket.
As High Street prices ascend, so the gap to specialist retailers narrows.
Not only that, but even more careful selection is needed when considering wines with bargain basement prices – quality can be increasingly patchy.
Do remember, though, that indies and the like often have minimum order quantities and delivery charges.
Once again, pictures and hyperlinks are included where possible to make it easier to track down the wine in question.
First, news of prices held.
2022 The Society’s White Rioja (£9.25 at The Wine Society and 12% abv)
Happy to feature The Wine Society in today’s Top Tips and not just because of the quality of their wines.
Despite all the upward pressure on prices such as alcohol tax and general inflation, the Society have held most own label prices at May 2023 levels – now there’s something to cheer!
White Rioja never really reached the heights its red equivalents frequently scaled but this viura and malvasia blend shows just how good carefully selected options can be.
The colour of white gold and medium bodied, it is centred around smooth apple, greengage and white currant flavours.
These are accompanied by sharp lime acidity within a herbal, savoury influenced and mildly spicy framework.
And, then, the rosé
2024 Violette de Mireval (£8.99 – instead of £9.99 until 20 May – at Laithwaite and 11%):
Since southwestern France’s Comté Tolosan region covers a large and diverse area, its wines are less easy to predict than those from well-defined and often carefully regulated appellations.
No need to worry whether this is a good buy though – it is excellent.
It uses the local negrette grape to produce a rosé that capitalises brilliantly on the smoothness, freshness and soft fruit elements that the variety does well.
Pale in colour yet attractively perfumed, the result has a foundation of intricate cherry, peach and red currant flavours.
Support comes in the form of sharp acidity, nicely textured depth and a contrasting savoury twist.
Join me again on Thursday when we take a look at pinot gris (not grigio!).
9 responses
Sounds like a very good rosé and not in that wishy washy category that I try and avoid! The Languedoc is another area I often look at for good value rosés and the Wine Society have a decent one that I regularly buy, Duo des Plages. It’s £7.95 a bottle or a bargain £21 for a 2.25l box and who doesn’t love a box of rosé in the fridge in summer!
Two great choices today,Brian.
May I add another?
The Wine Society (TWS) have a liking for the Greek Kintonis winery in the Peloponnese.Their own TES label Greek white is great, the G&L Malagousia white is great and the G&L 2024 Dry Rosé wine which I featured in an online Rosé chat with Fiona Beckett last night ,is a toothsome contender.
An intriguing blend of Moschofilero, Roditis and a dash of Agriorgitiko.12.5% abv.Smashed strawberries and redcurrant flavours and nicely a bit darker than the fashionable “ diseased “ salmon pink of the Provence.Gone up a bit in price to £9.50 but still very good value.
G&L stands for George Kintonis and Leonides.Usually followed by “philia” which is the Greek for friendship.
Properly chilled, out on the patio in the present glorious weather.Ideal.I can almost feel like I was on the balcony in Lefkas watching the sailing boats go by.
Typo. Not TES -Times Educational Supplement -but TWS!
Old habits!🤣
I have enjoyed the Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Négrette rosé from sub-appellation Fronton AOC.
Good morning Brian … this sunshine never stops giving but it’s still a little fresh along the north east coast getting an onshore easterly!
Hurrah for rosé!!! Well I’m not arguing with either you Brian here or the French in general as they drink more rose these days than their whites. Astonishing fact that one. Whoever thought that could happen and placed a sizeable bet at long odds against 40 years of that being the case today , they could have been into €uromillions by now. Ha!
The snobs will still decry Mateus rosé that was my introduction to wine consumption 60 years ago . Even today I still enjoy a glass .. or Lancer if we are actually in Portugal, the one in the brown terra cotta bottle that is closest challenger to Mateus in cheaper and cheerful on-beach, cafe bars along the Algarve.
But discovering what we might get here that is superior not ordinary has us kissing a lot of frogs first. That’s not to say the French themselves are a model of perfection when serving their “home grown”. Far from it . But at least they don’t try to rip off their customers. A 25cl carafe of rosé to accompany lunch might be ordinaire but at least it’s cheap. No kidology going on as the hospitality trade of Britain so often lays on us.
Problematic with Laithwaites is can we order one single bottle with free delivery at the quoted price? It’s been a few months since I chose some Laithwaites bottles. Maybe they have changed?? This is where TWS beats all delivered wine hands down.
We have worked our way through the French card of rosé for best part of 45 years. Biggest producer of rosé worldwide Wiki tells us. Probably the best aspect of that exercise was my wife being as interested as I was and sharing when she often was not as enthusiastic with the reds I would suggest back in the day. Ironically the best part of camping was actually getting out of a tent after 25 years and into ‘mobiles homes’ on static caravan sites, that had fridges. Oh yes … fridges and freezers just like home but not home!
Taking a well chilled al fresco glass of rosé became the utmost joy especially on the Côtes d’Azur with light, fresh Provençal versions. But all of Comté Tolosan including Fronton/Négrette was in there too and Bordeaux versions based on Cabernet, Bandol, Tavel naturally. Not Anjou no matter how famous a name … too sweet for us.
In fact as France navigated further towards its burgeoning preference for rosé over white everyone was at it everywhere. As we returned year on year the rosé section of supermarket wine aisles expanded. I photographed them to show to friends back home for fear I was not to be believed. I’m so pleased now that even though still under-represented there’s loads of pink stuff here to try including the fizz as well. Not just France. Really enjoy a pink prosecco too. And if we look hard enough I’m sure there’s some Romanian pink bottles somewhere to have harking back 50 years to the early Hirondelle offerings.
But … as I wrote in an ee last Thursday to MWW wines I can champion my current favourite at Aldi that is their own label Bowler & Brolly, Pinot Noir-Precoce rosé from Lyme Bay Winery at £7.99. It’s a bit rare in it’s original limited edition guise but comes in and out, different labelling, different shaped bottles. Importantly to me it flies in the face of English wine overpricing. Yippee! More importantly it’s terrific drinking. Aspirational without the inflated cost.
And then another I had earlier last week from Lidl that perhaps might be slightly more towards an acquired taste that is their wood-crate Löss & Schotter Müller from Austria at £7.49. Very good drinking of a fuller body rosé. I’m having more of that this week. Salut …
As no Thursday post, thought I would add to a previous thread about the perils of ordering wine in restaurants, bars etc.
During a recent flying visit to Ramsgate, we walked past a very attractive Victorian pavilion with elegant interior and lovely sea views. On peering in, we noticed a large sign advertising various drink offers including …
2 (250ml) glasses of wine for £6.75. The picture showed 3 glasses of wine, red, white & rose.
As it was just before 11.00, and we wanted to catch a bus back to Sandwich, and on to Deal, we didn’t pop in and have a glass each. But we were tempted.
What wines were on offer, were they decent and could they be in good condition?
Checking up, it would appear that this establishment serve about a half dozen wines “on tap”. I have no experience of being served in this way. But given some dire experiences of oxidised examples of inexpensive wines served at hefty mark-ups, I would be very happy to give it a try.
Who ran this place? Wetherspoons!
Although I very rarely visit their establishments, I look favourably on them as I have come across so many interesting venues that they have taken on, preserved and given a new lease of life.
I guess serving on tap could be viewed as a rather larger wine box – which could work well. Indeed I recently tried a variant of these known as a wine pouch. This is 1.5L of wine in a plastic pouch with tap, but not encased in a cardboard box. For some reason this appealed to me, more than the larger wine boxes – a magnum in an efficient package with built in coravin! The Australian refer to these as “Bagnums”. The one I tried was the 2024 M&S La Dame en Rose, £13 for 1.5L. It is 50% Cinsault and 50% Grenache at 11.5% ABV and 0 g/l residual sugar – made by Paul Sapin. I thought it a decent refreshing rose, in a, for me, more convenient size than the more common 2.25L or 3L wine boxes. M&S do a range of other wines in this format.
Anyone tried “on tap” wines or other Bagnums?
Hello Richard,
Asda are very pleased with the success of its Pica Pica canned wines that appeal to a younger customer.
We also know that some supermarkets have asked the wine producers to lower the alcohol content to save on our excessive duty regime and Majestic have pulled some high alcohol abv wines out of their range.
Clive Donaldson,the chief Asda wine buyer,is taking a different approach.
“We haven’t [pulled any wine from shelves] and the most important thing for us [in this situation concerning duty hikes] is that we want every wine to be truly representative of what it is,” said Donaldson. “We have looked to move toward incorporating lower ABV wines into categories but only where and when that makes sense for the style of the wine.”
“For example our premium own label, we haven’t compromised anywhere on ABV because we want the wine to be true to its style… if putting an 11% wine in certain categories means losing the essence of what it’s supposed to be, then we’re not doing customers a service by that.”
All is not lost!
Hi Paul, thanks for that input.
Recently I was fortunate to be able to sit down with Clive and chat about the Asda range. On the subject of reducing alcohol levels, they are working closely with producers and he has found that the best results are not by picking early or sourcing from higher altitude sites, etc, but by a de-alcoholisation process for some of the wine. Again he stressed that if the result is not worthy of the wine type or Asda name, they won’t sell it. But it is clear that bottom shelf budget wines do need to be at levels around 11% – otherwise they will no longer be ultra budget wines! In a previous post I mentioned that I had bought some of these low priced 11% wines: 2023 Le Manoir du Baron Pinot Noir at £4.95; “Nice Drop of …Tempranillo” at £4.11; and a “Nice Drop of … Sauvignon Blanc” at £4.44. I have now tried all three of these wines, and whilst, as one would expect, they are simple basic rather light weight wines, I thought they were all decent, drinkable and good value. Whilst canny MWW people will have taken advantage of 25% off deals to reduce more expensive wines to similar budget price points, I find it heartening that acceptable wines can still be available at rock bottom prices – particularly to attract newer wine consumers.
On the subject of alternative packaging, I remember Waitrose’s Pierpaolo Petrassi, MW, stating that the 75cl bottle is really not very suitable for packaging or delivering wine to the consumer, and only continues to be the norm for historical reasons.
Clive and the Asda Team clearly share that view …
“A 75cl bottle of wine lacks relevance for many consumption occasions for younger consumers, and a 250ml can … is a much better solution.” And as quite fancy craft beers are consumed by can, I guess the concept of upmarket products in cans is now accepted.
I have tried a number of canned wines. There have been a few that I thought had some slight off-tastes, but many were excellent and certainly very convenient. The Uncommon sparkling English wines, both white and pink I thought were good – available in Waitrose and possibly elsewhere. And the ASDA Pica Pica sparkling rose was interesting and excellent for only £2.48 for 250ml. It is a mix of Italian varieties and only 5g/l residual sugar. The other Pica Pica cans I tried, and enjoyed, were: Sauvignon Blanc (Western Cape) at 11%, only 0.8g/l RS – not the most typical SB, but it includes 15% Colombard; Viognier (France) at 13%, 0.1g/l RS – a pleasant drink, fresh and with some typicity.