Your Rosé Style Guide Sorted
Take a freewheeling walking through a garden of rosé styles plucked from world’s wine regions that make it best.
Rosé wines are universally much adored not just for its many alluring hues of pink and bounty of flavours but the diversity of styles and always refreshing character. The perfect foil to tannic and mouth filling reds and crisp white wines, the rosé stands alone for its balance of vibrant flavours, delicate structure and unique colour that that the juice takes on from limited grape skin contact before fermentation. And here’s a leisurely browse through five delightful and distinct rosé expressions handpicked from France, Italy, South Africa that make a delicious case for why this blush wine keeps getting more popular.
Billecart-Salmon, Brut Rosé NV
Billecart Salmon is universally regarded as a brilliant and traditional practitioner of the Methode Champenoise method and great appetite for detail. All of this shows up on the palate of this cracking good rose champagne. Pinot Noir is no easy fruit to harvest but is at its expressive best as it dominates this blend. The wine itself has sat in bottle in deep underground cellars for years, evolving beautifully into this floral and wholesome pink sparkler that will stay on palate and memory for longer than most. This blush Champagne charms the palate with elegant texture and fresh berry flavours laced with minerality.Tenuta Sant Antonio, Scaia Rosato 2022
There are so many good reasons why this Italian rose is one of our perennial bestsellers. Produced by a band of brothers in North Italy’s cool Veneto region from the Rondinella grape which plays a vital role in the flagship Amarone della Valpolicella wine, this salmon pink rose perfectly reflects Veneto’s clay and volcanic soil and temperate weather. This opulently fruity rose also symbolises the family’s approach of making contemporary, refreshing wines apart from age old classics and tastes of cherries and melon, finishing clean.
Aix Provence Rose 2022
Rose wines appellations don’t quite get the limelight but when it comes to Provence in Southern France, the region is the real star. blessed with a combination of classic Mediterranean climes and copious sunshine tempered by cold winds rushing down the Rhone Alps from the north and vines rooted in limestone that yield fruit of great flavour and acidity. Our very own Provencal rose wine import enjoys rockstar status for its sprightly palate and fruity character. The Aix Provence Rose is an opulent salmon pink blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault and abounds with floral aromas and flavours of strawberry and watermelon.Boekenhoutskloof, The Wolftrap Rosé 2022
Boekenhoutskloof winemaker Marc Kent doesn’t do ordinary and his rose expression is no exception to the rule, pushing the boundaries on the presumptions of a rose’s colour and taste. He picks his fruit from the estate’s Franschhoek parcels that thrive on the banks of the river Berg, benefitting from the mountains’ cool shadow and mineral rich sandstone soils. The rose itself is produced using the French ‘Saignee’ method which entails a few hours of skin contact before the juice is bled off, having taken on colour, flavour and character. All of these elements show through beautifully on this rose, showing a relatively deeper copper hue, perfume and fresh cherries from Cinsault and red berry tones by way of Grenache. Syrah sprinkles the blush wine with peppery notes and adds medium body in this gorgeous and bold South African turn of a cherished Rhone Valley style.
