Wine with Leslie: Celebrate Rosé Day with these labels, starting from just €9
Pic: iStock
Summer began last weekend so time to look at Rosé. By an odd coincidence Saturday, June 10, is National Rosé Day - I found this out from SuperValu when researching the column.
I generally ignore such celebration days - ‘pas serieux’ as the French would say - but a little bit of serendipity can be nice sometimes.
Speaking of SuperValu, they have a number of Rosé on offer for the next few weeks at competitive prices. Doña Paula Rosé is just €9 while its sister wine Santa Rita Reserva Rosé is €10 - both are packed with ripe strawberry fruits and dry in style.
If you want a little more sweetness there is a Rosé d’Angjou at €10 and if you need some celebrity the Graham Norton Rosé is €12.50 while Kylie Minogue Rosé is just €10. Kylie’s wine brand is three years old this year and I think her Côtes de Provence Rosé is great for the price.
She caused a sensation when she turned up at the world’s most important wine fair ProWein this year. All the wine dudes with their baseball caps and iPads queued up for selfies (yes, I too would have been in that queue!).
Miraval from Brad Pitt is excellent if a little pricy at €33 - Angelina sold her stake to a disreputable Russian Oligarch just to spite him. Sarah Jessica Parker’s Invivo collab is solid enough but could do with being priced like Kylies, and La Quelles de La Coste from John Malkovich is pink grapefruits and herbal and available from Mitchells.
I’ve yet to taste Snoop Dogg’s 19 Crimes rosé but I know it will be too sweet for me - Drew Barrymore, Post Malone (of the weird scribbly face tattoos), John Legend (who wins the bottle design award) and Cameron Diaz are other options. If they don't have their own rosé, celebs drink Whispering Angel!
Six pinks this week including gorgeous organic pét-nats, a delicious Greek Agiorgitiko from O’Briens (€12.71) who step up every summer with their rosé offers: try ‘Alaina’, ‘Rós’, L’Ostal or ‘Petit Bourgeois’ Pinot - all have appeared on this page in the past.
This is on special offer in SuperValu for the next few weeks, reduced from its normal price of €15. This pours a typical pale onion-skin pink with aromas of soft red fruits (strawberries, raspberries etc.), fruity but dry on the palate with some tang and freshness. Serve nicely chilled, perhaps with some deep fried scampi and an aïoli dip.
Winner of the Rosé Gold Star Award in the under €15 category in the NOffLA 2022-23 competition (I was a judge!). Pale and dry in the Provence style but from the Ardèche in the Languedoc where land is considerably cheaper. Floral red fruits, a touch of stony minerality and pleasingly crisp and fresh.
I’ve mentioned Gaia a few times but never their Rosé. From Nemea in the Peloponnese perhaps Greece’s best region and from arguably its best native grape: Agiorgitiko (roughly: ah-gee-oar-git-iko). Floral, ripe raspberries and cherries with spice and gooseberry touches - zingy, fruity and dry with lots of character and at a bargain price for the quality.
A blend of organic Syrah, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Counoise from the hills above Luberon in Provence. This is much more serious (despite being called Fairy Woods), earthy ripe red fruits, full flavoured and rounded with a pleasing savoury intensity and a dry finish.
I mentioned this in my rave review of Green Man Wine Bar recently as it went so well with everything we ate from Trout Rilette to Scotch Egg. This is a lightly sparkling (pét-nat) with light yeasty raspberry aromas and flavours, bone-dry and a with a cheery sparkle.
A supremely drinkable pet-nat style fizz from Emilia-Romagna which has a long tradition of sparkling wine (cf. Lambrusco). Made from the local Montrerosso grape with a touch of Barbera and bottled unfiltered and unfined. Expect juicy red fruits with citrus freshness - perfect for cutting through the richness of vitello tonnato or perhaps with antipasto.
The June Bank Holiday was the start of summer so time for a Radler. I adore this uniquely Germanic summer drink, invented in the early 20th century during the cycling boom. But cutting the abv with lemonade German cyclists could get refreshment without killing themselves going up or down the Zugspitz (Germany’s highest mountain).
Früh are based in Cologne and make that city’s most iconic Kölsch (the local light ale) so you are in safe hands here. A blend of 55% lemonade and 45% Kölsch this has brisk lemon and lemon oil aromas, fruity and refreshing with hoppy ale flavours coming through on the finish. Also watch for Radlers from Einsiedler and Gaffel.
