The Great Rosé Roundup!

A Global Rosé Sips Safari for the Bank Holiday Weekend

We’re heading into a bank holiday, so what better time is there to do a rosé wine Sips Safari? Get some friends over and play spot the difference with a few bottles. It’s education! Here are some of my top picks for every price level from Provence to Puglia.

World Rosé Under £12

First Cape Special Cuvée Chardonnay & Pinot Noir Rosé 2024 - South Africa

A Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend. This is a gorgeous, fuller-bodied, affordable pink that’s perfect for a barbecue thanks to its ripe and tangy red berry fruit and a characteristically South African note of smoky, grilled meat. Lovely with meat glazes too.

Find it: £7 at Tesco

Toro Loco Bobal Rosé 2024 - Spain

I’m a big fan of this perky, Spanish pink, made with the Bobal grape and which delivers on the pale, Provence-like look and salinity but has a bit more strawberry fruitiness on the palate. This is my wine for party spritzes!

Find it: £5.49 at Aldi in store.

M&S Found Susmaniello Rosé - Italy

Susmaniello is a Puglian grape having a renaissance and here, it makes a soft but substantial rosé that’s dry with notes of almond cream and a subtle touch of rose. It has texture enough to pair with cheese and other foods too. Lovely.

Find it £9 at Ocado and M&S in store.

Waitrose Loved & Found Moschofilero Rosé 2024 - Greece

Here’s something really quite different: a prettily perfumed Greek pink with aromas of rose and lemon. It smells sweeter than it tastes and is zippy and crisp on the palate. Moschofilero is the grape and you’ll be seeing more of it on the shelves as it gains popularity.

Find it: £9.25 Waitrose

Isula d'Amore, Love Island Rose 2024 - Corsica

I showed this recently at Chris Evan’s Gig in the Garden charity do and it was a hit! A blend of Syrah and Grenache with local grapes Niellucciu and Sciaccarellu and Grenache, it’s layered and silky with notes of wild strawberry, recurrant and pomegranate with a saline tang.

Find £11.50 Ocado

Provençal Pinks

If you saw my deep dive into rosé from Provence article this week, you’ll now be well aware that it is not all the same. Here’s a range of delicious pinks, each taking in different styles from various PDOs* and price points:

Breath of Paradise Côtes de Provence Rosé 2024

One of the newest - and best, in my opinion, Whispering Angel dupes our there, this pink is pretty premium by Lidl’s standards but it really delivers while also looking the part. A stunning, peachy pink colour with rips strawberry, white peach and raspberry notes. Round, delicious and elegant. It’s great!

Find it: £10.99 at Lidl in Store.

Roseblood d'Estoublon, Coteaux Varois en Provence, 2024

I love this organic pink for its look, its name and the juice inside. Classic Varois, it’s citrusy and mineral with pretty notes of citrus with apricot and strawberry, wrapped up with pink blossom aromas. It’s a collaboration with a bunch of legends too including Jean-Guillaume Prats of Château Lafite-Rothschild and former President and First Lady, Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni.

Find it: £18 or £14.50 mix six Majestic

Château Vignelaure, Coteaux d’Aix en Provence 2024

If you’re wanting that velvety, strawberries and cream with a sprinkle of sea salt vibe, then this is it. A deliciously balanced Provence rosé from a top estate, this is riper and rounder than many and has a slightly savoury finish. If a wine can be voluptuous, this is. Great by itself or with a hunk of Camembert on a charcoal cracker.

Find it: £16 The Wine Society

Château Coussin, Sainte Victoire, Côtes de Provence, 2024

Another elegantly powerful pink and this time, with a pronounced mineral and saline core. Around that are deliciously subtle notes of apricot and nectarine with some tangy redcurrant and a twist of orange peel. There’s something ethereal about this wine and it really opens up in the glass, so sip it slowly!

Find it: £25 The Good Wine Shop, Museum Wines

Château Galoupet Cru Classé 2024

I’m a huge fan of this Cru Classé, which was recently given a new lease of life by its new owners. A complex blend of Grenache, Syrah, Tibouren, Rolle and Cinsault, this is a wine geek’s wine that ages beautifully. Think understated tropical fruit with smoky grapefruit and salt. It’s very silky too - and the partly recycled glass bottle is perfection! I have kept my empty bottle as a table centrepiece.

Find it: £47 The Champagne Company, Majestic (mix 6 price)

Château d'Esclans Garrus Rosé 2023

The OG of gastronomic, oaked Provençal rosé, Garrus is Château d’Esclans’ top cuvée wine, made from Rolle and single vineyard Grenache from vines that are nearly 100 years old. The oak fermentation and aging gives an immensely creamy texture and concentrated notes of spiced vanilla with ripe strawberry, peony and white peach. It’s a wine to really take your time with and it sings with Asian cuisine.

Find it: £90-£94 Ocado or Vinitis

* PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) is the EU’s highest level of wine classification, guaranteeing that a wine comes entirely from a defined place and is made according to its traditional rules.

If you want to see how some of the blatant Whispering Angel dupes stack up, check out this article here. If you want to go and go home with a top notch, premium Provençal pink however, take a look at this article instead!

The Rosé Spritz is rapidly becoming the sip of the summer but given that you’re mixing it, you’ll probably not want to spend a fortune on a bottle. Here’s where fruitier, inexpensive styles from outside Provence come in too.

Ingredients

100ml Rosé Wine (I recommend Toro Loco rosé but see World Rosés list above)

15ml Elderflower Liqueur (Try Bols or St Germain)

75ml Schweppes Pink Soda or Fever Tree Light Raspberry & Rhubarb Tonic

5-10 Fresh raspberries for garnish

Method

Half fill a large wine glass with ice and add the elderflower liqueur and a handful of raspberries. Pour in the rosé next then top up with the pink soda and stir gently. Add another few raspberries on to complete the look.

Happy Weekend!