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In readiness for Valentine’s Day, I thought we’d try some French rosé, because of the colour, obviously, and also because, along with Spanish rosado, there’s no shame in blokes drinking French rosé these days.
I love it when we decide which wine we like best, only to find on uncovering them that it’s the cheapest. Rosé de Gascogne 2005 is a mere £3.99 from Morrisons and is the perfect rosé in that it’s dry, but also fruity. It smelt of cherry almond, or cherry lips, which was inviting, but possibly led us to expect something sweeter. As a result, we were nicely surprised when it was dry, but also full and fruity. It had a little structure, which was an improvement on some of its rather wishy washy competitors, and the flavour lasted well.
Marks & Spencer’s Macon Rosé is £5.99, but they have 20% off all rosé until 25th February which brings it down to a very reasonable £4.49. This one has the advantage of looking pretty smart, whereas the Morrisons wine doesn’t hide its cheapness. It really fell down on its smell, reminding us of very dilute strawberry cordial, made with stale water – not ideal. However the taste was deliciously fresh with plenty of clean acidity and some structure. The smell wasn’t pungent and so didn’t ruin the tasting experience.
The Frenchhouse, Vin de Pays de l’Aude 2005 is £4.49 from the Co-op smells attractively of maraschino cherries. Bettina was reminded of Play Doh. The taste was dry, fresh, clean and easy. A perfectly good wine with attractive packaging and a reasonable price.
Chateau Bonnet 2005, which is £5.99 in Sainsbury’s, reduced to £4.99 until around Valentine’s Day has a pink screwcap. I don’t see myself as a girly girl, but I did like the screwcap. Again, the smell was disappointing. It smelt of sulphur initially, but when that lifted, it was like tinned strawberries – a little metallic. The taste was more grown up than others, being bone dry with tangy acidity.
Chateau d’Aqueria, Tavel 2005 is £9.49 from Majestic and I think it’s just too grown up for rosé. I want rosé to be fresh and light. Although I don’t want anything sweet and overtly strawberry-scented, I don’t want it to be so bone dry that it becomes hard work. The smell was attractively creamy, but the taste was aggressively dry and the alcohol at 13.5% was just too much. Once we’d uncovered the wine, I re-tasted since this one was markedly more expensive than the others, but I just couldn’t see anything good about it. The flavour didn’t even last well.
I actually went to the Co-op and bought Le Piat d’Or because it’s still a popular wine and I thought I’d give it the benefit of the doubt. It was shocking. It smelt of Gloy glue and wet wool and was watery and short in the mouth. We couldn’t decide whether to describe it as dull or flat – we must have been bored!
Our least favourite was Domaine Verlaque from M & S. The smell was reasonable, the taste was dry, but the aftertaste was disgusting. Bitter and pithy - Alex shuddered and said it tasted of bile.