Prime Time for Pink: 22 Rosés to See Out Summer 2024

Summer was late coming this year and so is my round-up rosés, but here it is, new wines and new vintages of old favourites, blazing a trail to the Bank Holiday weekend.

It's divided into two parts: Rosés from outside Provence, then rosés from the pink wine capital of the world itself. Within the two sections, wines are listed in ascending order of price as far as possible. A score of 93 is equivalent to a gold medal; 89–92 is silver; 85–88 is bronze.

As always, chill your rosés and keep them chilled as you make your way down the bottles, always keep bottles out of sunlight and don’t forget that many rosés are good food wines.

Amandla Our Freedom Blush 2023, Western Cape, South Africa

Powder pink and unashamedly fruity – but dry – with sweet and sharp cherry and red-berry fruit and a touch of spiciness. Essentially a Chenin Blanc (from Worcester), with colour from 3% Pinotage. Amandla, which means ‘power’, is from HER Wine Collection, a new wine company run by black women in various industry roles to celebrate black culture and champion freedom, power and future opportunties for women. 13%

£9.50, Sainsbury’s

87

Ramón Bilbao Rosé 2023, Rioja, Spain

Pale yellow-pink – like a Peace rose but paler – this Riojan take on the Provence style, is dry and crisp with delicate, juicy nectarine and redcurrant fruit. It’s a blend of 80% Garnacha (Grenache) and 20% Viura (the main white variety of Rioja) from the high-altitude, rocky slopes of the Sierra de la Demanda. Good value. 12.5%

£9.75, Co-op

88

Laurent Miquel Vendanges Nocturnes Cinsault Syrah 2023, Pays d’Oc

A good-value Languedoc take on the Provence style made from 70% Cinsault and 30% Syrah. Pale salmon in colour, light-medium body, perfumed, fresh and silky with wild strawberry and apricot flavours. Very summery and refreshing. 12.5%.

£9.99, Waitrose

87

Isula Mea Syrah-Sciaccarrellu Rosé 2023, Île de Beauté, Corsica

Corsica’s stay-at-home Sciaccarrellu grape blended with globe-trotting Syrah to give spice and crunch to this pale powder-pink wine. Crisp and dry but not too dry, with red-berry fruit and touches of apricot and apple. 12.5%

£9.99, Waitrose

88

Jean Leon 3055 Rosé 2022, Penedès, Spain

Some stockists have moved on to the 2023, which I haven’t tasted, but the salmon-pink 2022 blend of Pinot Noir and Garnacha Tinta is holding up well with its spicy redcurrant fruit, citrus tang and nicely substantial feel. Makes a good aperitif but also works well with food (I enjoyed it with pasture-reared pork steaks flavoured with rosemary, juniper and orange peel and deglazed with LBV port and a creamy fennel gratin). Organic. 12%

£13.85, Vinvm; £14.75 Winedirect; £16.15, Nickolls & Perks; £83.94 for 6, Simply Wine Direct

89

Rogers & Rufus Grenache of Barossa Rosé 2022, Barossa, Australia

See Wine of the Week for review and stockists.

£13.95–£16.99

90

Domaine Lafage Miraflors Rosé 2023 Côtes Catalanes, Roussillon, France

A blend of 75-year-old Grenache Gris, 25-year-old Mourvèdre and younger Grenache Noir from the Lafage family’s extensive holdings. Succulent and supple with red cherry and orange fruit, gentle spiciness and minerality. A perennial favourite. 12.5%

£14, Urban Grapes, £16.99, North & South Wines

89

Ricasoli Albia Rosé 2023, Toscana, Italy

A dry, herb-accented Tuscan blend of Sangiovese and Merlot. Pale salmon with tangy cherry and red currant fruit and soft texture. Simple but satisfying and individual. 13%

£14.50, Taylor’s Fine Wine; £15.05, Vinvm; £15.85 Winedirect

87

Catena Rosé de la Provincia de Mendoza 2023, Mendoza, Argentina

Medium pink, medium bodied, dry and refreshing with a little bit of texture, juicy fruit (blackberry, apple, raspberry, cherry) and nettle-and-grass crunchy greenness. A new wine from Catena using high-altitude red and white grapes in an unusual mix – 30% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 18% Malbec, 12% Sauvignon Blanc and 10% Chenin. Personally I’d like to taste the Sauvignon a tiny bit less. 13%.

£14.99 in any 6-bottle mix, £16.99 single, Majestic

88

Calafuria Rosato 2023, Salento, Italy

The Antinori family's rosé from Negroamaro growing in their Tormaresca vineyards along the Adriatic coast in Puglia. Pale candy-pink, delicately fruity and juicy with a savoury whiff of smoke, graphite and red pepper floating over the enticing peach and water-melon fruit. Easy-drinking pleasure. 12%

£15, Svinando; £16.99, Loki; £19.75, Vinvm, £19.30, Hic!

88

Oxney Organic Rosé 2022, England

A pale, dry, delicately textured blend of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier with gentle floral, peach, red currant and berry aromas and an airy, rounded palate streaked with orange zest and vibrant acidity. 11.5%. (More Oxney wines reviewed here.)

£23, Oxney Estate

90

Ixsir Grande Reserve 2023, Lebanon

A Provençal-ish blend of Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Syrah (40:30:30) from three mountain vineyards in different parts of Lebanon. Very pale, very perfumed (‘Provence on steroids!’ my notes say) with lush red berry and spice, creamy texture and refreshing grapefruit bitterness and mineral acidity. Food friendly. 13.5%

£24.84, Great Wines Direct

91

PROVENCE

I was beginning to wonder whether I might be a bit jaded with Provence rosé when the flame was reignited by some crackers. When it's good, there's nothing like it and standards generally are high. A lot of the estates are organic and/or sustainable, too, and the number is growing all the time.

Chateau Bellini 2023, Coteaux Varois en Provence

A blend of Grenache and Syrah with small amounts of Vermentino, Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon and Clairette. Ultra pale, almost more yellow than pink. Very expressive with notes of orange apricot, cardamom and savoury, briny oyster-shell. Silky and mouth-filling, lively and sustained and food friendly. Good with vitello tonnato, roast aubergine and roast red peppers and it even stood its ground outside with an entrecôte steak on a hot evening. The label design comes from an engraving of the huntress Diana found when the château was being renovated, but that doesn’t excuse the exceptionally heavy bottle (784g). 13.5%

£14.95, The Wine Society; £19.75, Private Cellar

91

Château Minuty M de Minuty 2023, Côtes de Provence

Like Château d’Esclans (with its seven-strong range, including Whispering Angel) and Château Galoupet, Château Minuty has been swept up into the Moët Hennessy empire, although only last year. M de Minuty, the introductory level rosé, is an uncomplicated, youthful, fruity expression of red apple, strawberry and pink grapefruit delivered in a blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Cinsault and 10% Syrah. 13%

£16.99 in any 6-bottle mix, £18.99 singly, Majestic

88

No 1 Rosé Domaine Pey Blanc 2023, Coteaux d’Aix en Provence

Tasted from a 100ml EcoSip sample pouch, this very, very pale rosé is classically elegant, floral, fresh and silky with delicate peach-melba fruitiness and a hint of spice. 12.5%

£17.20, Tanners

89

Domaine de L’Île Porquerolles Rosé, Côtes de Provence 2023

From the Chanel-owned estate on the tiny island of Porquerolles, this is darker in colour and slightly broader on the palate than in previous years. I’m sure its flavours had been slightly deadened by the cork, which was pitted and disintegrating into a powdery brown sawdust at the wine-end. but I include it here (with a provisional score) because it’s usually so good and it showed some of its usual flair in the tart-cherry and apricot fruit and saline tang and an unusual but enlivening streak of green pepper. 12.5%

£19.99, Marlo Wine; £22.62, Vinatis UK

(89)

Caves d’Esclans Rock Angel 2022, Côtes de Provence

A step up from its famous and widely available stablemate Whispering Angel (the 2023 vintage of which is showing typically well), this is much more of a gastronomic than a poolside rosé. Made largely from old vines (Grenache, Cinsault and Rolle), it’s partly vinified in oak and all batches are aged on lees with bâtonnage, The result is creamy and substantial with a mouthwatering taste of the sea, sweet red berries, tangerine and vanilla. It’s ready now (if the shellfish or salmon are) but could be cellared for a few years.

£22.49 in any 6-bottle mix, £29.99 singly, Majestic; £26.99, Waitrose

92

Château Sainte Roseline Cuvée Lampe de Méduse Rosé 2023, Côtes de Provence

Introduced in 1950, the estate’s flagship wine is a blend of Grenache, Cinsault, Tibouren, Mourvèdre, and Syrah. And the 2023 is classic Provence rosé bringing understated richness and tang together in a pale salmon colour, peach and red currant fragrance and a saline and citrus twist. The bottle – unmissable but an awkward customer in the fridge – is a hybrid of Alsace flute and Grasse scent bottle. 13%

£27, Ocado; £20.95 Vinatis UK; £28.50, Chester Beer and Wine. Other independent wine merchants are due to move from 2022 to the 2023 vintage soon.

90

Château Paquette Cuvée Thémis 2023, Côtes de Provence Fréjus, France

A stunning, copper-coloured rosé from volcanic soils halfway between the Massif de l’Esterel mountain range and the Mediterranean in the geographic zone of Fréjus. Spicy and rich in fruit – mirabelle plum, peach, sweet orange – with a creamy, silky texture, subtle oak, exotic sandalwood notes, freshness, intensity and length. This would gain more complexity with cellaring and is very sensibly bottled in an amber glass bottle to protect it from light. If only more rosé producers would be brave enough to do this. The blend varies according to vintage, but always includes significant proportions of Provence’s iconic Tibourén and Mourvèdre (Bandol’s iconic variety) and it’s vinfied in 600-litre French oak and aged for a few months on fine lees. Château Paquette is a 25-ha organic estate, owned and run by the Paquette family since 1952 and formerly known as Domaine de la Curébeasse. 12.5%

£30.50, The Wine Cellar

93

Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé 2023, Bandol, France

It’s a few years since I’ve tasted a vintage of this legendary rosé (the 2023 was bought and brought to lunch by a generous fellow wine writer) and I was bowled over, even more so polishng it off in the evening after it had had more time to breathe. Luminous, luscious and spicy, with a perfume of cherries, wild strawberries and woody herbs, it sashays into a deeply textural palate with a flicker of tannin and lovely freshness. It will cellar beautifully, if you let it. But be warned: stocks of the 2023 are running low (Lea & Sandeman and Swig are both out of stock at the time of writing). 13.5%

£33.50–£45, The Huntsworth Wine Co, Uncorked Ltd, Dark Sea Wine, Bottle Apostle, The Sampler, The Good Wine Shop

93

Chateau Galoupet 2023, Côtes de Provence

A gastronomic rosé from a large, biodiverse, organic estate within spitting distance of the sea that has been rejuvenated this decade by Moët Hennessy (I have written more about it here). An opening salvo of citrus and peach is followed by strawberry and paprika spice in a powerful, opulently textured wine, cut by reverberating acidity and oyster shell salinity. 14%

£46.50, Clos19

93

Château Minuty 281 2023, Côtes de Provence

Very pale powder-pink, alluringly aromatic with peach, jasmine and pomegranate, a silky texture, saline freshness and an elegant, stony, mineral finish. It’s 90% Grenache with 5% 5yrah and 5% Rolle and stands out as it should as the top level of Minuty’s four rosés. 12.5%

£54, WoodWinters; £55 Brunswick Fine Wines; £65, Harvey Nichols

91

Photographs by Joanna Simon

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