Tricks or treats

Though this is no longer the best moment to be sipping Cotes de Provence - Southern France’s  pink wine at its palest and most delicious -  it is  a tipple dry enough and delicate enough to savour even when summer has gone.

Indeed, even in October, I am happy to get my hands on as much of it as I can afford. The trouble is that it has largely gone from the shelves by this time, and even if you find the odd bottle it is not likely to be going  cheap. In summer, £10 a bottle seems a fair price, but by chance Lidl’s in Edinburgh has received a consignment which  it is selling at £5.99.

Like Aldi’s, as we know, Lidl is a house of bargains, some of them better than others, but this one is good enough to warrant sampling. Last weekend we bought a few bottles and have not been disappointed.

Of all France’s rose wines, the Provencal ones have long struck me as the tastiest, and even at what may seem too high a price the quality of the wine rings true (Rhones also tend to be good).

So many roses, bought on offer,  quickly pall that I hesitate to try them. Spain’s deep-hued roses, in my experience, are seldom as good as you hope, and California’s pallid sweet Zinfandels are no match for its reds.

How much of the rose wine we drink is merely a red-and-white blend  I would not like to guess, but the quantity is surely increasing. Provence, however,  insists on purity, and it shows.
9 October 2014