The paler the better is the established rule of thumb about pink (some would say punk) wines, now enjoying their annual wave of popularity among people on holiday. Provencal pinks are, by informed assent, the best of them all, dry and balanced, genuine in colour and quality, discreet in personality, they are vin rose which proves that this wine is not the rubbish some of us deem it to be.
But the paler the worse is, unfortunately, an equally reliable rule of thumb when applied to the so-called “blush” wines which have infiltrated the market in recent years, oozing a sweetness which is no more palatable than the taste of those other pale pinks which resemble humdrum whites to which a touch of colouring has been added. Avoid these if you can, even if some of them have inviting names and may seem to have their origins in the prettily named, old-fashioned Rose d’Anjou, which looks a lot nicer than it it actually tastes and which at one time littered Parisian restaurant tables before being ousted by superior, somewhat darker, tarter Tavel from the Rhone.
But if you want to drink pink, Provencal Rose should today be your choice, even if it is harder to find and more expensive when you find it (though oddly Ikea serves it in their cafes). Waitrose, with their usual perception, supply a couple of good ones in the £9-£11 category, not cheap but preferable in my view to pink Sancerre, which costs much the same, or even more but tends to be disappointing compared with its renowned white equivalent.
But Waitrose’s lightly lemony own-brand 2014 Provence Rose at £8.99 lives up to its price tag, as also does their Esprit de Biganay Cotes de Provence at £10.99. Their cheaper but not uninteresting Bijou Cuvee Sophie Valrose from the Languedoc is likewise worth sampling.
And what of all those almost tomato-coloured Spanish pinks which crowd our supermarket shelves? Avoid most of them I say. For all their quaffable, affordable and initially enticing juiciness, many of them are crude and deceptively high in alcohol strength.
5 August 2015
But the paler the worse is, unfortunately, an equally reliable rule of thumb when applied to the so-called “blush” wines which have infiltrated the market in recent years, oozing a sweetness which is no more palatable than the taste of those other pale pinks which resemble humdrum whites to which a touch of colouring has been added. Avoid these if you can, even if some of them have inviting names and may seem to have their origins in the prettily named, old-fashioned Rose d’Anjou, which looks a lot nicer than it it actually tastes and which at one time littered Parisian restaurant tables before being ousted by superior, somewhat darker, tarter Tavel from the Rhone.
But if you want to drink pink, Provencal Rose should today be your choice, even if it is harder to find and more expensive when you find it (though oddly Ikea serves it in their cafes). Waitrose, with their usual perception, supply a couple of good ones in the £9-£11 category, not cheap but preferable in my view to pink Sancerre, which costs much the same, or even more but tends to be disappointing compared with its renowned white equivalent.
But Waitrose’s lightly lemony own-brand 2014 Provence Rose at £8.99 lives up to its price tag, as also does their Esprit de Biganay Cotes de Provence at £10.99. Their cheaper but not uninteresting Bijou Cuvee Sophie Valrose from the Languedoc is likewise worth sampling.
And what of all those almost tomato-coloured Spanish pinks which crowd our supermarket shelves? Avoid most of them I say. For all their quaffable, affordable and initially enticing juiciness, many of them are crude and deceptively high in alcohol strength.
5 August 2015
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