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ROSE FOR SUMMER DRINKING

BY IAN BLACKSHAW

When it comes to choosing a wine for summer drinking you cannot beat good French rosé.  Like most food and wine, it always tastes better drunk outdoors.  As far as I know no one – not even among great wine experts – has come up with an explanation for this phenomenon.  Perhaps it has something to do with oxygenation.  All wines – even white wines – need to breathe, and taste better on the second slurp.

Notwithstanding the competition from new world wines, French wines are unbeatable in quality and competitive in price, too, especially if you are buying in France

So, enough of the chit-chat and down to the serious business of choosing a good rosé, to be drunk by itself or with food – rosé and a cold Scottish salmon is a good combination, both pleasing on the palette and also on the eye.  After all, wine is to be enjoyed as much by sight as taste.

And, as matter of fact, personal taste is always the determining factor.  How many times have you heard someone say: ‘I don’t know much about wine, but I know what I like!’

Take the rosé from the Loire Valley, for example.  The popular Rosé d’Anjou tends to be rather on the sweeter side – not to my taste.  However, Rosé de Loire is the driest of this wine region’s rosés – and more to my taste.  It comes from the Saumur area, the provenance of the sparkling white of the same name, so beloved of many ex-pats’ drinks parties in our region!

Provence is also the source of many popular rosés, coming mainly from the wine denomination ‘Cotes de Provence’ area, which has a large production.  These rosés also tend to be on the sweeter side, being high in sugar and alcohol content from such a sun-baked part of France; although, it must be said, the quality has improved in recent years.

The Savoie and the Pays d’Oc produce some good quality rosés too.  In fact, the Vin du Pay d’Oc is probably the best of the ‘Vin du Pays’ wines with over 150 regions throughout France.  These are medium/above average quality wines and quite often surprise and delight.   They’re good value too when it comes to price.

But perhaps the best rosé in France comes from Tavel in the Rhone Valley, near Avignon.  This is a hearty rosé with lots of character, quite dry, and although best drunk with food it also makes a good appetiser.

The general advice with rosés - as also with non-vintage white wines - is, to use the wine jargon, “DYA” - Drink the Youngest Available.  2007 generally was a good year. 2008 not as good.  So, let’s see what 2009 brings!

Most of the wines I have mentioned are available at your local supermarket. In particular, Auchan in Boulogne and St Omer have excellent selections of French wine, including some very fine vintage wines.

Bonne dégustation et surtout la bonne santé!

Ian Blackshaw, Frogsiders’ Food and Drink Correspondent is an International Lawyer specialising in Sports Law.  He is well known for his magazine articles about expat life in France and he is the owner of a beautiful gite and a  Bed & Breakfast at Sains les Fressin      www.7valleysbandb.com

French Hot Weather Tip! - Drink Vin Rosé!

Rose wines can vary considerably in depth of colour

Photo: nice-matin

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