Enjoying a glass of a refreshing rosé, perfect for the Singapore climate.....if you look carefully at the glass you'll see I am drinking the competition, all in the name of product research! Wines2U now have a list of seven rosés: two from the Loire Valley, three from Provence including the ever-popular "Corail" from Chateau de Roquefort (organic & biodynamic!), one from the Rhone and one from the Languedoc. It never ceases to amaze me that people aren't drinking more rosé in this part of the world. Rosé is a great pick-me-up; it's refreshing and many a rosé can handle a good deal of Asian spice.

Good quality rosé will have a "healthy" balance between sweetness and acidity - most decent examples from France (indeed from anywhere) are dry to off-dry. Unfortunately many mass-produced examples, made primarily for supermarkets, have too much sugar and not enough natural fruit flavour or acid freshness - often described as 'bubble-gum rosé' by yours truly!

Not that all 'bubble-gum rosé' is bad (proving the afore-mentioned rule) - one of the wine importers I worked for in the UK (Forth Wines) shipped a particularly delicious and extremely popular rosé from Argentina (Goyenechea Estate), made from the Merlot grape. Perhaps they still do. Anyway, Goyenechea's had that bubble-gum taste but it was expertly balanced by crisp acidity giving it freshness as well as length. Growing conditions/good viticulture or acidification (i.e. the winemaker adding acidity), who really cares, but I'd wager that it's the former.   

Where France is concerned, I love the delicate, salmon-pink rosés from Provence and the dry, unshowy, crisp, mineral examples from the Loire Valley (e.g. our pink Sancerre). However, it may surprise you - considering this is veering somewhat off-piste where Wines2U's vested interests are concerned - but the country whose rosé's I can never get enough of are Spain's. Especially the fuller, deeper-coloured styles. In my opinion, they are unmatched for their sheer drinkability, and for that perfect balance between weight/warmth of fruit and freshness - the good ones that is! And we're often not talking big money. Ochoa's (Navarra) is a particular favourite.

It's terribly easy to generalise when talking about such a large, wide-ranging topic as the world of wine is - there are always exceptions to pretty much everything. Which is why I am always saying "usually" or "as a general rule", a lot....

The long-awaited (by me!) Quaffers Club is planning a full-on rosé tasting session in 2012, where we'll compare styles, regions and countries.

Let's paint the town pink!