I should stop reading social media comments. I admire Henry Jeffreys (his book Vines in a Cold Climate is a joy), and I know that many journalists like to think of themselves as provocateurs but writing ‘Is English rose (sic) piss’ really annoyed me. I know it was in jest, and I know it was designed to provoke debate, but it wasn’t funny.
While I have given this comment more airtime than it deserves, the topic of English rosé is one of the most compelling and vital in our home-grown wine business. Rosé should be a style that anyone with red grapes in the ground considers making.
It is fast to produce, quick to the shelves and repays you speedily with much-needed cash flow. It can concentrate red wine production if need be and make a compelling style of wine while enhancing another. Of course, it requires great skill. But every wine style, let’s be honest, requires every sinew of effort and every neurone to fire true to bring about the alchemy that creates drop-dead, commercially compelling wines that one cannot live without.
Our world is awash with utterly dire pink wines. I challenge you to find any good gear under a tenner on supermarket shelves, and as you move north, price is never, and I mean never, a marker of a more rewarding wine. Making rosé is an art in itself, and those who excel do it with 100% commitment, genuine passion and a profound understanding of the style.
This month, I have tasted more English rosés than ever before, and I can attest to the fact that their qualities and frequency have resulted in the highest number of successful wines in any one tasting session of this style ever. Here are three of the best and a bonus wine from each estate you should grab when you load up with a whole lotta rosé.
2022 dunleavy, Sparkling Rosé, Extra Brut, Somerset
Approx. £31.95
First, this is a fascinating wine that is as refreshing as any drink I can think of. These primal qualities ought to ensure that it sells extremely rapidly this summer. But there is more beneath the surface.
Every sip has a persistent raw edge, which realigns the senses and brings a degree of tension to the whole. The flavour is akin to marching through an orchard on a crisp, fresh morning, selecting the shiniest and ripest of red apples, taking a razor-sharp penknife out of your pocket and slicing a broad, flat, cool slice of skin with the merest whisper of pale white apple flesh beneath.
Alive, vital, energetic, ever-so-slightly sour and rampantly uplifting, these flavours are found in this glorious sparkling wine. And that is not all. 2022 Sparkling Red (£31.95), which really ought to be called dunleavy Sparkling Rosé+ because it is certainly not red, is a profoundly spicy and toothsome deep rosé loaded with cherryade, fresh mint, root liquorice, fat cranberries, lascivious pomegranate and delicate rhubarb fool blended, sieved and bottled. It is hilarious fun, making the dunleavy duo a force to be reckoned with!
2023 Albury Organic Silent Pool Rosé, Surrey Hills
£19.95
Albury’s wines always seem to have an aerial quality that makes them weightless, enchanting and magical.
This thrilling, biodynamic Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier blend is a work of art with tension, uncompromising length and genuinely impressive flavour layering throughout the experience.
It starts calm and composed and then rises, needle-sharp, into the sky and finally out of sight. While this is undoubtedly one of the best English rosés of the year, it is also one of the most arresting on an international stage.
My bonus wine is 2018 Biodynamic Wild Ferment Blanc de Blancs (£49.95). This is an all-guns-blazing, fabulously decadent, extremely chewy and full sparkler with a flavour that swaggers across your palate like a prestige cuvée Champagne with a three-digit price tag! Unlike Champs, an acid line here makes your teeth bounce, and I do not doubt that fizz fans will delight in the palate gymnastics that happen when this wine assaults their senses.
2022 Oxney Organic, Rosé
Approx. £23.00
This stunning, mellifluous wine is made from organically grown Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, and it is hard to imagine a more indulgent and seamless treat.
Pure, smooth and pleasingly fleshy, with just that little more juiciness and depth than expected, this is a glorious wild strawberry-kissed wine with a dramatic, clean, slate-fresh finish. It is clear that rosé-adoring hands made this wine, and unlike the two other beauties featured in this piece, it is bold enough to cope with a wide range of main course dishes while coping perfectly with lighter, less formal moments.
Interestingly, dusting down my old restaurateur hat, I would have twinned this heavenly creation with elite Indian cuisine, expensive Japanese bites and ethereal Thai recipes thanks to its indelible palate-cleansing abilities. My bonus wine from Oxney is the fiercely impressive 2019 Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut (£41.00).
With blindingly brilliant tension and an attack that belies its slender, alluring silhouette, this is Oxney’s most dramatic sparkling Chardonnay to date.
