I love Albury Silent Pool Organic Rosé. I was fortunate to taste a bottle of the 2024 which will be released around the time that this column is published. I wrote a note on it, and the 2020 Prestige Cuvée Sparkler in my weekly Wednesday Wines column on my website.
As you know, I always include stockist and retail pricing with all my write-ups not least because these musings are intended to move stock into wine lovers’ homes. But on this occasion, I had to include a link to r
Wise estates turn their red grapes into faster moving cashflow vehicles.egister your interest in owning these two wines.
These wines are rare examples of those that sell fast and you need to log your interest well in advance of their release in order to ensure you manage to secure some bottles. Not only are these two wines exemplary, but they are also clearly highly sought after, too.
So, rosé season is upon us and while English wineries pile sparkling wines high in their cellars for their costly slumber, wise estates turn their red grapes into faster moving cashflow vehicles. I tasted a few more rosés that I liked recently, too. But these barely made it to this page because I nearly walked out of the tasting before it started. I made my thoughts perfectly clear to the organisers who did their best to help, but it was a new low in my wine career, yes, even worse than the annual WineGB fiasco.
The source of my revulsion was not the room, which was fit to burst with people who appeared to be more interested in chatting than tasting. Nor was it the appalling lack of spittoons. A couple of wine writers and I were astounded to find that there were no tasting sheets. No lists of the wines on tasting, no vintages, cuvées, let alone pricing information or retailers. No websites, technical information or email addresses to make contact. Nothing. In the end, an organiser found me a pad of paper. I forced myself to continue and I found these wines.
I then had to start from scratch to research them, their prices, ingredients and all the rest of the information that you, dear reader, require. One of my wine writing pals gave up halfway, the other abandoned the whole fiasco. I cannot blame them. I just needed to turn two hours of travel into some form of use to myself and the wineries who stood there mortified at their surroundings and the pitiful lack of literature. I hope that other attendees managed to make something from this event. Otherwise, it was a complete waste of time, money and reputation for the organisers, the wineries and those who might have benefitted from a much slicker operation.
2023 Burnt House, Pinot Meunier Rosé, Suffolk
£19.00 www.burnthousevineyard.co.uk
It is relatively rare to find rosé wines made predominantly from Meunier. This one, made for Burnt House by Defined Wine, is a 94% Pinot Meunier, 6% Pinot Noir amalgam, which was 100% handpicked, steel-fermented, and it weighs in at a sprightly 11.5% alcohol.
Lean, clean, and pointy, this is a comparable wine to my dear Albury, with a similar silhouette and a slightly different flavour on account of the white pepper spice and quieter perfumes afforded by its variety.
The packaging is eye-catching, and for my part, I think a star is born. Aside from online sales, this wine is ideally suited to upmarket wine bars and restaurant ‘by the glass’ positioning. It is a crowd-pleaser with universal appeal, a decent story, a compelling grape and a futuristic outlook.
I wish Burnt House the very best with this wine. They were eager to impress at the tasting, and there was no need to worry because the wine did all of the talking.
2023 Giffords Hall Vineyard, Rosé, Suffolk
£13.95 www.giffordshall.co.uk
£14.50 www.waitrosecellar.com
I have a soft spot for Giffords Hall, and I have previously only written up red wines from this impressive setup. And I suspect that it is the red grape Rondo which does much of the heavy lifting in this wine because while it was only used in eye-dropper proportions, it stains this rosé with its glorious colour and also adds depth and lustre to the Madeleine Angevine chassis.
With its irresistible price tag, this delightful wine cuts a very different dash on the palate than the other three rosés mentioned this month. In a way, it is the least classic of the bunch, not least because it has a less strict and more billowy and succulent mid-palate on account of the Madeleine Angevine playing its traditional role as a generously framed white wine. Nevertheless, it sports a bright 11.5% alcohol and is nervy and refreshing on the finish.
I love the formal Gifford livery, which brings an air of nobility to this wine. For fourteen quid, it will see off oceans of feeble Provençal, High Street wines this summer with its professional stance and admirable depth of flavour.
2023 Winbirri Vineyard, Pinot Noir Rosé, Norfolk
£19.50 each, sold by the three-pack www.winbirri.com
If you have yet to come across this impressive winery’s wines, this is a good place to start. The entire portfolio of wines wears an indelible Winbirri signature that makes them uniquely impressive, allowing them to hang together as a well-drilled team instead of a disparate group of misfits.
The link between this wine, the Bacchus, the Solaris, the sparklers and the reds is the mouthfeel. A horrible expression, I know, but the depth of flavour and texture, in particular, of all of Lee Dyer’s wines is remarkable.
This 100% Pinot Noir rosé benefits from an 18-day stabulation period, seemingly drawing a hint more depth and chewiness from the Pinot lees intensity, increasing the mid-palate weight imperceptibly. This augmentation of perfume and flavour makes this rosé a bit more enticing and hedonistic on the nose and palate.
Methinks the grapes are a little riper at harvest, and with 12% alcohol, there is more traction and ‘foodiness’ apparent here. It’s all very clever stuff, making Winbirri Pinot Noir Rosé a different beast when it comes to entertaining, too. You can happily step up for all manner of main courses with this wine, and you cannot say that about many English rosés, can you?
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