CVNE Rioja Rosado 2007 - Spanish Winner

Spain finally threw off their 'perennial underachiever' tag and won Euro 2008. We settled down to the final with a bottle of rose - the Germans play in white, the Spanish in red, it seemed like a reasonable compromise, or at least it might have been if it wasn't from Rioja. Like most of Europe I wanted Spain to win. They play nicer football and frankly, it was their turn!

A truth I hold to be self evident is that all Rioja is good, particularly CUNE, regardless of colour. Their 2007 Rosado doesn't disappoint. It's a beautiful shade of pink and it tastes of raspberries and strawberries with a zip of lemon and just a hint of grassiness. It's a whole summer picnic in a glass!

Majestic currently offer ��2 off if you buy two bottles making it a ��5.50 bargain. Stock up now and enjoy your summer.

Tickled Pink By Wimbledon

Wimbledon is upon us. A chance to eat strawberries and cream whilst sitting in the rain listening to Cliff Richard, should you require one.

What better way to kick off the week than with an English wine. Welland Valley Wines produce the delightfully named 'Tickled Pink', a sparkling pink wine. It's a delicate rose pink, with a fine, enthusiastic mousse. It smells of strawberries and lemons. It tastes of strawberries too along with zippy redcurrants.

England's sparkling wines are proving to be a real success, and this is a good example. Unfortunately Welland Valley produces all of its wines on two acres of Leicestershire countryside. That's just a big back yard or outsized allotment. If you want some Tickled Pink - tough luck - it's sold out. Put an order in now for the next release, expect to pay around ��20.

Celebrating With Turkey - Turkish Wine

The European Championships have been a joy to watch. With no home teams to get excited or disappointed about I've been able to relax and really enjoy the football.

Turkey has been a big surprise this year. They haven't gone out to win, but they seem to have done so consistently with almost comedic last minute heroics. I certainly didn't think at the start of the Championships that I'd be rooting for a Turkey v Russia final.

The Turks have been making wine for an awful long time, probably longer than upstarts like Spain and Italy (who meet in a quarter final tonight), but despite producing most of Europe's table grapes, they haven't really exported their wine with any great success. If the controversial plan for Turkey to join the EU goes ahead it will be interesting to see how the wine market develops, but in a country that's strugging between wanting a secular European future, and an Islamist state, wine could go either way.

I tried some Turkish wine at the LIWSF this year. They had quite a showing with many wineries looking for representation in the UK. It seems that whilst Turkish wine is available in Turkish restaurants and some specialist food stores, it's largely imported on a personal level with no distribution deal in place.

My favourite out of a quick guided tasting tour of the stand was Buyulubag winery's Adakaras�� - Cabernet Sauvignon Rose. It was a vibrant pink and oozed summery flavours of cherry blossom and raspberries, with a palate clearing zing of redcurrants.

I'd buy it tpo celebrate with Turkey if I could, but until there is a distribution deal in place I'll just have to look out for licenced Turkish restaurants.

Gallo Rose On The Rocks

The big wine trend for this summer looks to be Rose on the Rocks. Stormhoek launched a pretty little bottle last year, but this summer Gallo are going further. They're pushing giant wine glasses filled with ice for either their White Zinfandel or White Grenache.

Expect your local publican to be stocking up on ice. You can stock up too. Gallo are selling supermarket packs including the giant wine glass, White Zin and a rubber ice tray that allows you to have the letters 'ROSE ON ROCKS' frozen into your drink.

Cider manufacturers will be quaking in their wellies.

The end of pink

T-Mobile are the latest corporate sponsor to pull out of professional cycling citing . We'll miss them. T-Mobile's bright pink shirts have been a cheery splash of colour in the peloton for years.

To bid them farewell here's the last pink wine of the year, a Cune Rioja Rosado 2006. It's not quite T-mobile, but it is a bright and cheerful candy pink. It smells of strawberries and a little of raspberries and a lot of summer. Just off dry it has a refreshing acidity, as a good balance to the sweet fruit, like lemon curd and strawberries. It has a satisfyingly full body for a rose, boosted by a hefty 13.5% alcohol.

I'll miss the T-Mobile pink next summer, but look forward to enjoying rosado's again next season.

Think Pink

It was GCSE results week in England, and the girls whose results I was waiting on did better than they expected so what better reason is there to crack open a bottle of pink wine (not just for the children - drink responsibly folks).

We had a Ch��teau M��aume Ros�� 2005 from Bordeaux. It was pleasant enough, but there's better out there for ��7. If I wasa merlot grape growing up in Bordeaux I think I'd probably have my sights set on being in a big wine. If I couldn't be in a big name growth, growing old gracefully in a cellar, popping out to Christie's every now and then, I'd at least like to be enjoyed with Sunday dinner.

I think if I found myself in a ros�� I'd suspect I had wasted my potential. There's nothing wrong with being a ros��, ros��s bring joy to people worldwide, summer just couldn't happen without a supply of ros��, but maybe Bordeaux isn't the place to make them.

Back in the pink?

Vive Le Tour! The Tour is not covering itself in glory at the moment and last night's prediction that Rasmussen wouldn't make it to Paris came true rather quicker than I thought. My satellite box blew up in protest so I can't watch any cycling until the weekend. Maybe it's just as well.

Daniele Bennati won today in the delightfully camp blue and pink Lampre kit, so I decided to celebrate with delightfully pink wine, a Spanish one to celebrate the new yellow jersey.

It's cheerfully pink, and smells of strawberries, raspberries, cherry blossom and vanilla, which would be perfect if it was summer here. It's dry with a crisp acidity and just a touch of soft tannin. It's light and fruity and 12% alcohol ,eans it's perfect for a sunny lunchtime. At around ��4 it's a good value pink wine, with far more chacter than your average 'blush'.

Lazing on a sunny afternoon

I’m clearly on a cheesy 1970’s bottle trip at the moment, as I had a Roquemartin Cotes de Provence 2005 Rose this weekend in a curious Lollobrigida style bottle. It was a medium orangey pink with an aroma of strawberries and cream which felt distinctly summery.

It’s dry and light bodies, and the strawberry flavour carries through, along with a little orange peel. It’s very much a product of Provence, made from a hodge-podge of grape varieties and at 12% alcohol it’s perfect for a picnic except it doesn’t come with a screwcap.

Pay less than a fiver for an instant reminder of holidays in the South of France.

Happy Days

Mateus Rose is now available in snack sized bottles. I had some at the weekend, and it took me back in time and space to 1980's Bournemouth, where Sam's mini-mart sold bottles cheap and we drank them quick. We used the empty bottles as candlestick holders, light fittings, book ends, and door stops.

It was a cheery pink, as I remembered it. It smelled of bubblegum and candy floss. It's medium sweet, with a lively prickle of bubbles, which kinda compensates for the lack of acidity. It's fruity, if a little dilute. At 11% alcohol it's light in modern terms. Chilled to within an inch of it's life it's still a fun wine, perfect for picnics and girly chats. It's cheap enough to tie a string around and throw in the river to keep cool without worrying about losing it.

I'd describe Mateus Rose as the perfect summer wine for innocent fun, but it's reported to have been Saddam Hussein's favourite wine. There's something oddly disturbing about that.

McWine - Sutter Home

Wine is good. I hold this truth to be self evident, but now and again, my belief system is shaken. I had a Sutter Home 2005 White Zinfandel.

It's pink, very pink, a sort of small girl's favourite bubble bath pink. It doesn't smell of a great deal, a little like strawberry flavouring, the sort you might add to cheap children's sweets. So far so good - if you're 12.

It's medium sweet, with quite a high acidity and little tannin. It's light in body and flavour. it tastes a little like the punnet over-ripe strawberries came in, not the strawberries themselves though. It has quite a synthetic feel and taste.

If McDonalds offered wine with their Happy Meals, I suspect this would be the one they'd choose to go with the Barbie toy. Sutter Home ship 4,000,000 cases of this a year. That's 48,000,000 bottles. One theoretically for every MySpace user worldwide. One for every American who used a treadmill last year. One for every man woman and child in the Ukraine. One for every £1 in John Charman's divorce. One for every blog in the world. I admit, I had one bottle. Once. It's probably not an experience I'd repeat voluntarily.

It is cheap, at under £5 a bottle, but there's cheaper booze out there, particularly at 9.5% alcohol. It seems bizarre that this wine would be worth transporting half way around the world to the UK, but that's what happened. I think I'll object to it on environmental grounds.

Think Pink - Jacob's Creek

I’ve been a bit down lately, with a few bits of glum news topped off with a cold. When I gained my ability to smell back I opted for something to cheer me up – pink fizz. Jacob’s Creek’s bottle fermented Sparkling Rose is enough to ‘give the kids a treat’ without breaking the bank.

It’ cheerfully pink without being bubble-gum like. The bubbles are attractively small and persistent. It smells pink! There’s strawberries, raspberries and lemons. It could be a meringue.

The bubbles feel full and creamy in the mouth, and the fruity flavour carries through with redcurrants too. With a medium level of alcohol at 11.5% you can sip away without falling over.

This is a fun wine, and at about £8 it’s good value. I picked this bottle up on special offer at £6, making it great value. Cheap and makes me cheerful!

Ay Paella

I love pink wine with paella. This week I had a Marques de Caceres 2005 Rioja Rosada, made from Tempranillo and Garnacha.

It’s exuberantly pink, bringing cheer on even the glummest days. It smells clean and with quite a hit of redcurrants and raspberries along with a lightly floral aroma.

It’s dry with a medium acidity, making it far more suited to food than California’s pinkies. There’s a touch of tannin which gives it a bit of body, and 13.5% alcohol boosts that. The fruitiness carries through with more fresh berry flavours.

At around £7 it makes for a great wine with food, and the screwcap just begs to be taken out on picnics in the summertime.

Pinky

It’s not really rose weather out there, but I was in the mood for something pink and frivolous this weekend. I had an Andrew Peace 2006 ‘Masterpeace’ Shiraz Sangiovese Rose from South Eastern Australia.

It’s a cheery pink with reasonable legs. It smells fruity with a slightly chemical, confectionary edge. It’s off dry with some acidity and little tannin. It tastes of redcurrants, raspberries and a little of strawberries, and quite a bit of cheap pick and mix sweets.

Shiraz and Sangiovese isn’t a classic blend, and this hasn’t inspired me to think it’s one that should be repeated regularly. It’s fine, it’s fun, but it’s not a favourite.

Spam Jam

I had a Rhone rose this week. I was in the mood for something pink and fruity so picked a reasonably priced one. It was certainly pink, with just a hint of orange lurking within. It smelled clean but not as fresh as I’d hope from a 2005. There was a hit of strawberries with some minerality.

It was dry, with a balanced acidity and a hint of tannin. It tasted of strawberry jam, the cheap no-label kind and strangely, Spam. Grilled Spam. It’s been a couple of decades since I’ve eaten grilled Spam, but this wine took me straight back to the school lunch line. I’m not certain that was intentional, I am certain it’s not a good thing.

This was quite one of the oddest wines I’d drunk in a while, and £6 I’ll never see again.

Rickety, bonkers, but fun

I spotted a wine in a Spar shop attached to a petrol station, admittedly not normally my first choice wine merchant, but it was Champteloup Rose 2004 from the Loire valley. We’d cycled to Chanteloup, taking a reasonable detour from the river, on the way from Chambord to Tours. It’s a French folly, a Chinese pagoda in what was the grounds of a grand chateau, although the house has long since been demolished. The pagoda itself is held up with hope and would have a risk assessor in tears, but it’s fun.
OK so Champteloup isn’t Chanteloup, but it’s close enough and at £3.99, I suspected it was a reasonable attempt at passing-off.

The bottle is slightly fatter than normal, an aspect which I suspect doesn’t endear it to supermarket shelf planners. It has a screwcap, making it party and picnic friendly.

It’s a cheery pink, like the mouthwash at my dentists. It smells of boiled sweets in ‘red’ flavour – a strawberry, raspberry, chemistry-set mix. It’s off dry with more than enough acidity to neutralise a jellyfish sting. It’s light and lively with a slight prickle on the tongue. At 11% alcohol it’s easy drinking, but wouldn’t hold up well to food.

I enjoyed my Champteloup, it tasted like the cheap and cheerful wine that comes free with the plat du jour all along the Loire. It’s not a great wine, and without the association, it’s not even a good one, but I enjoyed it because wine is so much more than a score.

Stockman’s Pink Post

We spent the weekend sitting outside, barbequing, splashing around in the pool and slowly turning pink. Factor 40 sunscreen did a great job in protecting me from the sun, but not the biting insects.

On a hot day pink wines are perfect and we had some Nxg Stockman’s Post 2005 Shiraz Rose from Tesco. Next Generation Wines are doing a fine job in shipping lots of good wine out of Australia and Tesco are doing their best to help.

It’s clear, bright and a lively pink, almost the colour of the inside of a strawberry. It smells fresh, fruity and slightly sweet, although it tastes off dry. There’s plenty of acidity which can be lacking in some New World rose. The fruit really comes to life with lots of fresh summer berries. Raspberries and raspberry leaves dominate a summer pudding of fruitiness.

At under £4 a bottle and with a handy screw cap this is an excellent choice for summer picnicking and informal outdoor eating.

Winning the Tour

You could be thinking that it’s been a bad week for British sport. The footballers are out, the cricketers are appalling, and even the tennis players are history, but there is something to celebrate.

You may not have noticed but Nicole Cooke won the women’s Tour de France this weekend. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I haven’t been able to track down a Welsh wine locally. I opted instead for making a meal with Pasta Zara, Nicole’s old sponsor, and matching it with a Spanish Rioja Rosada. I cycled through Rioja in 2003, somewhat slower than Nicole might, although she doesn't have to carry all her own kit.

Muga’s Rosada 2005 is made from a blend on red and white grapes - 60% Garnacha 30% Viura and 10% Tempranillo.

It’s clear and bright with a pale and interesting salmon colour. It smells fresh and clean with plenty of fruit, balanced with some warm vanilla.

It’s off dry with wonderfully crisp acidity. There’s a touch of tannin, which adds a bit of beef which is often lacking in roses. It has quite a bit of body with warm spicy fruit and vanilla. There’s apples and lemons and, well, a bit of Del Monte fruit salad pots, which is a surprisingly good thing.

At 13.5% it’s perhaps a bit stronger than you’d expect for such perfect summer picnic wine, but Nicole Cooke is clearly a lot stronger than you’d expect too.

Go Nicole!

If Bradley or David win the men’s race I’m willing to take suggestions for what I should drink.

England in the pink

England take on Portugal tomorrow and I’m keeping up my patriotic duty with another English wine. This time it’s Biddenden’s Gribble Bridge Rose 2004. It’s made in a tiny town in Kent in what is claimed to be England’s oldest privately owned commercial vineyard. That’s about a great a claim as being England’s oldest un-injured striker, but it works for them.

Of their 22 acres only one row of vines is Pinot Noir, so I was quite surprised that they had a Rose, but this is a blend of Ortega and Pinot Noir.

The wine is a bright, clear and positively exhuberant pink. It’s really visually attractive. It smells clean and fresh with lemon and the tiniest drop of strawberry, although the colour amplifies it.

It’s dry with a refreshingly crisp acidity. The wine feels light and fresh and benefits from being served cool, but not ice cold. It’s lemony and the strawberry doesn’t carry through.

Gribble Bridge Rose is fresh and refreshing, and a good example of Kentish wine. It is over priced at around £6.50 a bottle, you can certainly get better Rose’s from the New World for a fiver, but if you want to try an English wine, this is a good one to try. If you find yourself in the neighbourhood stop in for a bottle, or try Budgens who distribute on a limited basis.

California in the pink

USA start their World Cup campaign, and as it looks like they may be finishing it after two more games they are today’s wine choice.

Echo Falls has come from nowhere to be on of the UK’s top 10 wine brands by sales volume. Last year they sold us over £40m, and they’re growing at over 50% year on year. White Zinfandel is a typically American wine, so I gave the 2005 a try.

It’s clear and bright and exudes pinkness. None of your salmon or delicate rose here we’re taking pink and proud of it, making it a very pretty drink. It smells of strawberry jelly and Haribos. So far, if it was alcohol free this would be the perfect beverage for an eight year old girl’s birthday party.

The taste takes me straight to summer afternoons in the States. It’s medium sweet with enough acidity to carry it off. It’s light in body but has plenty of fruit – strawberries dominate with raspberries and redcurrants, but still that hint of gummy candy. It’s quite a nice hint really.

It’s 10.5% alcohol, so quite light by Californian standards, making it relatively easy afternoon or barbeque drinking. This wine isn’t designed for keeping. It needs drinking before the autumn really, and is at its best served very cold.

Echo Falls isn’t expensively produced, but it is carefully made to retain a high level of fresh fruitiness. It was much better than I expected, and for around £4.50 a bottle it’s good value. Echo Falls does have some big deals with supermarkets so you can find it on offer occasionally even cheaper.