Think pink and pick up a rose

THERE’S little point in trying to plan ahead with the weather so I just went for it and got a bottle of rose the other day.

Waiting to be sure it’ll be sunny is about as predictable as where the Protocol negotiations will go next.

The changeability is kind of annoying to be honest and a few weekends ago resulted in us sitting down to a roast beef dinner, with Yorkshire puds and all, while outside the sun was splitting the trees.

But even if you end up sitting indoors as it drizzles away outside, it’s generally warm enough at the minute to enjoy a wee bottle of sunshine.

I’m yet to be convinced about spending too much on rose. It’s easy drinking with strawberry and buttery pastry flavours on the go and a bit of balancing acidity so it’s not cloying.

The beauty of rose, especially with these increasingly frugal times, is that there’s loads out there for under a tenner.

This last few years, there’s been a tilt towards that delicate, salmon pink hue in the wine and a food

friendly crispness. Good gear if you are brave enough to wheel out the barbecue.

You mightn’t think rose if there’s burgers on the grill, but to be honest if you don’t fancy red then some of the muscular roses will stand up to strong flavours perfectly well. I think there’s a certain meatiness, a savoury essence to some decent roses, but obviously there’s hardly any tannin. When you make rose, there’s limited contact with the

skins of the red grapes, usually a day or two just and not enough to extract much tannin.

But, there’s body there with the better ones that makes them fit for big, bold food that’s been nuked over coals or gas.

Look to Provence for the beautiful tall slim bottles that are one of the signatures of the rose from this part of the world. Imagine that juicy blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre nicely chilled as you nibble at some olives.

This is the joy of rose.

But the south of France doesn’t have the monopoly on decent pink wines with Portugal (Porta 6 being a fav in our house) and Spain offering plenty of options as well as the New World. New Zealand does some lovely ones, The Ned springing to mind.

You mightn’t think rose if there’s burgers on the grill