Saint Roch les Vignes Côtes de Provence Rosé 2009, France (£6.99 Majestic) Honest and tasty, quite deeply coloured rosé with rich, slightly jammy plummy berry flesh, quite full but just a touch simple. B-
Château Coussin Sainte Victoire Côtes de Provence Rosé 2009, France (£13.99 Oddbins) More subtle and crisper, finer-boned, with touches of citrus to the light raspberry flavours, and a fragrant minerally finish. S-
Château Méaume Bordeaux Rosé 2008, France (£6.99 Majestic) Bit of an oddball, with quite weighty, intense juicy plum and strawberry flesh set against an earthy, green leafiness. Will work for some, but not for everyone. B(+)
Yali Wetland Merlot Rosé 2009, Colchagua Valley (£6.49 Majestic – £4.79 until Aug 31st 2010) Shows the plumper, plummier edge of Merlot, off-dry and slightly bland. C
Mas Belles Eaux Rosé 2009, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France (£8.99 Ocado) Lovely fresh rosé, with quite intense but sappy flavours of apples, citrus, plums and raspberries, with a clean minerally finish. S-
Santiago Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé 2008, Valle Central, Chile (£8.90 QP Wines) There’s an OK note of sappy berry, but not much else – could be fresher too. 0
Zalze Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz Rosé 2009, Coastal Origin, South Africa (£6.49 Waitrose) Honest and juicy, with fleshy red berry but finishes just a bit bland – feels as if it was picked too ripe and had to be acidified that bit too much. C+
For anyone in London looking to find out what was hot and what was not in southern France in the 1990s, the place to head was down Old Brompton Road to La Vigneronne. Liz & Mike Berry’s poky little shop excelled in other French regions, and stocked some of the top names of California and Australia long before many others, but it was vast range of top wines of Provence, Langeudoc Roussillon and South West France that marked them out as different.
It’s been some years now since the two sold the shop (it’s now Handford – still worth a visit but not quite as eclectic as La Vig) and moved to Provence. They found a vineyard and olive grove, and now produce their own oil and wine, but they also carried on offering much of the range found in the shop by mail order. However the lure of retail has enticed them to set up shop again in the town of St Martin de Crau. There are several familiar faces on the shelves from the La Vigneronne days, but there are also some of those discoveries that you can only find by being close to the action. If you’re in southern France this summer, Vin Fins de la Crau lies roughly half-way between Marseilles and Montpellier. And if you’re not, the range is still available through mail order – click here for the first newsletter from the new operation.
It’s been a lovely morning, and I’m just resting after lunch with a glass of Château Pontet Bagatelle La Rosée de Bagatelle 2008, Coteaux d’Aix en Provence (£9.99 from Great Northern Wine). Provence rose can be something of an overpriced disappointment, but this one, with its floral peach melba flavours and hint of pine is really tasty stuff. And I’m sipping it while listening to Johnny Clegg, a move prompted this morning by a shopping trip to Rochdale. I have to confess that Rochdale isn’t one of the UK’s beauty spots, although I’ve heard (not sure where) that the town hall was one of Hitler’s favourite buildings, and that as a result, the town was never bombed in the war.
Rochdale is the birthplace of a number of famous folk – stars such as, er, Gracie Fields, Anna Friel and Bill Oddie. And also Johnny Clegg, aka Le Zoulou Blanc, a man whose music provided both soundtrack and inspisation for the last years of the apartheid era in South Africa. He was never big in the UK, unlike In France where at the hieght of his popularity in 1988, Michael Jackson was forced to cancel a show in Lyon as it clashed with a gig by Johnny as his band Savuka. I’ve been mourning the passing of the late great Jacko by listening to several of his most infectious tracks, but today, prompted by my foray to the birthplace of The Co-op, I’m dosing up on Johnny Clegg. If you’ve never listened to him, two of the best songs are Impi…
