Muga Rosado: The Rosé for People Who Don't Like Rosé

Photo: Isaac Wedin (CCL)

- By Andrew Slowe

Following on from Freddy’s excellent suggestion for summer I thought I’d introduce another much maligned wine style that is great for the BBQ’s, beaches and cooling sunburn – rosé.

Now we all know you can get a bottle of ‘Blossom Hill White Zinfandel’ for £7 in Tesco (other monopoles are available) and you can pay way over the odds for ‘Pinot Blush’ in your favourite pub with a garden (other recreational drinking establishments are available are never going to be as good). Both of these offer a refreshing tipple with so much residual sugar you might as well be drinking Sunny D (other oran… you get the picture). And these conglomerates need no more help stealing from unsuspecting teenage girls and ladies-that-lunch too much.

What I am here to extol are the virtues of a kindly, humble and well established Spanish wine producer who -through their excellent Rioja’s - have become a household name for many wine fans. Muga produce a fabulous ‘Rosado’. It’s gorgeously pink, nearly salmon, not quite pale, and for that has some depth. The aromas are forward not overbearing and show gorgeous green apple, pineapple and touches of citrus. The palette is clean and fresh, which is an expected characteristic of rosé wine but is mostly misinterpreted for an imbalance (too much) of acidity and sweetness.

This, however, shows poise, and is balanced perfectly. It also has a longer finish than I was expecting which remains clean but develops the apple, peach and cherry flavours without ever feeling jammy or cloying adding notes of white blossom and spice.

This is a rosé for the naysayers, the wine lovers who (I’m ashamed to say I’m included in this bunch) thought the largest part of rosé wine began and ended with White Zinfandel and wasn’t fit to feed your mother-in-law. To be honest, there is still a lot of garbage out there masquerading as ‘quality’ or ‘value’ or ‘nice’, but these are generally mutually exclusive. And whilst this could be said for many styles of wine, I think Beaujolais and Rosé’s reputation has stumbled over recent years, but a resurgence is in the midst.

So Sam has convinced us to prop up the Brangelina Dynasty with his piece on the Miraval Rosé. Freddy swears that Beaujolais is good for something. So why not try a ‘great value, excellent quality, light, zippy, fresh and tasty’ example of this summer pink available from The Wine Society for a frankly silly £8.50 (or, if you're not a member, then from Majestic for £10.99/£9.34 if you buy two). That is a serious amount of wine for your money.

Enjoy! This weekend probably.