Spring is here, daylight savings is next week and it’s new release time - this is the perfect trifecta of to talk once again about my beloved rosé, to be honest last year I thought it had reached full saturation, but I could not have been more wrong. More people than ever are making Rosés and there are so remarkable ones around. I think someone needs to do a rosé festival - like Pinot Palooza but just rosé - what could we call it? Rosé All Day? Yes Way Rosé? Rosé Revolution? Rosé-A-Rific?. Anyway, I digress.
One of the myths about rosé I want to address is the fact that a lot of people seem to think that the darker the rosé, the sweeter it is, and that’s just not true. The depth of colour of the wine comes about by leaving the wine longer “on skins”, before pressing the juice away that determines the colour so just because it’s darker in colour doesn’t mean it’s sweeter. So much like in life you should not judge a book by it’s cover or a rosé by it’s colour.
2018 is the second rosé release for Master of Ceremonies and frankly last year they smashed it, at the time of going to air I didn’t know what the grapes for this rosé were but I guessed it would most likely be blend (I found out later it is indeed a blend of Pinot Gris & Merlot) the grapes are from Gisborne but the wine is made in the Hawkes Bay. The reason this wine is called MC is that the team reckon that after a few wines - everyone becomes the MC, I love a wine with a sense of humour. MC are the serious cool kids of wine - they did a collab with Stolen Girlfriends last year of a limited edition sparkling rosé last year which was so in demand it barely hit shelves before it was sold out. Rumour has it that they are doing another cool collab this year so can’t wait to see that. So they’re cool, they’re bad ass marketers, but what does the juice taste like? In a word - delicious, it’s the crisp, dry Provençal style rosé that makes me pour glass after glass from the beautifully screenprinted bottle. An absolute home run and a bargain at $20
The amount of anticipation I had over the Two Rivers “Isle of Beauty” rosé was remarkable, in fact the 2017 release of this wine was the wine that I loved so much it inspired me to go to Corisca, The original Isle of Beauty in the mediterranean. No pressure and then I learned that this year winemarker Dave Clouson had changed the grapes from last year I was really worried it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. Last year’s wine was a Pinot Noir rosé but this year it’s Pinot Noir, Syrah, Viognier, Pinot Gris, Riesling and Roussanne - woah! Quite the change but if anything this year is even better, light, dry and medium bodied with remarkable mouth feel and texture. This Marlborough beauty is available for only $24
My final pick is one that although lighter in colour isn’t at at all sweet, the Matawhero “First Sun” Single Vineyard rosé from Gisborne is made entirely from Merlot from the same vineyard and celebrates the fact that Gizzy is the first place in the world to see the sun. Matawhero is a boutique winery that punches way above it’s weight and this wine is no exception, It’s fantastically berry forward oozing strawberries & raspberries with a lovely creamy mouthfeel and available for $24.
Click the link below to hear my chat with the lovely Carly Flynn about these amazing rosés.