Vive le Revolutione Rose

It has started … and I am a bit excited. Vive le Revolutione Rose!

I am a fan of rose, dry, savoury, fruit driven rose that is not full of sugar.

Just a few days ago I joined a bunch of fabulous looking folk at the always lovely Madame Brussels in Melbourne to sample some offerings of some of the best dry, savoury rose’s from around Australia, and a few international offerings to boot.

There were some great brackets to taste and comment on and the tweets were flying wildly around the country.

I managed to bump into Dan Sims from The Wine Guide as he was warming up the palate in a suitably dusty rose tee.

A couple of my favourites were:

BK Wines 2011 Rose from the Adelaide Hills – very much in the southern French style, a dry savoury rose with spice and musk on the nose with a nutmeg and plummy palate. Delicious summer drinking this one… third from the right in the image.

Foster e Rocco’s 2011 Heathcote Rose is a ripper. A finely textured wine with a fragrant nose and dry, crisp refreshing finish. This is something I can drink a lot of. Sits second from the right in the above image.

Chateau de Sours 2010 Bordeaux Rose is made from merlot and cabernet franc, which would explain the capsicum, almost peppery taste on the palate. Bright and fresh in style with the sugar balanced by some fine acids, the capsicum and red berry notes are right there to the end. More good summer drinking. Third from the left in this image…

Finally, from the De Bortoli label is La Boheme Act II, 2011 from the Yarra Valley. The Rose Revolution was started and driven by Leanne de Bortoli to move focus to dry, savoury and almost French style roses, rather than some of the sweeter, sugary wines that were being consumed. These wines are excellent food matches for summer and this is no exception – savoury, pale and a light salmon pink in colour, this wine is well textured, and has an almost flinty finish which I love… not too much residual sugar makes this a terrific food wine, or drink it all by its lonesome.

It was a terrific afternoon of tasting – such a shame I couldnt be there for some more… there were a great many characters at the tasting, all enjoying themselves and having a grand time with tasting roses, making new friendships and renewing older ones.

It is events like this that bring us together as a community and its such a wonderful community to be a part of.

There were many in rose pink glasses, and this handsome fella was one of them.

Fine wine and conviviality are the cornerstones of a good time and I am so pleased to have enjoyed an afternoon of it.. Vive le Revolutione indeed.