Recently in The Australian James Halliday wrote that thirty years ago, rosé accounted for a small but significant part of Australian wine consumption. It then went into a prolonged, seemingly unending, period of sales decline.
It was not that the wine quality deteriorated; far from it. Then, and certainly today, Australia makes some of the very best rosé in the world. The only challenger is Navarre, in the north of Spain.
Now, quite suddenly, rosé is starting to gain recognition … read the rest of the article –>
Australia is ideally suited to producing and consuming a wine as refreshing as a rosé. We enjoy the perfect climate and have the ideal grape varieties, as well as a food culture to complement this style of wine.
The 2004 Turkey Flat Rosé is a fine example. It is a blend of Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Dolcetto. Each of these varieties adds its own personality to make this Turkey Flat’s most complex rosé yet. The colour is strawberry pink with a summer fruit flavours such as red cherries, raspberries and red currants, with herbal notes, fresh acidity and a slight spritz on the palate from naturally retained CO2.
The chilled Turkey Flat Rosé was a delightful accompaniment to a salad of baby spinach, oven roasted tomatoes and crisp prosciutto with a basil dressing … all served al fresco on a warm summer day.
A lower priced but certainly no lesser wine than the Turkey Flat is the Moondah Brook Cabernet Rosé from Western Australia. The 2004 rosé is made in the fruit driven Moondah Brook style with floral aromas of violets combined with juicy red fruits. This delivers a delicate and fresh wine with a good balance between crisp acid and residual sugar. This is a wine to drink chilled at any time.
There is also a rosé made from straight pinot noir which sounds very promising. I will report on that one after finding and tasting a bottle.
