I’ve been writing this column almost every week for over two years now and I think only once before have I written a negative article about a wine. But as they say, life is too short to drink bad wine, and I think this is especially true when it is expensive!
Costing around €20 (I found it in Apolónia) and with its pale pink colour and swanky label, I was hoping this would be a great Portuguese rosé. After all, the producer Monte da Ravasqueira, makes some decent wines in the lower price range, and I gave a positive review to their Sauvignon Blanc and mainstream rosé earlier this year, both priced at around €6.
I had held back from writing this article, because my own dislike of unnecessary and excessive oaking could be considered subjective. But then a good friend, who I consider to be something of a wine expert, made a point of telling me how he had bought an awful bottle of overpriced rosé and it soon transpired we had both made the same mistake.
What we have here is a feeble attempt to cash in on the current trend of pale rosés “a la Provence” in the mid- to high-end price range. The rather flat and boring base wine, had it not been oaked, may have been worth drinking, as there are some delicate fruit and floral notes just about distinguishable through a pungent waft of vanilla that brings back haunting memories of cheap Australian Chardonnay. Oh dear, oh dear…
By PATRICK STUART [email protected]
