Wine of the week: a disarmingly butch rosé for Christmas

This complex and challenging rosé is a near-perfect culinary match for turkey or goose, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
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2009 Chteau de Sgris Ros, Tavel, Southern Rhne, France (£11.99, until 4 January, Laithwaites Wine, 0845-194 7700, www.laithwaites.co.uk ).

I suppose that you're thinking that I have already been inexplicably affected by the forthcoming 'silly season'? Not a bit of it, because there are several very good reasons why I have suggested a ros in the middle of November.

There are many people who drink and adore ros all year round, so this is for you, you beautiful, sensitive beings. But within this refreshingly illuminated subset of humanity dwells a very clever, palate-aware group of connoisseurs.

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Join them, because this spectacular blend of 50% grenache, 30% cinsault, 10% clairette and 10% syrah is the most complex and challenging ros I have tasted this year. It is disarmingly butch, bearing in mind its pale colour, and with turkey or goose it is a near perfect culinary match (so bear it in mind for Christmas).

It is a red wine in all but colour and the refreshing finish. So use it strategically with spicy, Indian nibbles (those M&S reheats are a guilty pleasure of mine), Malaysian prawn curries and slippery, glutinous dim sum. Present this wine with any tricky dish and it performs at the highest level imaginable that's why it is on this page today.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year ( www.matthewjukes.com ).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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