Wine of the week: a scrummy, cocktail-like rosé

2011 Domaine de Millet Ros, Ctes de Gascogne, France (£8.95, Yapp Brothers, 01747-860423, www.yapp.co.uk).

My wine recommendation this week is half tasting note and half ground-breaking science! Let's start with science. There is a little-known grape in France called egiodola it is a cross between fer servadou and abouriou (themselves not exactly everyday propositions). Pierre-Marcel Durquety came up with them in 1954. There are only 300 hectares planted and Millet presumably has a fair tranche.

L'egiodola, in Basque, means pure blood', which, bearing in mind the colour of this wine, is not far wrong. This beautiful, plump, red cherry, cocktail-like ros is made from 80% egiodola and 20% cabernet franc. It is rich enough to go with decent barbecue fare. Being also bone dry, if you wanted to glug it as an aperitif, no one would complain. It looks a very smart choice indeed and the price tag is competitive.

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All in all, there is a lot going for this wine. For me, the label and hypnotic aroma, food matching acumen and scrummy flavour are only really useful once you have memorised the science. That way you can impress your pals and give this wine an added dimension of wine trivia intrigue.

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

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

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

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.