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).