A rosé that tastes as good as it looks

2017 Barone Ricasoli Made from sangiovese and merlot, this wine looks as ravishing as it tastes.

Matthew Jukes
By
published
in Features

895_MW_P46_Wine

2017 Barone Ricasoli, Albia Ros, Tuscany, Italy£13.49, Flagship Wines, 01727-865309; £12.99, Grape & Grain, 01444-456217

The Ricasoli family, from the Castello di Brolio in Gaiole in the heart of Tuscany, has been immersed in the wine tradesince 1141. Their family tree, reproduced in a print from 1584, is one of the first images of the Chianti region, and the family exported their wines from the late 1600s to both Amsterdam and England.

In 1872 Baron Bettino Ricasoli came up with the blueprint for Chianti wine, now called Chianti Classico. I have known the current baron, Francesco, since he took up the reins at this historic estate back in 1993. Highly influential in the region, with 235 hectares of vineyards and 26 hectares of olive groves, Francesco has elevated his wines to the top of the tree.

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Not content with sitting on his laurels, the baron is an innovative chap, too, and his most recent success is in the unlikely field of ros. The elite ros market is, of course, presently dominated by Provence, but Francesco's newly released 2017 vintage is a staggeringly serious wine. It is also priced beneath that of all of the French big names.

Made from sangiovese and merlot and looking as ravishing as it tastes, this is a wine that unites history, acumen and a burning desire to impress. You would be very well advised to slake your thirst with this beauty. Stupefacente.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (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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