The ultimate guide to rosé: CLAUDIA CONNELL reveals the cheap pink wines that are just as good as the top brands - and what your choice says about you
When the sun starts to shine, out comes the pink wine! For years wine snobs were appalled by the idea of rosé wine, viewing it as strictly for naff, nouveau summer sippers.
But now the famous ‘lady’s drink’ accounts for 11 per cent of UK sales, with Britons sinking 2.6million bottles every year.
Whether you like it dry and expensive or fruity and flirty, here’s what your rosé wine choice reveals about you...
Rolls-Royce of Rosé
Whispering Angel (£22.50, waitrosecellar.com)
Reassuringly expensive (to nick another booze company’s slogan).
The Rolls-Royce of rosé, it’s dry, refreshing – and dangerously drinkable. This beauty got many a frazzled, middle-class, Boden-wearing mum through lockdown, including singer Adele, who said it turned her into a ‘barking dog’ (possibly not the endorsement the brand was hoping for).
Bought at Waitrose, which offers 25 per cent off when you buy six bottles, fans like to drink their ‘Angel’ on the garden decking with friends while their husbands play a round of golf. Add a selection of ‘picky bits’ from M&S and you’re good to go. Bliss!
Cheap and cheerful
Chassaux et Fils Saint Victoire Provence (£10.99, in store at Aldi)
For those who think Whispering Angel is overpriced and overhyped, you can’t go wrong with this devilishly delicious alternative, which many say tastes just as good.
Made famous by users of parenting website Mumsnet, there’s such a rush on this rosé in the summer that it nearly always sells out – just don’t try to pronounce the name once you’re three glasses in. The best accompaniment? A bowl of Stackz (Aldi’s cheap ‘n’ cheerful version of Pringles).
Fruitful gossiping
The Pale (£16.50, fenwick.co.uk)
Comes with subtle hints of peach and grapefruit – and a very unsubtle smug factor. Made by the same people behind Whispering Angel, it’s cheaper and carries kudos.
Tell your friends you’ve been hooked since you first drank it in the BA Club lounge – they don’t need to know you got a voucher thanks to your Tesco Clubcard.
Take it to your next book club meeting, along with your homemade guac, salsa and tortilla crisps. Have you read the book? As if! You only go to get the gossip on your friend Cathy’s Italian toy boy.
Barbie-pink bubbles
Kylie Minogue Rosé (£9.25, sainsburys.co.uk)
Celebrating the fifth anniversary of her brand last week, the Aussie pop princess has sold more than 20million bottles of wine. Most were probably bought by midlifer fans hoping to look as good as she does (they should be so lucky) at 57. Grapes count as one of your five a day, right?
It’s affordable and a great wine to ‘preload’ with while listening to Kylie’s Greatest Hits before heading out for a girl’s night.
For special occasions, it’s worth paying the extra £4 for her rosé prosecco. Barbie-pink bubbles, what’s not to love?
Soho House chic
Lady A Provence (£17.50, ocado.com)
So you can’t afford Soho House’s £1,000 membership fee, but you can knock back some of its finest vino. Who needs cliquey club houses full of boring tech bros anyway?
This gorgeous bottle with its butterfly logo looks great in an American-style fridge, ready to whip out at one of your famous grazing platter lunches.
Selfie sustenance
Ghost by Lady A (£27, drinkladya.com)
Think Lady A’s so last year? This year, Soho House has teamed up with influencer Lorna Luxe to create Ghost.
The wine is named not after the terrifying speed at which you can glug it, but after her ultra-modern ‘ghost house’ in Warwickshire, so called because it’s barely visible from ground level. Best drunk at Soho Farmhouse, in between trying to catch a glimpse of the Beckhams and filtering your selfies.
Drinkable drama
Chateau Miraval (£32.99, selfridges.com)
Product of the French vineyard owned by the once married Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The divorced couple are embroiled in a legal dispute over the sale of the vineyard, dubbed the ‘War of the Rosé’.
Despite eight years of wrangling, it doesn’t taste of bitterness, rather citrus and strawberry. Best drunk while watching Mr And Mrs Smith on Netflix, wondering where it all went wrong between the actors.
