Rosé Masters 2017: the results
By
Patrick Schmitt
And finally… some comments from the judges
Patricia Stefanowicz MW
“The rosé sparkling wines were delicious, showing high quality throughout…. Something of a surprise and a disappointment was that the dry still roses were shockingly inconsistent at every price bracket. And, origin had no bearing on whether the wines were delightful, modest or egregious. On a more positive note…The colours whether pale oeil de perdrix, mid-salmon hue or even cherry-coloured were a feast for the eyes. To be fair there were some very fine wines on display and some noted producers, e.g. Mirabeau, show why they are highly rated year after year with lovely concentration of flavour, yet delicacy of aroma and taste.”
Antony Moss MW
“I was impressed that there are so many regions represented in the silver and gold medal wines. I often buy a few bottles of rosé over the summer, and will definitely be buying a few more than normal this year. …There were some really good Provence and southern French roses with a sensitive touch of oak, rather ambitious in style and price but to my mind totally successful. The wines to which we gave Masters were astonishingly good. The Champagne – I would expect nothing less from that particular wine, but the Garrus and the Sauvageonne were of a level that I don’t believe I had previously experienced in dry still rosés.”
Beverley Blanning MW
“I came away from the tasting thinking that it’s actually quite hard to classify rosé wines as a single category when there are so many differences between them, both stylistically and in the wide range of grape varieties used. The tasting challenged me to rethink preconceptions of whether there is a ‘correct’ way rosé should taste. I liked the Provence wines a lot. The sparkling rosés were also generally very good. There were one or two delicious wines from Adelaide Hills and King Valley, Australia, and I loved the exuberantly gulpable Gamay from Toro. …The general standard of wines was very good, however, indicative of the success of the category and producers’ efforts to make serious rosé.”