Summer Is A Coming - Time For A Rosé

Rabasco, Cancelli Rosato

Longer evenings and warmer weather always make me reach for the rosé. Sharing a bottle of wine with friends on a summer night is one of life's great pleasures.

Fans of Provence rosés will need to be open to new experiences with the latest round of reviews. The pale and thin offerings do little for those who like wines that pack a bit more punch.

The Rabasco Cancelli Rosato delivers bags of ripe strawberry fruit with a pleasant long mineral finish. There are tones of mint and herb in a juicy wine that is a deeper red in the glass. It’s a rounder feel in the mouth with balanced acidity.

The Rabasco winery is in Abruzzo, Italy. The region is sandwiched between the Adriatic Sea and mountains and has a climate with significant temperature changes, making it ideal for winemaking. The region's vineyards cover 36,000 hectares, with the white Trebbiano, Cerasuolo rosé created from Montepulciano grapes, and red Montepulciano being the three characteristic wines.

This rosé is made with 100% Montepulciano grapes and delivers a wine with great depth. It is made with spontaneous fermentation with four to seven days of skin maceration before ageing in stainless steel with zero added sulfur and no filtering.

The vines are almost all Montepulciano and 40 years old on average.Soils are calcareous clay mixed with alluvial sediment and fossil remains.Yields are kept low to create wines with more acidity and freshness than power and extract.

It makes for an easy-drinking bottle of wine that can be enjoyed with friends on its own or would pair well with seafood.

Rabasco, Cancelli Rosato can be found online for around £17.

Susucaru Rosato.

If you want to make a list of rock star rosé, then Susucaru should be at the top. When you first get your hands on a bottle, the bright cherry colour of the wine is striking.

Made by the highly-rated Frank Cornelissen, a Belgian-born winemaker who is shaking up the Sicilian wine market, Susucaru is a wine to remember.

The winery on the slopes of Mount Etna is a natural wine project.The name Susucaru comes from a Sicilian expression meaning “they stole it”, which is what Frank’s team shouted when they realised most of the grapes from their first vintage had vanished.

Getting hold of a bottle of Susucaru is as challenging as getting tickets to see your favourite rock gods. Ever since rapper Action Bronson shared his love for it, demand has peaked worldwide.

It is a refreshing blend of Malvasia, Moscadella, Insolia and Nerello Mascalese. It is juicy with strawberry and cranberry on offer while still offering a balanced wine with good minerality. Stick your nose in the glass, and you get a blast of citrus with spices.

The wine is certified organic and doesn’t use any treatments on the vines. There is light filtration and a small sulphur addition in the cellar.

It is the ideal wine for a summer BBQ and guaranteed to get lips smacking and taste buds bursting.

If you can find it, Susucaru Rosato is around £20 a bottle from a range of online retailers.

Tanca Nica, Soki Soki

Trying new wines and grapes can bring risk and reward in equal measure. The Soki Soki from Sicilian winery Tanca Nica delivered a pleasant surprise thanks to the Zibibbo grape.

The scientific name of Zibibbo is Muscat of Alexandria. It is apt as the golden colour of wine certainly looks like its namesake. Zibibbo is an aromatic wine grape, like Gewürztraminer, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc.

In the glass, it rolls around with a surprising viscosity and offers a strong smell of honey and ripe fruit. Roll it around your mouth, and it delivers grapefruit, peach and banana. It has a pleasant oily feel in your mouth. A long mineral finish gives way to the flavours of tea and herbal notes.

The winery, Tanca Nica, is run by Nicoletta Pecorelli, originally from Sardinia, and Francesco Ferreri, born and bred in Pantelleria. Francesco got the wine bug at a young age, inspired by his grandfather while making wine with him.

Francesco returned to Sicily after working in a biodynamic vineyard in New Zealand with a mission of reviving the old ways and upholding local traditions.

Grown in the hot, dry climate of this volcanic island Zibibbo offers a heady mix of sugar and minerality with an explosion of fruit on the nose and palate.

It’s one to sip and enjoy on an evening and will pair well with Chinese or Thai food.

Tanca Nica, Soki Soki is available online for around £40 a bottle.

Our wine enthusiast Nathan lives in Leeds and runs PR and marketing company Campfire PR
https://campfirepr.com/