Fashionable rosé

Rosé is all the rage these days and it’s the quintessential summer wine. Well-chilled, it’s the thing to have as the temperature rises and there are so many styles now – from bone dry to quite sweet and made from all manner of grape varieties - that you should find one to suit your palate. It may not be a complex wine, but it doesn’t need to be – it’s just perfect for an early evening aperitif or alfresco eating.

Five facts

1. Rosé is meant to be crisp, fresh, fruity and refreshing, so buy the most recent vintage, chill it nicely and drink it – it’s not a wine that’ll improve with age.

2. Rosé is very food-friendly - particularly the drier styles - and goes well with poultry, seafood and lots of spicy dishes.

3. Blush is just another name for rosé, but tends to be used for really pale ones with some sweetness. The term was popularized for Californian White Zinfandel but nowadays it's been adopted for very pale pink wines of any grape variety. But dry rosé can be very pale too – think Provence pinks.

4. Most rosé is made by crushing red grapes and allowing the skins to stay in contact with the juice just long enough to extract a bit of colour. The length of contact time depends on the depth of pigmentation of the grape variety and the desired colour of the final wine.

5. It’s not just us girls that enjoy a glass or two of rosé. It’s just been reported that guys are getting a taste for it too. Supermarkets say men particularly like the drier styles.