If you like rosé wine there’s no better place to be than in Provence which produces more than 100-million bottles of it a year – well over half France’s total production of rosé . That’s where I am now, sitting beneath a plane tree that shades the terrace of a restaurant in Aix-en-Provence. Rosé is made for outdoor terraces like this, especially when the weather is warm and sunny as it tends to be in Provence at this time of the year. I have chosen a rose from Bandol to go with a salade niçoise, a perfect match in my opinion.
Summers are much shorter in Poland than here, but a glass of rose on the terrace is just as wonderful when the sun is shining. We have several rosé s on the Wine Express list, including a new one from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. It arrived this week and we’ll be serving it with Lebanese food on the terrace at Kania Lodge this coming weekend. Because of its lusciousness and hints of strawberry and grapefruit, roses like this go well with slightly spicy food. But it’s also a pleasure on its own. All you need to enjoy it to the full is a terrace, some sun and a cooler to keep the rose in.
John Borrell