War of the rosés: the best 12 wines to buy

The summer’s battle lines have been drawn. France’s “rosé aristocracy” has gone on the attack against the flood of wishy-washy mass-produced “swimming pool plonk” that they said was ruining this wine style’s reputation. Commercially driven producers were seeking to cash in on the global pink wine boom and making wines that lacked identity and authenticity, complained Éric de Saint Victor, owner of the renowned Château de Pibarnon in Provence. “We cannot abandon this colour to the trading system, to these bad rosés that have been produced in great volume … and leave people in total ignorance of what a good rosé can be,” he told Le Figaro.

• Rosé wine growers at war over ‘swimming pool plonk’

He’s got a point. It has been decades since fizzy Mateus Rosé was the modish fad of the Seventies, and thankfully we are over our puzzling craze for torturously sweet blush-coloured zinfandel from California in the Eighties and Nineties. But too many of the pinks on sale here, endorsed by unlikely wine-loving celebs such as Kylie Minogue, Sarah Jessica Parker and Gary Barlow, are expensive, sticky, fluorescent-hued horrors.

It’s even worse at the palest pink end of the colour chart. Somehow novice drinkers have been misguidedly persuaded that the paler a rosé is, the finer the wine will be, so as soon as the sun’s out, Instagram-obsessed drinkers will tweet “it’s a rosé kinda day” as they sip from often overpriced and silly-named pale Provençal pinks sold in naff, enamelled bottles. Lord spare us. It’s worth noting that the wonderfully named but wonderfully dreary Whispering Angel from Provence is now en route to being a megabrand selling two million cases a year globally.

• Don’t buy wine in clear bottles, experts warn

That all being said, the quality of rosé is generally on the up as winemakers treat it more seriously, setting out to make a pink wine from the outset by direct pressing, rather than as a sideshow to red wine production where a little just–stained-pink juice is bled off from a red wine tank.

Serious rosé drinkers learnt years ago that pale rosé is not always perfect, that you have to pick and choose just as you do with the darker shades. Get it right, though, and you will be rewarded with a crisp, refreshing and characterful pink chock-a-block with fruit and flavour. As de Saint Victor, a member of the reforming L’Association Internationale des Rosés de Terroirs, said: “A rosé is good, it’s powerful, it goes with Mediterranean cuisine.”

Agreed! Read on for a dozen of my favourites, not just from France, but Italy, Spain, Greece, Australia and even England.

2023 Toro Loco Bobal Rosado, Utiel-Requena, Spain
11.5 per cent, Aldi, £5.99
Gutsy, glorious, darker cherry-pink, vegan-approved rosado, made from Utiel-Requena’s most widely planted and characterful red grape, bobal. Bursting with tangy, strawberry and red cherry fruit, the wonder with this flavoursome Spaniard is it’s only 11 per cent alcohol.

Pierre Jaurant, Sud de France Rosé, Pays d’Oc, France
12.5 per cent, Aldi, £5.99
Don’t be sniffy about this cheap as chips non-vintage Pays d’Oc rosé. It’s a canny grenache noir-led blend, topped up with a good dollop of cinsault, plus a dash each of syrah and caladoc. What’s not to like about a sub-£6, French, dryish, citrussy blush pink?

2023 Tread Softly Rosé, Australia
9.9 per cent, Waitrose, £7.49, down from £9.99 until May 7
Unusual, lower-alcohol, vegan-approved dry Aussie pink made from a fruit salad of white grapes, chardonnay, colombard, pinot gris, vermentino and sauvignon blanc, stained pink with a dollop of shiraz. It’s a surprisingly gentle swig with subtle yet satisfying rose petal fruit.

2023 Rosé d’Anjou, Grolleau-Gamay, Famille Bougrier, Loire, France
11 per cent, thewinesociety.com, £8.25
Fresh-as-a-daisy yet bold, ripe Loire pink that was once written off as a sickly-sweet horror. Not any more; scoop up this luscious, juicy mix of mostly local grolleau, enhanced with a splash of gamay and bursting with easy-over pepperminty fruit, plus a pleasingly low alcohol content.

2023 G & L Rosé, Kintonis, Greece
12.5 per cent, thewinesociety.com, £8.95
Greek rosé is having a moment and this roditis-moschofilero mix makes a heavenly sunny day aperitif. Overflowing with seductive, spicy, floral, basil and sweet damask rose, its tangy finish means that it will also make a good partner with summer salads: feta and tomato, anyone?

2023 Found Susumaniello Rosé, Puglia, Italy
12.5 per cent, Marks & Spencer, £9
The tongue-twister susumaniello grape is new to these shores and Marks & Spencer’s sweetly fruited, pale orangey pink 2023 is the best on the block. What you get is lashings of rich, fruity, bramble-scented pizzazz making it the ideal barbecue party pink.

2023 Athlon Greek Assyrtiko-Syrah Rosé, Greece
12.5 per cent, Aldi, £9.99
Another Greek rosé, this white assyrtiko grape 2023, blended with 25 per cent red syrah, oozes Peloponnese charm and style. The end result is a blush pink, deliciously toasty, punchy, summer food-friendly gem, with the sort of light, lemony fruit that will woo one and all.

2023 Esprit de Buganay, Côtes de Provence Rosé, France
13 per cent, Waitrose, £9.99, down from £14.99 until May 7
The sub-£10 Côtes de Provence rosé steal of the summer. Forget Whispering Angel and its overpriced ilk and snap up this herby, citrus blossom and radicchio-edged, pale salmon-pink joy. A bitter nip on the finish means it’s a whizz with traditional, garlicky Provençal dishes.

2023 Miraval, Côtes de Provence Rosé, France
12.5 per cent, Sainsbury’s, £17, down from £19 until May 14
One of the few celeb pinks that’s worth the money. Brad Pitt remains the part-owner here, in cahoots with the talented Perrin family from the Rhône, and the silky, savoury, herby 2023 vintage has a lovely pink grapefruit spin, with a fine pomegranate finish.

2023 Aix Coteaux d’Aix en Provence Rosé, France
13 per cent, Majestic, £18.99, magnum £37.99
Back on top form now and while Coteaux d’Aix en Provence pinks are not generally in the same league as those of Cotes de Provence, this one is. Heaving with lovely, hibiscus-scented fruit, with a good garrigue scrub-finish, a magnum of this makes any meal a celebration.

2023 L’Hydropathe Élite, Côtes de Provence Sainte Victoire Rosé, France
12.5 per cent, Lea & Sandeman, £23.95
The limestone-studded slopes that fan out from the Montagne Sainte-Victoire painted endlessly by Cézanne produce some of the finest rosés in Provence and this is one of them. Rammed with intense, zingy, tea-leaf and orange peel oomph, it’s a triumph for the Domaine des Diables.

Chapel Down Brut Rose, Kent, England
12 per cent, Waitrose, £24.99, down from £29.99 until May 7
As good as pink champagne-method English fizz gets under £25. An equal split between chardonnay and pinot noir, topped up with pinots meunier and blanc, this pale pinky-orange bubbly leads on to a light, leafy, raspberry-stashed palate.