Drinks of the Month

Wine of the week: Graham Beck brut rosé

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on March 4 2016 at 08:57

I know a lot of you are going to be looking for a well-priced sparkling wine for Mother's Day this weekend and this is the perfect bottle

OK, it’s not prosecco but to my mind it’s a lot more refreshing with a delicate wild strawberry flavour and fine bubbles - champagne quality at less than half the price of most rosé champagnes

It comes from a wild bit of the Cape Winelands, the Robertson region of South Africa - about the last place you’d expect to find a quality sparkling wine producer but Graham Beck has been specialising in fizz for years - so much so that he’s now giving up making still wines under his eponymous label.

I’ve shown it at a number of tastings during the past year and paired it with some unlikely food including sushi, a fish pastilla (Moroccan-style fish pie) and Indian street-food style snacks and it’s sailed through them all. It would be a touch dry for cake and desserts but otherwise it’s remarkably versatile.

You can currently buy it for £10.79 as part of a ‘mix six’ deal at Majestic* which is a good price though even the single bottle price of £11.99 is pretty fair. Some retailers are selling it for £14.50.

* Incidentally if you don't want to buy six bottles of this Majestic is selling a Pays d'Oc syrah from Domaine les Yeuses called Les Epices for £7.49.(It doesn't get good ratings on the site but I thought it was delicious when I tried it the other day.)

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