Mateus Rosé

Mateus Rose was launched in Northern Portugal in 1942. It is made from a blend of carefully selected Portuguese grape varieties, namely Baga, Bastardo, Touriga nacional, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Pinheira - sourced primarily from Portugal's premium Douro and Bairrada DOC regions.

I first tried this wine almost eighteen years ago when a girl I worked with couldn't believe someone who had been drinking (legally) for eleven years hadn't tried what was her favourite wine, so she bought me a bottle for my birthday. I duly took it home and had a couple of glasses whilst watching T.V. and from what I remember it was quite pleasant. Until I got up the next morning with a terrible hangover, I moaned all day that the wine must be a lot stronger than I thought, after all I had only had two glasses, the rest was still in the fridge and when I still didn't feel any better by the time I got home, the remainder went down the sink! The 'hangover' lasted for nine month's and resulted in a beautiful 8lb 5oz baby girl.

After that I never tasted it for years, (you know like when you have too much to drink on a Friday or Saturday night and have a kebab on the way home and then are sick, it puts you off kebabs, well the sickness had kinda put me off the wine even though it had nothing to do with it) then last year when I was stressed out with work, I started to like a glass of wine on a Friday night to chill out after a hard week. As I only really like one Glass and usually only on a Friday, a big bottle of wine was a bit much, then hubby discovered (whilst shopping in Asda) some cute little bottles of around 250ml. He bought me various varieties and then one day he brought in a bottle of Mateus Rose, I was a little dubious at first but I tried it and I am so glad I did as it is absolutely delicious.

It is a slightly sparkling light bodied wine, with a fruity aroma, it is fresh and fruity with a subtle sweetness, although personally I can't smell the alcohol, my daughter who doesn't drink says she can smell that it is wine so I would say there probably is a slight smell of alcohol. This is a very pleasant drink served really chilled, it certainly chills me out after a hard week at work. The back of the bottle suggests it is an aperitif or a perfect accompaniment to Italian, Chinese, Salads, Barbecue and Shellfish. I just like a glass on its own, or if I'm being really naughty with a bag of crisps.

For the purposes of this review I went to Asda and bought a large bottle, because I couldn't remember this being a sparkling wine from my previous attempt at tasting it, but it was exactly the same taste. The problem with the large bottle was that I couldn't get the plastic off from around the cork, after a few attempts with a knife hubby had to do it before I cut my finger off! However I did get the cork out O.K, but the next problem being I wanted to put my bottle stopper in, so I could put the rest in the fridge for later but it wouldn't fit as the neck was so small. After a rummage around in the drawer I found a small bottle stopper which had come in a Christmas Cracker and this managed to fit, and the next day the wine was still lovely and sparkling.

The little bottles are 250ml and are available from Asda at £1.46 or 4 for £5, this is just enough for a large glass (or two small glasses if you want to share) and can be mixed or matched with other wines if you prefer.

The large bottle is 750ml and is available from Asda for £3.98.

The bottle is green and has a very distinctive style, it's round with a small neck, for those of you who remember from the seventies, it is the shape of bottle people used to stick shells on and make table lamps from! For anyone else as it is hard to describe so I have added a picture.

Although this wine is not as strong as I thought it was eighteen years ago it is 11% so if you try it, take it easy as it does go down rather well, and you could finish off a bottle quite easily, which is one of the reasons I stick to the small bottles, the other being the small bottle has a screw cap and is much easier to get into!

Some of this information was sourced from winesoftheworld.com

Thanks for reading :-)