Montana East Coast Rosé

I usually drink white wine but in the summer buy a fair amount of rose as I think rose wine is like a glass of summer! At the moment there are lots of lovely looking roses to choose from on the supermarket shelves. I don't like wine that is too sweet and some roses can be a bit on the sweet side. I recently discovered a really good rose that is not too sweet, has a lovely strawberry taste and is not too expensive.

I really like most New Zealand wines so it was no surprise to me that Montana east coat rose was a real winner as far as I was concerned. Montana east coast rose comes from vineyards on New Zealand's mountainous east coat, as the name suggests! It is a gorgeous deep pink colour and just asks to be drunk! This wine has a screw top, which I find a lot easier to open and replace. Before I tell you about the taste I thought I'd share my newly acquired knowledge about how rose wine is made. You can always skip this bit if you already know!

Rose wine gets is lovely colour from the skins of the grapes used .The juice is left in contact with the grape skins for varying amounts of time. The longer the juice and skins are left together the deeper the colour. The juice is then drained off from the skins and the wine is left to ferment in barrels. Montana rose is left until all the sugars have turned into alcohol and is therefore less sweet than some other rosés. It also means that Montana rose has a fairly high alcohol content at 12.5%. Montana rose is made using a mix of grapes including pinotage, merlot and chardonnay.

So what does this wine taste like? I can't usually detect the fruit flavours when drinking wine but with this one I can actually taste strawberries! On pouring my first glass I was really impressed with the lovely fruity aroma or bouquet to use the correct term. This wine is not too sweet as some roses can be. It does have a pleasant residual sweetness however. I love to drink this wine sitting outside on a summers evening. It is a great wine to have at a barbeque too and goes well with just about any food as far as I'm concerned. It is especially good with organic salmon!

Montana east coast rose is widely available at costs around £6 a bottle which I think is a bargain!