Respite from rosé: The refreshing whites to sip this summer
Rosé may be a crowd-pleaser in the warmer months, but we're making the case for characterful whites this summer
Have we reached peak rosé? Master of Wine Peter Mitchell, wine director for London merchant Jeroboams, certainly thinks so. “I tasted 150 rosés from around the world at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards,” he says, “and most of them were near identical – pointlessly boring, bland and better when cold.”
This would be the ‘swimming-pool rosé’ that is now a thing – and not necessarily a good one. Olivier Krug, director of the eponymous champagne house, recently told us such wines were only good for “when you don’t want to concentrate on what you’re drinking”.
Call us radical, but we’ve come up with an alternative. Yep, we’re going retro – white wine. Not just any white wines, though. We’ve hunted down six whites with character and bite; wines with flavour and length that you’ll actually notice and comment on.
Think fumé blanc – the more refined, interesting iteration of sauvignon blanc, thanks to judicious oak ageing. Or that classic match for seafood at a beachside bistro – albariño – but a racy version from New Zealand rather than the grape variety’s Spanish homeland. Or how about an English chardonnay, fresh and appley but lent depth and weight through nine months’ ageing in barrel?
Chenin blanc has a similarly rounded, full texture, but we’ve hunted down an organic, South African rendering that is fresh and linear. And if any grape variety boasts such qualities, it’s surely the maligned, misunderstood riesling; look no further than Alsace for a clean, piercing example with just the merest hint of sweetness. Finally, to prove that Provence isn’t just about the pink stuff – indeed Mitchell says its whites are better than its rosés – look out for a racy rolle (what they call vermentino in Italy) from the producer who reintroduced the variety into the French side of the Mediterranean.
Now all you need is the sun, sea and sand of the Med to complement them…
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