Rose Wines

As handy a summer wine as ever you'll find. Supremely juicy Aussie Cabernet Sauvignon rosé chock full of ripe raspberry and strawberry fruit with a fresh, dry bite at the finish. The perfect sunshine quaffer, great for barbecued chicken and seafood. You'd more than likely be served this on the deck of a cruiser on Australia's Murray River. See those oval-shaped scars on the ancient riverbank trees? That's where the Aborigines cut into the bark to make canoes.

Universally appealing Chilean Cabernet rosé, brimming with succulent, juicy, ripe red fruit flavours. The latest addition to our Casa Rivas range (showcase for Chilean brilliance) comes courtesy of grandiose, century-old Viña Tarapacá. Their 2,600 hectare Rosario de Naltagua plot lies in a loop of the Maipo River, 40 minutes invigorating drive south of Santiago. Ideal growing conditions, notably cold nights and hot days, produce stylish, characterful wines like this.

Spain's Caza Gastronomia Cinegética dubbed Concha Vecino "a wine magician". Her impressive powers helped identify the outstanding potential of Vega Sindoa, a domed hill in Navarra's Valdizarbe Valley, south of Pamplona. The influences in this Basque region are Spanish and French; the 8 owners elected to plant varieties from both countries. This delightful rosado is a blend of Rioja's Garnacha and Bordeaux's Cabernet. Ripe, clean raspberry and blackcurrant flavours and a clean, dry finish.

Delicate pink; robust, lively flavours of strawberries and raspberries lent freshness by a hint of grapefruit. Our 'Jean des Vignes' range is designed to showcase the best in good-quality everyday-drinking from southern France. Made in this case by the ultra-reliable Plaimont winery, who have an admirable focus on polishing the finer characters of the region's local grapes, bringing intriguing styles to a wide audience. Tannat, great grape of Madiran, is the variety here.

Bodegas Antano, a modern, well equipped winery in Rueda, source grapes from within and outside the DO and bring to bear their admirably stringent standards of viticulture and winemaking to create this simple and appealingly fruity rosado.

Leaving behind careers in medicine and molecular biology, Doctors John and Brigid Forrest established Forrest Estate in Marlborough's stony Wairau River Valley in 1989. This cheery pair won a coup at their first vintage, scooping a trophy at NZ's national wine awards. Their rosé is summer incarnate. Vibrant pomegranate pink, with fresh raspberry, blueberry and redcurrant flavours and a twist of lime. Deckchair wine.

We love Spanish rosado styles (with a passion approaching mania; we stock far too many brands than is sane) but this is our favourite, from Spain's rosado heartland, Navarra. Mostly Garnacha with a hint of Cabernet, it's a deep, vibrant pink in colour, with aromas of fresh strawberries, crushed red fruit flavours and appetising dryness."Made from Garnacha and Cabernet grapes in Navarra region of Spain, this is one of the best value rosés around and it holds its own against all comers "Tarty, but we like it. Loads of strawberry sweets with refreshing acidity and a savoury edge that keeps any sickly character at bay." Wine & Spirit, May 2008

Hints of raspberries and wild herbs. Fresh and flavoursome. Lovely with summer salads.

Bodega Pirineos, named after the Pyrenéean backdrop to this massive Catalan winery, is one of only 3 outfits making nearly all the wines in Somontano (between Rioja and Barcelona). Having nurtured hundreds of growers since the '60s, and overhauled the cellar in the '90s, Pirineos now offer a fascinating array of wines. This appealing rosado, a blend of Merlot and Cabernet grapes has fresh, lively berry fruits and an appetisingly crisp finish.

The Caladoc grape is a hybrid of Grenache and Malbec. Vin de Pays of real quality from organic vineyards at the delta of the Rhône: the Arles estate of Pierre Cartier, whose brother Luc owns famous organic Provence estate Mas de Gourgonnier, for many years an Adnams favourite.

Dynamic Jacques Bailly (heir to a winemaking tradition going back to the 1700s) and wife Marie-Hélène cultivate an array of coveted vineyards around Bué in the eastern Loire appellation of Sancerre, including a plot originally called 'Choix Marchand', source of wines merchants kept for themselves. Luckily we've enough of this delightful Sancerre rosé to share around. Irresistibly pretty pink, with delicate Pinot Noir red fruit flavours and a crisp finish, it's lovely with summer salads.

Terrific value summer apéritif (praised by 'The Observer'), crisp and dry with assertive red fruit flavours. South-western France's Plaimont winery has market savvy by the lorry load, efficiently delivering desirable wines to markets around the world, and organising breathtaking PR events like their 'instant vineyard' (cropping up at a city square near you soon). They've an admirable focus on polishing the finer characters of the region's local grapes, bringing intriguing styles

Juniper Estate's winemaker Mark Messenger crafts this wine using parcels of estate-grown fruit as well as that sourced from friends and neighbours in and around Margaret River's Wilyabrup region. Such 'Crossing' gives rise to extra depth and complexity.

The town of Andosilla, at Rioja's northern edge, has prospered by its proximity to vineyards set among the fertile plains of the rivers Ebro and Ega in the beautiful valley of Baztan. Bodegas Bagordi was born of the enthusiasm of several local grapegrowers who united in 1995 to produce organic wines. Their success is evident in releases like this delicious rose.

Delicious rosé from Bordeaux's Premières Côtes with generous red fruit flavours and a clean, sappy, dry finish. Harks back to the days when all red Bordeaux was pale, causing it to be called 'clairet' by drinkers across the Channel. Although the founder of this estate (on clay hills beyond the Garonne's right banks) crushed the English at the battle of Castillon, depriving us of 'clairet' on favourable terms, the place is redeemed by the organic winemaking of Mme. Marie Claude Deville.

New Seidelberg winemaker Cerina De Jongh's CV reads encouragingly: top of her year at Elsenburg College, hired by high-profile Grangehurst and veteran of vintages the world over. She's thriving at this idyllic estate, founded in 1680 on the southern slopes of the Paarlberg, and now owned by German émigré Roland Seidel. This Rose isa pretty pale pink with the flavours of dry raspberries. Clean and fresh.

A 'Decanter' 'Best Rosé' - clean, fresh flavours of raspberries and strawberries finishing on a twist of cranberry. Briton Philip Mallard, and French wife Marianne have seen the reputation of their stylish wines flourish. They're also the proud owners of a herd of Limousin cattle and a champion bull. Recognised by the Archbishop of Bordeaux in the 14th century, Château Pique-Sègue was among the best known crus of Montravel and Bergerac by the end of the 19th.

Pitted with deep valleys and sheltered by the Aragonese Pyrénées, high-altitude, rough-textured Somontano, north-east of Rioja, offers protection from bitter northerlies, Zaragozan dryness and Mediterranean humidity. Natural advantages exploited by the Otto Bestué family, resident in the village of Enate since 1640, and now owners of sizeable Tempranillo and Cabernet vineyards. This glorious rosado is big and juicy yet fabulously fresh, with red plum and cherry flavours

Genius of the Mosel, Ernst Loosen rents this estate in the Pfalz and makes a series of notable and well-priced wines.

Delicious rose from Argentina made from the Malbec grape variety.