Strawberries and cream

Following on with our recent ‘pink’ theme here’s a surprising wine from Australia. Those familiar with Aussie fizz will know that it’s expensive when it’s good and often rather dull at lower price points. This is a distinct exception to that rule. It’s a blended wine made to a ‘house style’ with tremendous technical skill and the result is a very Champagne-like sparkler with plenty of agreeable acidity to balance the light, faintly raspberry nose and fairly soft finish.

It’s produced by Islay Kennedy, a female winemaker bold enough to work in Australia! Her 25 years of winemaking experience really show in this stylish pink bubbly which has won several medals including a Bronze in the recent International Wine Challenge. Other winners of this award were pricy Champagnes such as Lanson Rosé, which sells for almost five times the price. Griffith Park is produced by a similar method to classic Champagne, with double fermentation. However, it is not actually made in the same bottle throughout - instead, it is produced by the less expensive transfer method where all the refermented wine is moved to a tank and then lightly filtered before final bottling. However, I defy you to tell the difference!

Try this wine for parties and outdoor celebrations of all kinds. In honour of its Aussie origins, why not ‘throw a shrimp or two on the barbie’ and enjoy it with grilled seafood, salad and some sourdough bread. It would also be a fantastic match for topical Wimbledon strawberries and cream.

Griffith Park Sparkling Rosé, £6.99 at Asda, Morrisons and selected Tesco stores.

ROZ COOPER: BIOGRAPHY

Roz began her wine career in California, leading wine tours and tasting wines for a wine warehouse near San Francisco. She then ran her own California wine import business in the UK and subsequently became assistant editor of Decanter magazine, then wrote various books on wine including The Wine Almanac. Since then, she has written wine columns in many publications and edited books and magazines, including The Italian Magazine. She’s passionate about green issues including organic and biodynamic winemaking and also works on a voluntary basis with the Galapagos Conservation Trust.

Tags: Wine of the Week