2013 Apple Tree Flat Rosé - 2011 Frankland River Cabernet Merlot

WE don't take to Rosé as enthusiastically
as the Europeans do– but Apple Tree Flat's Peter Logan
hopes to change that with this rewarding drop.

A ROSÉ FOR SUMMERY ENJOYMENT 

David Ellis    

WE don't get into the Rosé here with quite the enthusiasm they do in Europe – there, most Rosés are quite inexpensive, with even the best quality ones cheap enough to enjoy nicely chilled as everyday quaffers in particularly warm regions. 

Apple Tree Flat owner and winemaker, Peter Logan is a Rosé buff, and would like to see Australians getting more into the European tradition of enjoyment of this wine… and hopes his just-released 2013 Apple Tree Flat Rosé will encourage at least some of us to do so – particularly as this is a quality drop, yet just $13 a bottle.

Made from Shiraz and Merlot fruit grown on Peter's Mudgee and Orange vineyards in the NSW Central Ranges, it has lovely cherry, red berry and spice aromas, and on the palate you'll find suggestions of mixed berries, rhubarb, nuts and a long spicy finish.

"Rosé is a fun wine," Peter says. "And a good one like this has to be dry, or it becomes like alcoholic cordial. But at the same time it has to have some sweetness from the fruit flavours, to give it that wonderful summery feeling."

IF you like grilled porterhouse steak and
garlic potato mash, here's a perfect partner.

He's certainly achieved his goals with this  drop; enjoy it chilled with an enormous range of food options – Spanish tapas, seafoods, summer-time cold meats and salads, paella, BBQ'd pork, chicken or veal, spicy Indian or Thai dishes, or simply with a good pizza.

ONE TO NOTE: WESTERN Australia's Ferngrove Wines have released a wonderfully easy-drinking 2011 Frankland River Cabernet Merlot under their Symbols label, one that's good-value buying at $16.50.

The result of what winemaker Kim Horton calls "a strong vintage" with a long, warm Indian summer, this is a wine with lots of juicy blackberry and red plums to the forefront on the palate, and with supporting vanilla oak and grainy tannins.

Just the drop to enjoy with a grilled porterhouse steak and garlic potato mash.

Wc13Jan14