We bring you all the medal winners and our top picks from this year’s Global Rosé Masters, which is the biggest single blind tasting of pink wines in the UK so far this year.

Dry sparkling rosé (12 g/l or lower)

Sweet sparkling rosé (+12 g/l)

Still unoaked dry rosé (4 g/l or lower)

Unoaked medium-dry rosé (4 g/l to 12 g/l)

Oaked dry rosé (4 g/l or lower)

Best value sparkling rosé (tank method): Rosa di Gemina

Producer: Bortoluzzi
Country: Italy
Region: Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Grape variety: 100% Pinot Grigio DOC Delle Venezie
Vintage: 2019
Residual sugar level: Brut (8g/l)
Colour: Pale salmon pink
Medal: Silver in the Global Rosé Masters 2020
Price: Under £10

In my view, inexpensive pink fizz should be fresh, fruity, soft and refreshing, which may sound like an obvious set of requirements, but is rare to find. But Bortoluzzi has cracked it with the Rosa di Gemina pink Pinot Grigio DOC Delle Venezie, which has a pretty pale salmon pink appearance, masses of sweet pear and crushed strawberry flavours, a gently frothy fizz, and a bright apple-like finish, giving a dry sensation following all that juicy fruit. If you are looking for an affordable fun sparkling, then this represents a great option.

Best value sparkling rosé (traditional method): Louis Bouillot, Perle d’Or Rosé, 2015

Producer: Maison Louis Bouillot
Region: Bourgogne
Country: France
Grape(s): Chardonnay (46%), Pinot Noir (49%), Gamay (5%)
Vintage: 2015
Residual sugar: Brut (8g/l)
Medal: Gold – The Global Rosé Masters 2020
Price: £20-£30

Although this top pink sparkling expression from Crémant de Bourgogne’s Maison Louis Bouillot is not cheap, relative to top sparkling rosé from Champagne, it is outstanding value. It delivers so many of the hallmarks of great pink fizz, such as fine, soft bubbles, toast, fresh ripe fruits from red apple to melon and raspberry, followed by a dry chalky finish, along with a touch of creamy vanilla – some oak barrels were used in the winemaking. This is definitely the thinking person’s fine sparkling wine.

Best-value rosé: Belle Année Rosé

Producer: Mirabeau Wine
Country: France
Region: Languedoc
Grape variety: Grenache (60%), Syrah (20%), Cinsault (20%)
Vintage: 2019
Residual sugar level: <1
Closure type: Screwcap
Colour: Pale salmon pink
Medal: Gold in the Global Rosé Masters 2020
Price: £9.99

If I were to name a star buy for lovers of pale, dry rosé, the sort provided so well by Provence, but at a cheaper price, then it would be Belle Année Rosé. Made by major Provençal rosé producer Mirabeau Wine, and using the same set of grapes as found in the pink wines of Provence, and the same winemaking methods, it looks and tastes like a Provençal rosé. Except it isn’t. By sourcing its fruit from the equally sun-drenched Languedoc, where there is less pressure on grape supplies, and consequently lower prices, Mirabeau has managed to make a Vin de France rosé that has all the lovely nectarine and white-cherry flavours of Provençal rose but at a sub-£10 price point.

The world’s best dry, unoaked rosé: Clos Mireille Rosé

Producer: Domaines Ott
Country: France
Region: Côtes de Provence
Grape variety: Grenache, Cinsault, Rolle and Syrah
Vintage: 2018
Residual sugar level: <1
Closure type: Natural cork
Colour: Pale salmon pink
Medal: Master in the Global Rosé Masters 2020
Price: £30-£50

It’s always pleasing to find out at the end of a blind tasting that some of the wines that really wowed you were ones that already have an established reputation because it confirms that such wines are genuinely great. And Domaines Ott’s Clos Mireille Rosé is a brilliant example. A pioneer in top-end, beautifully packaged, expertly crafted Provençal pale pink wine, Domaines Ott is still at the top of the game with this classic and delicious expression. Loaded with peach and pink grapefruit flavours, and a wonderful texture that starts with fresh fruit, moves into a riper, oilier feeling, and finishes with a soft but dry chalky sensation, this is a very fine glass of wine. And, my highest-scoring unoaked pink wine of 2020’s Global Rosé Masters.

Best-value oaked rosé: Joy’s

Producer: Gérard Bertrand
Country: France
Region: AOP Languedoc
Grape variety: Grenache (40%), Syrah (30%) and Cinsault (30%)
Vintage: 2019
Residual sugar level: <1
Closure type: Vinolok (glass)
Colour: Pale salmon pink
Medal: Master in the Global Rosé Masters 2020
Price: £10-£15

It dawned on me during this year’s Rosé Masters that now it’s de rigeur to make very pale, bone-dry rosés, winemakers need to find methods to put a bit of stuffing in their blends that may once have come from riper fruit and residual sugar. While texture can be enhanced by extended contact with a wine’s fine lees, including stirring them up, when it comes to imparting a gently sweet taste in a dry wine, then fine French oak is a wonderful solution, especially if some of it is brand new. Some manage this combination of pink wine and barrel-sourced vanillin better than others, with Château d’Esclans a master, and Navarra’s Chivite another accomplished barrel-aged rosé maker. But a further one is Gérard Bertrand, and with his new wine, called Joy’s, you can enjoy the delicious union of peach and wild strawberry characters in the rosé with an indulgent vanilla cream note from the oak, and for surprisingly little cash. It’s a bit like drinking barrel-aged luxury rosé Garrus, but at a sixth of the price.

Best celebrity rosé: Hampton Water

Producer: Gérard Bertrand
Country: France
Region: AOP Languedoc
Grape variety: Grenache (40%), Cinsault (30%) Mouvèdre (30%)
Vintage: 2019
Residual sugar level: <1
Closure type: Vinolok (glass)
Colour: Pale salmon pink
Medal: Gold in the Global Rosé Masters 2020
Price: £15-£20

While a celebrity association for any brand is a great way to rapidly raise awareness, it doesn’t provide a guarantee that the product is any good. Thankfully, the world of rosé has a set of labels that combine a fine drink with a famous name. But which is the best? Well, judging by this year’s Global Rosé Masters, it is a brand made by Gérard Bertrand in collaboration with rocker Jon Bon Jovi and his son, Jesse. Called Hampton Water, in reference to the popularity of delicate dry rosé in Long Island’s top summer destination, The Hamptons, it’s a barely-pink wine, but with plenty of punch, delivering lingering layers of white fleshed fruit from nectarine to peach, along with a hint of red berries, and a gentle citrus acidity.

The world’s best rosé…

This year, we had two wines that achieved equally high scores of 96 points, which means I must conclude that there is not one ultimate Rosé Master in 2020, but two.

These are Garrus by Château d’Esclans (pictured below) and Clos du Temple by Gérard Bertrand (pictured above). Both are dry Grenache-based rosés from France, both retail for more than £100, both are barrel-fermented, but one uses grapes grown in Côtes de Provence, and the other doesn’t – Clos du Temple hails from a biodynamic vineyard in the Languedoc, dubbed a ‘grand cru’ site by producer Gérard Bertrand.

This means, based on an entirely independent blind tasting, that the Languedoc is capable of making rosé as great as Provence. Not better, but just as brilliant.

Read more

THE WORLD’S BEST ROSÉ REVEALED

You can also see our round-up of the top-value picks from this year’s tasting, with the best-scoring wines for the price rounded up in both the sparkling and still rosé categories. Just click on the links below.

10 BRILLIANT ROSÉS FOR UNDER £10

TOP 10 GREAT-VALUE SPARKLING ROSÉS

About the competition