Babylonstoren partners with Chelsea Flower Show

South African estate Babylonstoren’s 2021 Mourvèdre Rosé has been named the official rosé of this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

An annual fixture in the summer calendar, the flower show is due to take place virtually from 17-23 May ahead of its official return as a physical event on 21-26 September.

According to the estate, Babylonstoren 2021 Mourvèdre Rosé is “dry and elegant with notes of rose petals, raspberries and watermelon, and creamy flavours of rhubarb”.

The Mourvèdre used in the rosé was hand harvested in February – a later harvest than usual due to cooler weather conditions – with 2021 yielding a bumper crop.

The estate produced around 170,000 bottles of the 2021 vintage. The easy drinking wine is best enjoyed within 18 months to make the most of its fresh fruit flavours.

To mark the partnership with the English event, the front of the bottle flags up the fact that the pink is the official rosé of the Chelsea Flower Show 2021.

Priced at £14.90 per bottle, the salmon pink rosé will be on pour at the September show, which takes place in west London.

It will also be available at the garden centre at RHS Garden Wisley in May, and online via The Newt in Somerset’s website – Babylonstoren’s sister estate.

Babylonstoren is a Cape Dutch farm, winery and hotel with guest cottages and two farm-to-fork restaurants in the Franschhoek Valley.

Boasting an eight-acre garden – the only RHS-partnered garden in Africa – the property dates back to 1692 and was reimagined by its current owners a decade ago, who have turned the estate into a popular tourist destination.

The French-designed garden features vegetable patches, fruit and nut orchards, indigenous plants, beehives, a prickly pear maze and trees of historical and botanical significance. The estate has 217 acres of land under vine planted with 13 grape varieties.