9 hours ago
The best affordable rosé wine to buy under £14 this summer
Blame social media, or perhaps the more general force of globalisation, but we live in a world of extreme trends. One of those is rosé. Twenty years ago, pale pink wine was reserved for high summer, holidays and, dare I say it, women. Now everyone drinks it all year round, although sales go stratospheric when the sun comes out.
According to Waitrose, 20 degrees Celsius is the magic 'tipping point' temperature at which sales of rosé soar, rising by 150 per cent. Given the lovely sunny forecast for the week ahead, you might be contemplating buying a bottle or two to put in the fridge. But of what?
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How I tasted
The best affordable rosé for summer
Why you can trust us
Unfortunately, such rampant popularity is not actually good news for quality and value. At least, not at the more affordable end. Wine is a product that depends, essentially, on farming. An increase in demand can be a good thing for grape farmers because it pays them properly and allows them to work efficiently and effectively to produce a high-quality crop. But this only applies up to a certain point.
Too much demand pushes up the price of the decent stuff and encourages some to source grapes from vineyards that are less well-positioned and that are perhaps producing higher yields (which can lead to the wine tasting more dilute).
This has definitely happened with rosé, especially at the budget end of the market (if you're spending a bit more there's better value and quality to be had because, sadly, not many people can be bothered to look for the less-well-known labels and not everyone can afford to spend in the £15 and upwards category).
