Wine of the Week 59 – a great rosé

I like rosé wine. Rosé can be a delicious drink and just the thing on a summer day. However, I am fully aware that they are normally frivolous wines that seldom hit the heights of complexity and sophistication.

Recently I tasted a rosé that showed just how good the style can be and it was made in a relatively unusual place from an incredibly unusual grape.

It was made by a guy called David Mazza, actually it was made for him, but more of that in a moment, and it was such a thrilling wine that I have made it my Wine of the Week.

David Mazza showing me his wines at Berry Bros. & Rudd, London.

Wine map of Western Australia – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement

2013 Mazza Bastardo Rosé
GI Geographe
Mazza Wine
Western Australia

David Mazza’s family left their native Calabria – the toe of Italy – in 1958 and settled in Dardanup near Bunbury, Western Australia. Both his father and grandfather grew grapes and made wine for family consumption, but David is the only member of the current generation, out of 20 cousins, to be bitten by the wine bug and take it further.

This may well be because as a young man he travelled around Iberia and fell in love with the wines of Spain and Portugal, which reminded him of the dry, lightish European styles of wine that his father and grandfather used to make. Something about the grapes of Spain and Portugal spoke to him and when he and his wife Anne finally found the site they wanted for their dream vineyard they decided to plant their favourite Iberian grapes. 14 years later they proudly tend 4 hectares of Tempranillo, Graciano, Tinta Câo, Touriga Nacional, Sousâo (Vinhão) and Bastardo. I tasted all their wines except for the Tinta Câo, which I hope to try soon, and I have seldom been more impressed or thrilled by a range of wines. They were a superb line up and I will write about them all soon.

However, I was also impressed by David and his incredible passion for this project. he delighted in every aspect of what he was doing and that showed in his wines. The sheer excitement he had for hid land and his wines was lovely to see. I fact when I described his land as an estate he was so proud and so excited that I felt it too, it was as though his work had really paid off for him. 

Bastardo is the traditional main grape of Dâo and is used in the Douro, for wine and Port, Madeira and Alentejo, but is also strangely used in the Jura region of France where it is called Trousseau. It’s a vigorous low yielding plant and David dry farms it without irrigation.

The colour comes from skin contact and what a lovely colour it is, somewhere between wild salmon and pale cranberry juice.

The nose offers rose petal aromas, some strawberries and cream notes, mineral earthy notes, some herbs and some pomegranate too.

The palate has lovely weight and a creamily ripe texture that caresses the palate with soft red fruit with an underlying orange acidity with red fruit highlights. There are some light spices and Mediterranean herbs too. The acidity is perfectly judged, making the wine fresh, lively and clean without being in the least bit tart.

There is a fair bite of tannin for a rosé, just enough to give some elegance and structure, and a long finish that delights with redcurrant and cranberry fruit. This is a really satisfying and fine rosé of exceptional quality, it is not exactly light weight, but neither it is it heavy, but it is refreshing and lively. The most complex and fine example I have had in a long time and one of the 2 or 3 best I have ever tasted – 92/100.

This is utterly delicious and very drinkable as well as being a complex rosé. I think it would be  perfect wine to drink with seafood, tapas, starters, picnics, barbecues or just some little nibbles like cheese straws. If you are a fan of rosé but have never tasted a really fine one, then please give this delightful wine a go.
Available in the UK from Berry Bros and Rudd for £17.50 per bottle.