Black Cottage rosé 2016

Black Cottage rosé 2016, 12.5%, New Zealand

(£10.99 on multi buy or £12.99, Majestic or via Wine Searcher) 

A slightly more expensive option on Saturday Kitchen this time – but it’s worth it.

I was matching it to a delicious but tricky dish by Sabrina Ghayour: harissa lamb with cumin-fried padron peppers and peach, mint and feta salad. Well, maybe not one dish but three! A proper flavour extravaganza…

Rosé just felt right. Richer whites worked (funny how often white works well with lamb – so never rule it out, especially if you personally prefer whites to reds). As did lighter reds – we tried a Chilean País and a South African Cinsault that both did a decent job.

But really it was rosé that hit the mark. The freshness picked up on the peaches. The succulence soothed the spice and coped with the padron peppers. And that extra bit of body and oomph worked really well with the lamb. It was the most natural fit.

It’s quite a classic style of rosé, this one – tasted blind you might put it in France or Italy – but it just has that extra bit of richness that makes it a fine partner for the food. As rosé so often is…

Studio guest, comedian Russell Howard, joked in his Bristolian argot how he could ‘really nail that’, adding how it was ‘really drinkable’. It certainly seemed to go down well in studio – and in the green room afterwards.

(Peter, 7/10, September 2017)