2011 Domaine de Millet Rosé, Côtes de Gascogne, France (£8.95, Yapp Brothers tel. 01747 860423 & www.yapp.co.uk). My wine recommendation this week is half tasting note and half ground-breaking science! Let’s start with science – there is a little known grape in France called Egiodola. It is a cross between Fer Servadou and Abouriou (themselves not exactly everyday propositions) which Pierre-Marcel Durquety came up with in 1954. There are only 300 hectares are planted and Millet presumably has a fair tranche. L’Egiodola, in Basque, means ‘pure blood’, which, bearing in mind the colour of this wine, is not far wrong. This beautiful, plump, red cherry cocktail-like rosé is made from 80% Egiodola and 20% Cabernet Franc. It is rich enough to go with decent barbecue fare and also bone dry, so if you wanted to glug it as an apero no one would complain. It looks very smart indeed and the price tag doesn’t trouble the scorers so, all in all, there is an awful lot going for this wine. For me, the label and hypnotic aroma, food matching acumen and scrummy flavour are only useful once you have memorised the science bit, so you can impress your pals and give this wine another dimension of wine trivia intrigue.
