I despise very nearly all rosé

Let us not mess around,  rosé is rubbish* . With bubbles it can be nice, but as a still wine? I have some beer over here I need to finish off.

My excellent chum Greg MW told me the wonderful Hampshire fizz producer Black Chalk make a very good rosé: Dancer in Pink. Greg is reliable, but he was whammed when I got this recommendation. It has a screwcap, that one thing, at least, is in its favour.

Boring technical bits: it is made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Précoce and Pinot Gris and it is 12%. Now let’s get this over with…

Black Chalk Dancer in Pink 2020Dancer in Pink rosé 2020, Black Chalk

What?

No!

Really?

Yes!

Well bugger me! There is a rosé I like! It comes from wonderful Hampshire and… No? I will check this again… And it is very good!

Consider me gobsmacked! There is a lovely, slightly fat and fulsome Pinot Gris nose that is fully ripe and rather attractive. Dancer in Pink has a lot of nice strawberry fruit and even, good god, some cherry deliciousness.

Black Chalk Dancer in Pink smells good, really good! I like it! Well, it is good to experience new things and have one’s mind opened to new pleasures!

Dancer in Pink’s palate also has a quite compelling degree of ripe fruit weight. It is not insipid, thin, harsh, bitter or any of those appalling characteristics that rosé wines normally revel in forcing you choke back to avoid offending your hosts who are basically expecting you to drink dilute, pink-hued vomit.

The fruit has some dimension, but I would not say I recognise the flavour profile from any Hampshire sparkler I have tried, so some people might be picky about terroir expression. Bollocks to that! It is certainly lovely and I never thought I would expect that from a still rosé.

It has got some length, sapid (but not screeching) acidity too, but the fruit! The fruit is wonderful! What a winner!

Put a bottle in the fridge, drink it when it is chilled – it does not even need to be really chilled – and keep drinking until your next order of Dancer in Pink arrives from Black Chalk!

With a screwcap it will last well into next year, but that does not matter; my home county has delivered the perfect drink for the summer – Dancer in Pink!

Full marks go to Black Chalk boss and winemaker Jacob Leadley for brilliant selection of vineyard sites with concordant grape varietals. What skill making this! The man is a genius!

Without a shadow of a doubt, the very best still rosé I have ever drank. Brilliant and worth every penny!


Buy direct from Black Chalk and buy damned quick! This beauty will fly out of the cellar!


*Henceforth, all highlighted text will do something when you roll your pointer over it or click it.

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