Quite a few Australian makers produce a Cabernet Rosé. The Yalumba Oxford Landing offers good value for money in a range that’s frequently heavily discounted by the larger chains, and I’m always interested in finding other wines along the same lines.
In November 2007 we found ourselves in Brisbane engaged in an enterprise that didn’t work out the way we would have preferred but provided a couple of unexpected benefits. One was an excellent bed and breakfast establishment located a short walk away from the restaurant enclaves in New Farm and Fortitude Valley.
Our inquiries about a suitable dinner venue on a Friday night found us occupying the second-last available table at the Himalayan Cafe in Brunswick Street and pondering an appropriate wine choice to accompany an unfamiliar cuisine.
Under normal circumstances you’d guess he management would have solved half the problem for you by eliminating anything that was totally inappropriate from the wine list, but the Himalayan Cafe is a BYO establishment, so I had to wander across the road to a nearby pub bottle shop.
I was still totally lacking in inspiration when I sighted a $5 bottle of rose in a display fridge.
“Fine,” I thought. “It’s cold, it probably won’t clash with anything we order and if it does the price means we don’t have to worry.”
As it turned out we enjoyed the Crittenden & Co. Rosé enough to pick up another on the way back to Cream Gables. We’ve found the 2007 vintage in discount chains comfortably under the five dollar mark it has become a semi-permanent fixture in the wine rack - nothing fantastic but good enough for a glass or two with lunch on a warm day.
Another low-cost option in those circumstances would be a lambrusco, and if we hadn’t stocked up on a certain cheap Rosé (if buying half a dozen at a time comes under the heading of stocking up) we’d probably have a bottle or two of the De Bortoli version in the fridge.
There are other options open as you move up the price brackets, of course, and on visits to Stanthorpe, Kingaroy, the Hunter, the Yarra Valley, north-eastern Victoria and the Tamar Valley over the past couple of years we’ve been keeping our eyes peeled for anything that fits the general description of light reds you can keep in the fridge.
One of the earliest ones we found was a Dusty Chill from Dusty Hill Wines in the South Burnett, and we managed to track down another couple in the Hunter Valley but we’ve had more success as we headed further south.
We’d already encountered the Brown Brothers Tarrango before we headed to the Rutherglen/King Valley area in early 2007, and, while I was there to follow the Muscat Trail, we found a couple of gems at the other end of the spectrum. Most significantly, we ran across Pfeiffer Wines just outside Rutherglen and signed up for their Wine Club, which delivers a dozen freight-free to our doorstep twice a year.
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