2011 Rogers & Rufus Rose, Barossa, South Australia

This has got to be one of the great roses. A good cheap rose is almost as hard to find  as  a good (cheap) pinot noir. This may be up there in price (just on $20.00), but it is so good, you won't worry. It's that gorgeous salmon pink: so of that colour that it could be a pink champagne, but it also  has a tinge or rusted iron red. The grape is Grenache (picked from vineyards of friends), so perhaps that's to be expected. It smells and tastes of tomatoes but in the perfume there is then a come-on of apricots and cheese. It's as dry as sand (and just as well, for the winemakers say it's their dream of beachside perfection). It's medium-bodied, with a lingering full palate. My god it's good! Such a joy to find. I bought it at the bottle shop in North Bondi, at the bus terminus, because I was heading to my younger sister's flat, and if there is one thing she enjoys, it's a good rose. The bottle is stunning: who else has a cloth tab under the stelvin cap with their logo, R&R, in red. Gorgeous!