Côte-de-Thongues, Thorbes, Languedoc, France

Seriously elegant and quaffable rosés. Jancis Robinson recently positioned the Montrose 1701 rosé in the top 3 French rosés.

Recently we have been fortunate enough to able to acquire this highly recommended wine.

Domaine Montrose was established as a family domaine in 1701 and is now run by Bernard and son Olivier Coste. They raise their grapes in a traditional manner - with grape varieties picked at night to retain freshness and then vinified separately, with the slightest skin contact to pick up the colour, then blended to make the final wine. The philosophy of Domaine Montrose is to seek elegance above all else. This means they harvest theirgrapes early, favour short macerations, extract the juice carefully, and use oak barrels very sparingly.

Although it's slightly unusual to see Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, ripeness is never a problem in the south of France and this touch of cabernet gives the wine a concentrated core that many Rosés lack.