Eco-Friendly - Rose .....................................................................................................................................................................................................

Côteaux de Tricastin Rosé, 2006 - Domaine de Montine, Grignan, Southern Rhône - £6.42 per bottle This is a pale raspberry-coloured rosé with quite excellent freshness and surprising weight. The nose is summertime fresh with a pervasive strawberry-floral fruit. Again, beautifully balanced which will make it a great drink on its own or a perfect partner with a wide range of foods. The grapes are grown on stony, clay soils in the communes of Valaurie and Griganan and are a blend of 40% Grenache, 35% Syrah and 25% Cinsault, undergoing a maceration péliculaire for 36 hours, prior to being cold-vinified at 15°C for 15 days. Domaine de Montine is situated at Grignan in the heartlands of Tricastin country. Owned by the Monteillet family for three generations, the 70 hectare estate is run by two brothers, Jean-Luc Monteillet who is in charge of wine-making and the cellars and Claude (or Claudy to his friends!) who handles the viticultural side of the business. The domaine is split up in to 55 hectares of vines (45 hectares in the Côteaux du Tricastin communes of Grignan and Valaurie and 10 hectares in the Côtes du Rhône communes of Grillon and Taulignan) and 6 hectares of lavender production, 3 hectares of truffle "oak woods" and a further 6 hectares of woodland. Since 1994, the Monteillet's have been working their vineyards using eco-friendly methods that conform to our requirements to achieve a "smiley face" in the CPW catalogue. All the vines are short-pruned using the Royat cordon method, this guaranteeing low yields from the outset. The soil has seen no man-made fertiliser and all the vineyards have been laid to grass to ensure deep vine-root penetration to add a further layer of mineral complexity and to reduce vine stress. No fungicides or pesticides are used and the maximum yield for the Tricastin vines (which have an average age of 25 years old) is 45 hectolitres/ hectare, well below the legal norm of 52 hectolitres per hectare. Harvesting is 50% manual and 50% by machine, depending on the slopes of the various vineyard zones. The winery is extremely well equipped with temperature-controlled stainless steel vats for the white and rosé. APERITIF/CHARCUTERIE/POULTRY/PASTA/VEGETARIAN ..................................................................................................................................................................