Joanna Simon’s rosé picks to see out summer

Joanna Simon’s rosé picks to see out summer

The clocks are still forward, the mercury’s still above twenty degrees, the swallows are still north and the smell of suncream’s still in the air.

Autumn’s still not properly here, in short, and it’s only right to celebrate the last of summer with a good cold bottle of rosé or two tucked into the fridge.

So we’re delighted to see a good number of rosés from our family-owned producers singled out in Joanna Simon’s ‘Prime Time for Pink’ selection for seeing out the summer with.

We’ve lined them up below, alongside quotes from Joanna. Fill the fridge, fill your glass, and toast a long, drawn-out end to 2025’s remarkable sunshine.

And of course, as Joanna points out, rosés make incredibly underrated food wines. So even if the longer nights have started drawing in, set a bottle aside for dinner and let it whisk you back to summer again the moment you open it.

Many thanks to Joanna for highlighting these brilliant (and excellent value) pinks.

Torres Viña Sol Rosé 2024, Spain

‘Lightly strawberry-fruity, spicy blend of Garnacha (aka Grenache) with Carineña from the actively eco-friendly Torres family. Good, clean fun at a fair price.’

Guigal Côtes du Rhône Rosé 2024, Rhône, France

‘The Guigal family’s Grenache dominant, traditional saignée-method rosé is as good as ever – full-on red berry, pink grapefruit, cream and smoked paprika spice. One of my perennial favourites and very good with food.’

Jean Leon 3055 Rosé Organic 2023, Penedès, Spain

‘An interesting blend of Pinot Noir and Garnacha with a salmon-pink colour, succulent summer berry fruit, a light peppery top-note and a complementary twist of citrus-peel bitterness.’

Musar Jeune Rosé 2022, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon

‘A saignée-method, Cinsault-based rosé with 15% Mourvèdre. Light on alcohol, but not on bold orange-pink colour and well-rounded flavour, with a meaty, warm-earth note from the Mourvèdre and raspberry, red currant and orange peel fruit.’

Rogers & Rufus Rosé 2023, Barossa Valley, Australia

‘Easy drinking, well-balanced, pale, dry, lightly textured, red berryish Australian Grenache rosé.’

Joanna reserved extra praise for Rogers & Rufus when the 2022 was singled out as her wine of the week, saying ‘I can advise when to drink their wine – and that’s almost any time.’ Good advice, we’d say.