While it may have slipped past without some of you noticing, dedicated rose fans would, I'm sure, have been well aware of the first New Zealand Rose Day, which took place on Friday, February 5.
Part of a larger Dare to Pink #sipnzrose campaign to promote rose, the New Zealand Rose Day was a collaborative initiative involving 25 wineries from around the country.
My colleagues, Mr Mac and Sarge, helped me taste this collection on a warm summer's day: the perfect time for a fresh, crisp rose!
Price: $23
Rating: Good to very good
An initial rush of perfume hinting at dried strawberry.
The nose gives the impression of sweetness, yet the palate is dry.
Fresh acidity, appealing though perhaps a little underpowered fruit-wise.
While tighter at first, this really blossomed with aeration, opening up and fleshing out and becoming quite weighty and textured.
Price: $22.85
Rating: Very good
Sweet perfume with talc, rose petal and candy.
Sweet/sour jubes open the weighty palate with strawberry and a bracing crispness.
This opens up and improved dramatically, offering a lovely mouthfeel with sweet fruit on the long, supple finish.
Price: $22
Rating: Very good
Strawberries and cream at first, developing a brambly note.
Quite powerful on the palate with fresh and dried strawberry, watermelon and a hint of balsam.
Richly flavoured and fills the mouth.
A long finish with a zesty element.
Very appealing and flavoursome; just a little grippiness coming with aeration.
Price: $22
Rating: Very good
Raspberry and Fruit Jube with strawberry hints.
Clotted cream and strawberries on the palate.
Nicely balanced, ripe style with an appealing dry finish.
Excellent length, fresh and zesty.
Aeration brings up light cherry notes.
Tasty.
Price: $18
Rating: Good to very good
A subtle nose with fragrance and candyfloss: quietly appealing.
Silky entry with an underlying sweetness, a hint of citrus - perhaps orange zest, moving to a crisp, spicy, bracing finish.
Quite different but appealing with a light honeyed note developing on the finish.
Price: $20
Rating: Good
Strawberries and cream with a sweetly lifted fragrance hinting at rosewater.
A sort of brooding richness on the palate with a grapefruity citrus note hanging on the finish.
Knife-edged ripeness in a nice way: a sweet fruit note comes up with time.
A little heat and firmness becomes apparent with time.
