Review: Clandestine Vineyards Deux Rebelles Rosé 2022 aka the start of rosé season

I have a small mountain of rosé to open at casa di Graham because everyone is making pink stuff now (and so much of it is somewhere between gross and unexciting).

In other words, expect some rosé reviews in coming weeks.

Let’s kick off with something more interesting – this Clandestine Vineyards Deux Rebelles Rosé 2022 comes from Clandestine’s new range of cloudier/contemporary wines (which has lobbed up a few interesting things). Here, we see Mount Barker Shiraz which spent some time on skins and bottled with minimal filter/fining (which gives just a little cloudiness).

It’s wonderful to see more acceptance of cloudy pink/white wines, because fining and filtration can really rob wines of flavour and texture. Of course, that’s a good thing sometimes (particularly with white wine tannins), but other times you lose a little soul. Fitting that this Clandestine is a grippy textural thing, with phenolics driving the package. It could do with just a bit more generosity to counter that phenolic pith, but pink grapefruit intensity at the edges makes this a win.

This isn’t an easy, smashable pink wine, but it is both serious and interesting. I like.

Best drinking: now. 17/20, 90/100. 13%, $25. Clandestine Vineyards website. Would I buy it? Worth sharing a bottle.