Cinsault Rosé

Cinsault is the quiet specialist of rosé. It is rarely the headline grape and rarely bottled alone, but across the Languedoc, Provence and increasingly South Africa it is the component that supplies what rosé most needs and most often lacks: lightness, perfume and a delicate red-fruit character that does not tip into sweetness.

The vine is heat-tolerant and drought-resistant, well suited to dry Mediterranean hillsides, and it produces large berries with relatively thin skins. That combination gives pale juice with low tannin and moderate alcohol — inconvenient for a serious red wine, close to ideal for rosé. Where Grenache brings body and Syrah brings colour and spice, Cinsault brings lift.

On its own the wine is pale, fragrant and very light: raspberry, redcurrant, rose petal, a hint of white pepper, and a short, clean, dry finish. Alcohol is usually a degree or so lower than its blending partners, which in a category drunk cold and in quantity is a practical virtue.

South Africa has its own history with the grape, where it was long known as Hermitage and where it was crossed with Pinot Noir in 1925 to create Pinotage. Old Cinsault bushvines in the Swartland and Darling are now being rediscovered, and the pale, savoury rosés and light reds made from them have become one of the more interesting things happening in the Cape.

It is a grape that rewards a light hand. Over-extract it and the perfume disappears, leaving something thin and characterless — the precise failure mode that gave Cinsault its modest reputation in the first place.