Le Petit Ballon Wine Subscription June 2017 – Life is Rosé

Le Petit Ballon Wine Subscription June 2017 – Life is Rosé

June — summer is truly here and we even have really warm weather here in the UK! Summer is all about sunshine, warm evenings in the garden with family and friends, BBQs, ice cream, picnics in the park and of course, rosé. Rosé is the most summery of wines and the chosen star of the month by Le Petit Ballon.

Le Petit Ballon is a wine subscription service. You can find my previous reviews of Le Petit Ballon boxes here.

Here’s a little summary of how it works:

• Every month you receive two bottles of wine carefully selected to match the profile that you’ve provided by taking a wine quiz when you sign up. The wines are chosen by expert Jean-Michel Deluc, former Sommelier Chef at The Ritz.
• There’s usually a theme for each month which is fun — this month’s theme is rosé.
• With your wine, you also get The Gazette magazine which is a little publication that tells you everything there is to know about wine without all the waffle!
• For each bottle, you get an information card with information about the wine and access to tasting advice and tips in the form of posts and videos.
• Your wine is delivered to your home which is very comfortable and can you imagine anything better arriving at your doorstep? No, me neither.
• There are two monthly subscription options: Grape Expectations (£24.90) with two great value wines or Age of Raisin (£39.90) with two prestigious labels for connoisseurs
• You can pause or cancel your subscription at any time.
• You can also enjoy 20% off the range to stock up your wine cellar if you wish to buy more.

“Rosé is somewhere between a red and a white wine stylistically; red fruit flavours but with the delicacy and freshness of a white wine. Made either by a bleeding process, where the wine is left in contact with the skins of the grapes, or by pressing black grapes, both methods can produce excellent wine.

The method to watch out for is “mixing” red and white wine. This is a low quality process and should really be avoided at all times! Beware of cheap new-world supermarket wines that can sometimes be made in this way!”

| Jean-Michel Deluc Master Sommelier & Founder of Le Petit Ballon |

This month, Le Petit Ballon is highlighting rosé wines which is perfect as I love a chilled rosé in the summer. I received a beautiful bottle of rosé — Fanette 2016 — and a bottle of red too — Le Gaillard 2014 — in this month’s box.

Let’s start with the rosé since it’s rosé month! This wine has won a rosé competition this year and is quite special. It comes in a very stylish bottle and the wine itself is a gorgeous pale peachy salmon pink. It’s a light and fruity rosé that is refreshing and perfect for summer. It’s not very sweet like most rosé wines but elegant and fresh. It almost tastes like a white wine compared to the rosé wines that I’ve tried.

It makes a great summer companion for sunny evenings with friends and family in the garden, enjoying the warm evenings together.

It’s not just the rosé that was extraordinary in this month’s box! The Le Gaillard 2014 was very different from most red wines I drink too — in a good way! It’s really robust and powerful and I want to say that it’s like a proper red wine — complex, deep and full of spice and flavour. It’s really dark, almost violet or black, and the colour reflects the rich and round flavour of the wine very well. This wine was delicious and beautiful, sipped slowly and enjoyed over a meal.

I was sent a box to review for this post. As always, all my reviews are 100% honest and all thoughts and opinions are my own.