Crazy Experimental Wines: A New Rosé Arrives

The first time I tasted one of Chris Boiling's Crazy Experimental Wines was at Dartington Hall.

Master of Wine Sarah Abbott had organised a traditional Georgian supra, a feast celebrating Georgian food, wine and hospitality. The wines being poured that evening had all been carefully chosen, but one of the most interesting wasn't actually on the table.

A few days earlier, Chris Boiling had returned from Georgia with a tank sample of a wine he'd been working on. He was in the early stages of a new project and wanted some honest feedback. Sarah and I tasted it together that evening.

That tank sample would eventually become Crazy Experimental No. 2.

A couple of years later, we're still selling it.

That first tasting also introduced me to the idea behind Crazy Experimental Wines. Chris had spent years writing about wine, judging wine and making wine, with a particular interest in the countries and grape varieties of Central and Eastern Europe. The project gave him a chance to work directly with growers and winemakers he admired, producing small batches of wines that explored places and grapes that rarely receive much attention in the UK.

Now there's a new one.

Crazy Experimental Wines 08: The Rosé

Crazy Experimental Wines No. 08, a single-vineyard Kékfrankos rosé from Csepel Island near Budapest.

The latest release in the series arrived in time for the Buckfast Abbey Food Festival, where customers had their first chance to try it.

Made from Kékfrankos, a grape variety better known for red wines, this rosé comes from a single vineyard on Csepel Island in the River Danube, just south of Budapest.

What makes it different is the way it was made.

Rather than being fermented quickly and bottled young, the wine spent five months in a Hungarian oak barrel on its fine lees, with regular stirring throughout. The aim was to produce a rosé with more texture and complexity than the style is normally associated with.

The result is a dark pink wine that immediately reminded us of strawberries and cream.

There's plenty of freshness, but also enough weight and texture to make it a genuinely useful food wine. We've enjoyed it with salmon, duck and cheese, though it would happily cope with plenty of summer dishes too.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is who enjoys it. Rosé drinkers love it, which is hardly unexpected. More interestingly, it seems to win over plenty of people who normally tell us they don't drink rosé at all.

Just One Barrel

Like all the wines in the Crazy Experimental series, production is tiny.

In this case, just a single barrel was made.

That's part of what makes the project interesting. Chris isn't trying to create a permanent range. Each wine explores a particular grape, place or idea, and once it's bottled, attention turns to the next one.

We were impressed from the first tasting.

The wine is now available at Wickhams for £22.50 per bottle.