Tommasi Le Fornaci, Rosé

This is a delicious, very pretty and quietly engaging Rosé that will make you think of the South of France before you realise it's from the shores of Lake Garda.

With a colour befitting Instagram, it is a real treat of a Rosé with flavours of pink grapefruit, peach and blossom on the nose and a clean, vibrant palate that balances the sunshine of the region with refreshing acidity from the grapes grown in high altitude vineyards.

This is really good winemaking, blending the Valpolicella grape of Rondinella with another indigenous variety called Turbiana. Essentially, this is a Rosé that belnds two neighbouring regions, both of which face Garda itself: Valpolicella and Lugana.

The two grapes are picked and pressed separately, with a very short maceration of the Rondinella grapes (they are red) before the two sets of juices are blended together for the fermentation. After this, the wine matures for 4 months in stainless steel before being bottled.

The Tommasi family are a formidable force in the Veneto wine region, having made wines here for over 120 years and spanning four generations. In recent decades their focus has moved from the northern reaches of their home in the Veneto to the volcanic soils of Etna in Sicily, Monte Vulture in Basilicata and to the aristocratic charm of Tuscany. The wines are impeccably well-made wherever they go and portray the essence of the region as honestly, and richly, as possible. It's often alarming to try wines from their other projects and wonder just how they became so adept at changing places, and checking oneself to see - are these wines really made by the same people who make the legendary Ripasso and Amarone wines?!

It's a skill that comes from generations of respect and essentially treating all land with the same approach of questions: what does it offer; how has it been treated before; what route will take it to its best... I suppose that when you adopt that sort of approach, you're likely to be fairly successful in whatever you do.