Stormhoek has a new wine out. From wine.co.za:
South African brand Stormhoek this week announced the imminent release of a concept wine in the UK named Couture – a Rosé made by Stormhoek winemaker Graham Knox, in a style intended to be consumed with ice.
[…] Knox credits his wife Dianne for the idea: “I’ve watched my wife drink Rosé for years and the one thing she’s always complained about, was that it tasted watered down when she put ice in it, so I made Couture especially for her!”
“The ongoing popularity of Rosé, the success of Magners Cider ‘over ice’ and a survey we conducted in South Africa, gave us the idea to take Graham’s ‘secret’ and develop it,” says Jason Korman, CEO of Stormhoek Vineyards. “You can serve it many different ways, on ice and even as a mixer – we see it as part of a trend where Rosé can be consumed like a cocktail, making it an even more sophisticated drink.”
What’s interesting to me is, this is the first wine that I am aware of that has been specifically made to taste better with ice. That’s the secret sauce. That, and the fact that Graham Knox, our head winemaker likes to tinker around.
Ice? In wine??!! The purists will all be having heart attacks, of course. Whatever. We just wanted to do something fun and sexy. Conventional wine brands are generally neither. So we had to ditch convention.
[UPDATE:] Stormhoek Couture will debut in a major UK retailer at the end of June.
[Cross-posted on to the Stormhoek blog etc.]
