Wine Club: six pale, pale pink rosés from FromVineyardsDirect

If you don’t like fine, well-priced Provencal rosé – crisp, clean, lively, refreshing and perfect for spring – then look away now. If, however, you’re an out ’n’ proud pink-drink lover like me then what are you waiting for? Get stuck in!

Rosé has never been more popular, and with reason: the best are very tasty indeed. I’m not talking about so-called ‘lady petrol’, the grim, off-dry to sweet, neon-coloured, bubblegum-like California Blush Zinfandel, designed for chugging back over ice from a goldfish bowl in the beer garden of the Dog and Vomit on a Sunday afternoon. No, I’m talking about beautifully crafted, pale, pale pink wines made with the same care and attention that goes into the making of the finest reds and whites.

With vineyards on the slopes of Mont Sainte-Victoire (famously beloved of Paul Cézanne) which overlook Aix-en-Provence, Maud Negrel at Mas de Cadenet and Sophie Sumeire-Denante at Sumeire – competitors but great friends – make superlative rosés at very fair prices.

Pale, pale pink rosés made with the same care and attention that goes into the finest reds and whites

Thanks to our old mates at FromVineyardsDirect, we’ve three wines each from the two producers and, with the picnic season in the offing and my Glyndebourne and Lord’s tickets in the bag, I’ve barged my way to the front and nabbed a mixed case.