Howard Park Jeté Rosé NV
- 94
- $50
- Drink by: 2025-2023
Share
My favourite of the Jeté range, this is a cracking Rosé, and wonderful value when compared with similar wines around the globe. Perhaps we should not be surprised with Nic Bowen as the winemaker, given the time he spent with Ed Carr at Arras. For me, the current sparkling releases under the Jete label are the best I’ve seen. From the Great Southern and Pemberton, the wine is Pinot Noir and with 13% Chardonnay. The current base wine is from the 2021 vintage, which happens to be Nic’s first vintage at Howard Park. The wine spent just over 2 1/2 years on lees. Dosage is three grams per litre. When compiling the blend, the team select parcels of Pinot Noir with good colour. A gentle pink hue, this is a fresh and elegant style with excellent focus and impressive length. There is a creamy texture and fine balance throughout. Hints of raspberries, cranberries, pink grapefruit, spices and a touch of strawberry, with a fine line of oystershells and sea breezes in support. A lovely lingering finish, this should provide pleasure for at least the next six to eight years.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
