Winemaker Babylonstoren and RHS partner on the Official Rosé of RHS Chelsea 2021
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has announced a partnership with historic South African fruit and wine farm Babylonstoren to produce an RHS rosé wine.
The wine will launch just before the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on 17 May 2021, for which it will be the official rosé wine. Visitors to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show will be the first to taste the special vintage.
A fresh fruity rosé is best enjoyed soon after bottling and this wine is no exception. Babylonstoren will harvest and bottle the grapes mere weeks before the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021, then rush the first shipment to London. The rosé will feature a designation label on the front of the bottle. The RHS logo and information about Britain’s favourite gardening charity will appear on the label on the back of the bottle.
Babylonstoren RHS Rosé will be available at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021 and for a limited time at some RHS gardens. It will also be available throughout 2021 via Babylonstoren’s friends in the UK, The Newt in Somerset at shop.thenewtinsomerset.com, as well as a variety of independent wine stores and hospitality outlets throughout the UK. The license includes an agreement that Babylonstoren will be the non-exclusive supplier of rosé wine at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021.
As with French rosé, the varietal Mourvèdre is being used for Babylonstoren RHS Rosé. Charl Coetzee, the Babylonstoren Cellarmaster, explains: “We keep it on skins for a mere one to two hours, to ensure a liquid the colour of a delicate sunrise. The result is a fuller and rounder rosé, with a lovely floral character. Its flavour incorporates creamy rhubarb, sweet freshness of watermelon and subtle punch of acidity. The style is elegant and ethereal.”
This is a first for the RHS. The charity has a wine club for members and has also in the past endorsed a limited edition honeybee gin with Warner’s Distillery. However, it has never licensed a specific wine before.
Cathy Snow, Licensing Manager, RHS, says: “Rosé is an ideal spring and summer wine, and the first-ever RHS-endorsed rosé calls to mind flowers, gardens and the outdoors, with the promise that warmer days are on the way. What better way could there be to welcome Britain’s best-loved flower show? We’re delighted to be partnering with Babylonstoren on this wonderful wine.”
Charl Coetzee, Cellarmaster, Babylonstoren, says: “Babylonstoren RHS Rosé is an ideal accompaniment for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, both of which celebrate spring and the coming of summer. We’re thrilled to be working with the RHS and, like our partner in this exciting initiative, we’re looking forward enormously to our first sip of Babylonstoren RHS Rosé.”
