Howard’s Folly launches rosé

By Lisa Riley

Published: 29 July, 2020

Portuguese boutique winery Howard’s Folly has launched its first rosé wine.

Howard’s Folly’s chief winemaker, Australian-born David Baverstock, said he had chosen a blend of 65% Aragonês and 35% Castelão for the Sonhador Rosé 2019 to create a “fresh and beautifully balanced” wine.

The grapes are produced in Portalegre, in the North East of the Alentejo, some 36 miles north of Estremoz, on the granite foothills of the São Mamede Mountains, where cooler temperatures and old vines deliver wines with complexity and freshness.

“Often with rosés, if they’re dry, they’re too hard and the tendency is to make them a little sweeter,” said Baverstock, who created the business with British businessman Howard Bilton.

“The Sonhador Rosé 2019 is completely dry, there is no added sugar. The concentration on the palate and sweetness come from the fruit we get from the Castelão and Aragonês.”

Wine critic Matthew Jukes, one of the first to review the Sonhador Rosé 2019, described the wine as “a more serious style than many southern French ‘sweeter’ numbers”.

In November last year, Howard’s Folly launched an e-commerce platform and wine club to enable consumers to buy their wines direct from the vineyard.

Awin Barratt Siegel Wine Agencies (ABS) is the exclusive distributor of Howard’s Folly in the UK market.

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