Rosé wine and grapefruit anyone ?

Rosé wine and Grapefruit mix drinks can now be found in French supermarkets and are sold as low alcohol flavoured 'fruit wines' or aperitifs.

I suppose I am a bit of a grumpy old man, but I find the whole idea abhorrent.

There is nothing wrong with grapefruit juice per se. Many rosé wines have much to recommend them. But the thought of mixing the two and bottling them is simply too much.

The resulting mixture (which I do not wish to name) is sickly and stuffed full of sulphur dioxide and is very likely to leave you with a splitting headache if you are unlucky enough to drink too much of it. There is the small matter of the 7% ABV also. Too low for the elixir to be called wine, but enough to seriously intoxicate the unwary.

If you are feeling particularly adventurous or foolhardy you can sample a sparkling version. You can then move on to peach, lime, blackberry, raspberry etc

No doubt this is a new form of wine marketing because the traditional producer/terroir/tradition model means nothing to young 'consumers'.

It is sad to see in a country with so many grape varieties, wine regions and traditions, where it would not be too difficult to find a traditionally made wine with a similar flavour profile to this concoction, and none of the drawbacks.

The greatest crime is probably the attempt to convince people that this is in fact wine when it has nothing to do with it. Although it may perhaps come to pass that upon tasting this, people will seek solace in wine or any other sort of traditional drink.

It is a similar sort of debate to the one opposing British Wine (which is not necessarily wine and definitely not British, being made from imported grape must with various permitted additions from, among other things, different fruit) to English or Welsh wine, which most definitely are wines and produced in this country.

Authenticity versus the 'creations' of marketing people and people who want to make a profit above all else.