The ever-popular Domaine de Sours Rose 1998 from Bordeaux pounds 4

The ever-popular Domaine de Sours Rose 1998 from Bordeaux (pounds 4.99, Sainsbury's), though pale in colour, is surprisingly rich in black-cherry fruit. Joannis Rose, Vin de Pays de Vaucluse (pounds 3.99, Booths Supermarkets) is a typical low-priced example, and is sweetly gluggable. Here is a rose-tinted shopping list.The tour begins in France, which has always been an enthusiastic producer for the summertime market. Just as you're happy to drink stuff on holiday that you wouldn't touch back home, so a rose comes into its own when the sun's out Or so the theory goes.

To test it, I sat down with two dozen roses on one of the hottest days of the year And, shock horror, I enjoyed myself. What's more, there was good stuff coming from all over the world. Rose flavours are typically soft, fresh, and characterised by red berries rather than black. This is not meant to be "serious" wine. Just as important, it accounts for a lower proportion of the tannins and other compounds that give red wine its structure and ageing potential. This explains the lighter colour, from pale salmon to something almost indistinguishable from true red wine. There are good technical reasons to get bored by pink wine. Rose is nearly always made from black grapes whose skins spend less time in contact with the juice.

If Chateau Haut-Brion is on the level of Beethoven and industrial plonk on a par with Aqua, then most rose ranks closer to Celine Dion than to Scriabin With few exceptions, it is Muzak Wine. POINT ME at a bottle of rose, well chilled, and I go distinctly lukewarm. Especially if it means I will have to get rid of The Official Star Trek Cooking Manual.. The bad ones are anonymous, international orphans designed for an anonymous, international market.But I now have the right idea My new policy is called: buy one, set one free. For every cookbook I bring into the house, I have to lose one from my collection. It's going to make me think hard about buying something called The Feng Shui Cookbook (Creating health and harmony in your kitchen), or Simply The Best Vegetarian Barbecue Recipes.

The good ones have a sense of their own time and their own place, and always leave you with a great idea or two. It has to have something to say; it has to say it well; it has to have recipes that actually work; and it has to have a reason to be, other than "why not". I could have said it for her in three words - making a quid; churning them out; whipping up another.So from now on, a cookbook has to earn its place on my shelves. "When I was asked to write about salad dressings," she wrote, "I thought, why not?" Why not.