Some while back I wrote about the Tavel Rosé, Richard Maby’s Prima Donna, I’d bought from the Wine Society. We continue to enjoy it. In fact it gets better as the supply has now moved on from the 2016, which is what I wrote about, to the 2017 vintage.

And yes, the 2017 is even better than the 2016. It is a little paler in colour, but if anything bursting with even more red berry fruits – especially raspberry.

Now the Wine Society have very recently got what was obviously a small parcel of Maby’s new Tavel, the 2016 Libiamo. I grabbed a case of six without hesitation.

At £17 a bottle Libiamo is significantly more expensive than the Prima Donna, at a mere £11. But if I thought the Prima Donna was good, Libiamo is just out of this world. It’s the same deep coloured rosé, with the same burst of red berry fruits. But oh! how the oak barrels in which it is aged come through: as a delightful ambiance of dry sherry. So much dry sherry that it almost feels like a fortified wine – which is brilliant. We were both stunned!

We’ve just drunk a bottle with a quite rich spaghetti with prawns in a sun-dried tomato pesto sauce. They went so well together; the richness of each complementing the other.

No wonder Libiamo is already sold out! I can only hope there will be further supplies!