AS A rule, the more interesting a wine bottle shape is, the less interesting the contents.

My eldest sister has a magnum of sauvignon blanc (I can't remember the country of origin, but it is irrelevant to the story anyway) that adorns her kitchen worktop. The bottle is turquoise and slender and like a transparent, three-foot high stalagmite, growing from her kitchen worktop, now full of olive oil. The original contents were, in her words, "quite undrinkable".

Sometimes the bottles are a work of art, but the wine inside isn't. I visited some great producers in the south of Germany in 2005, but the wine at one of my stop-offs was not so good. It wasn't terrible but seemed to lack the individuality and the loving care and attention to quality that had been paid to the wines by other producers.

But the bottles were a talking point, all had an embossed, hand-painted image of a broomstick-riding witch, instead of a front label. Apparently there is a story of a witch (or bitch as the German translator mistakenly said) who used to live in the forest above the winery.

Then there is that well known rosé from Portugal that comes in a flattened flask shape. The bottle makes a perfect candle holder, once you have emptied the contents down the drain.

Fortunately, not all rosé in unusually shaped bottles is bad. Take these two examples from Provence, available in the traditional Provencal skittle' shape bottle. A bottle shape once marketed as The Pammy' (after Pamela Anderson), by one cola manufacturer.

Rosé accounts for the majority of wine production in Provence, and most are made with cinsault and grenache grapes. They are best drunk young and very well chilled and served as an aperitif.

Saint Roch-les-Vignes, Côtes de Provence Rosé 2006 is salmon pink in colour and nicely dry. A fifty-fifty blend of grenache and cinsault, it has subtle summer fruit flavours of raspberry and redcurrant, coupled with mineral notes. A good antidote to some of the jammy, darker styles of rosé from the New World.

Roquemartin, Côtes de Provence Rosé 2006 is a cinsault, grenache, syrah blend and a little more fruity in style. It is dry and for such a pale rosé it is packed with flavour - minerals, yeasty notes and flavours of strawberry and cherry.

  • Saint Roch-les-Vignes, Côtes de Provence Rosé 2006, £5.99 at Majestic (20 per cent off when you buy two, until September) 16/20
  • Roquemartin, Côtes de Provence Rosé 2006, £5.99 (buy two, get one free) at Thresher 17/20