In Tipping's Tipples this week, Mike Tipping finds a wine that leaves him in the pink.

IT SEEMS that we wine drinkers are consuming much more ros these days. Tesco has just announced that last year sales increased by more than a half. The supermarket chain has now doubled it's range of rose wines to 30. It's a shame Tesco hasn't found room for Jacob's Creek Shiraz Ros 2004 on its list.

Experience tells me that you shouldn't be snobbish about wine. More expensive bottles of wine tend to be good. They're good and you enjoy them but there again you should do, given all that money you've paid out. Often I find that there's much more enjoyment in a bottle of economical stuff. Economical stuff that just turns out to be great!

Jacob's Creek Shiraz Ros 2004 is new to the Creek portfolio and relatively economical at £5.79. Here's a real attention seeker of a wine, with its vibrant pink colour and strongly-scented nose, straight from the strawberry patch. On the flavour front there's plenty of ripe fruit and spice. Most of my palate seems to say that this wine is truly dry but there's a little sweetness in it somewhere, and a sprinkling of pepper too. I'd love to pair it with a fillet of salmon or perhaps serve it at the last of this year's barbecues (or both).

For those of you who aren't convinced by my meandering into the world of ros, can I recommend a red that would slip down nicely at a barbecue too?

The carmenere grape was once widely grown in France but fell out of favour because of its low yield and susceptibility to disease. It seems to do be doing fine in Chile, thank goodness.

Dona Dominga Reserva Carmenere 2002, from Chilean wine producers Vina Casa Silva, is great for those of us who like full, heart-warming reds. This example is nice and smooth with velvety tannins. It has crushed nettles and spices in the nose, coupled with lingering black cherry and bramble flavours.

It would go very nicely with barbecued meats. One to warm you up, outside and in, as the sun slips below the horizon.

Jacob's Creek Shiraz Rose 2004, £5.79 at Asda and Thresher ****

Dona Dominga Reserva Carmenere 2002, £6.99 at Sainsbury's (from mid-September) and Waitrose (from October) ****

Updated: 08:35 Saturday, September 04, 2004