Fresita Sparkling fruit wine, perfect for a summer's day

Summer is here! Whoop! We'd better enjoy it while we can here in Londontown. I got a bottle of Fresita the other day and decided to take it along to the first ever Club Sandwich Friday lunch hosted at my friend Sig's house. What started as a simple rant on twitter as to why you can't get a decent clubbie in London had evolved into a couple of us twitterers getting together to make a proper club.

Sig and Linda brought the ingredients and I brought the vino. A club sandwich is nothing fancy so no need to bring an expensive claret or Condrieu, something fun and bubbly would do. Fresita was also the result of a twitter convo, someone challenging me to try it as I'd turned my nose up at all those fruit added wines.

So crispy bacon? Check. Ripe avocado and beefsteak tomato? Check. Smoked Ham? Check. Home made bread and boiled guinea fowl eggs (so we got a wee bit fancy)? Check and check. Iceberg lettuce (gotta be iceberg) and condiments? Double Check. And we were off assembling our sandwiches. We cheated a bit and didn't do double deckers but even so it was still hard to get that sandwich into my mouth.

And the Fresita? It was so delicious. Sparkly and fruity but not cloyingly sweet. Some of the comments, "no chemical aftertaste" which I think you often find in those fruity drinks, "tastes like real strawberry cooler" and "lovely".  The reason why? Because it's made with 100% organic strawberry pulp from Chile, handpicked and no added sugar - just, real intense strawberry flavours and aromas, sweet but not sickly sweet, blended with the sparkling wine. The sparkling wine used is a blend of premium chardonnay and s. blanc.

We all agreed that it would be a great alternative to rose because it wasn't as alcoholic (only 8%) or acidic as some of those wines can be. A delicious alternative to Pimm's  or plain sparkling wine. So grab a bottle and head out to the park on this fabulous sunny weekend. Just be sure you don't open it immediately after cycling to your destination (with it in your backpack) or you will have a gushing Fresita fountain on opening ( as we did!).

Fresita is available from Whole Foods in Kensington, £8.99,  formulawine.co.uk at RRP £7.95 (June promotion - down to RRP £5.99) and drinksdirect.co.uk at £7.99.  Full details can be found at: http://www.fresita.com/find-us/united-kingdom/

By The Winesleuth