Are We Witnessing The Rose Wine Renaissance?
- By Dominic Donaldson
- Published 03/10/2010
- Wine and Spirits
- Unrated
Rose wine is one of those wines that is the victim of fashion. In the 1970s, the pink stuff was trendy and middle-class England wouldn't dream of attending a dinner party without a bottle of the plonk.
How things changed in the decades that followed, but now it seems we are witnessing something of a rose renaissance.
There are three ways in which Rose wine can be made. The most common is when the wine is made as the primary product. Producers crush red grapes, and then the skins are left in contact with the juices for two or three days. Next, the grapes are pressed and the red skins are discarded instead of being left in contact through the fermentation process, as they would be in the production of red wine.
Most of the strong flavours found in red wine, the tannins and other compounds, are found in the skins of the grapes, and so because the skins are removed for rose, the taste of the wine is more akin to white than red. The longer the skins have been left in with the juice, the darker and more intense the resulting wine.
An
other way rose wine is made is as a by-product of the fermentation of red wine. The technique's called bleeding the vats. To impart more colour and tannin into a wine, the winemaker has to remove some of the pink juice at an early stage to concentrate the wine. This pink juice can then be separately fermented to make rose.
Occasionally, a technique called blending is used in which a mix of red and white wine is used to produce rose. This is only really used in the Champagne region, and even in this region it's quite rare, with many wine producers discouraging the practice.
Although rose wine has been relatively unfashionable in the UK for some time, this is by no means the case in France, in the south in particular, where it is the most common colour for a bottle to be found on the tables of the trendy bistros of St Tropez.
So don't be afraid to bring out the rose at home for guests. This delightful, refreshing wine is great served at barbeques as a chilled alternative to white wine, or be brave and serve it at a dinner party with antipasto, goat's cheese, chicken pates, veal or cold cuts of Italian meats like salami and pancetta.
How things changed in the decades that followed, but now it seems we are witnessing something of a rose renaissance.
There are three ways in which Rose wine can be made. The most common is when the wine is made as the primary product. Producers crush red grapes, and then the skins are left in contact with the juices for two or three days. Next, the grapes are pressed and the red skins are discarded instead of being left in contact through the fermentation process, as they would be in the production of red wine.
Most of the strong flavours found in red wine, the tannins and other compounds, are found in the skins of the grapes, and so because the skins are removed for rose, the taste of the wine is more akin to white than red. The longer the skins have been left in with the juice, the darker and more intense the resulting wine.
An
Occasionally, a technique called blending is used in which a mix of red and white wine is used to produce rose. This is only really used in the Champagne region, and even in this region it's quite rare, with many wine producers discouraging the practice.
Although rose wine has been relatively unfashionable in the UK for some time, this is by no means the case in France, in the south in particular, where it is the most common colour for a bottle to be found on the tables of the trendy bistros of St Tropez.
So don't be afraid to bring out the rose at home for guests. This delightful, refreshing wine is great served at barbeques as a chilled alternative to white wine, or be brave and serve it at a dinner party with antipasto, goat's cheese, chicken pates, veal or cold cuts of Italian meats like salami and pancetta.
Dominic Donaldson
Dominic Donaldson is a wine expert. Find out more about Rose wine and the bottles waiting to be discovered.
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