As soon as the sun comes out, patios are filled with pale rosé bottles in ice buckets, often affectionately labelled ‘summer water’. While there is no denying that a crisp glass in the sunshine is a perfect pairing, we’re here to dive a little deeper into everyone’s favourite summer drink. At Le Vignoble, we believe a wine should be valued by its structure, terroir and winemaking method rather than just the colour.
To understand how rosé can range so drastically in style, let’s look at the winemaking. Rosé is made from red grapes, and the secret to the pink hue of rosé wines comes from anthocyanins in the grape skins. Winemakers rely on three main ways to achieve this: direct press, saignée and blending.
With the direct press method, red grapes are picked specifically for making rosé. This is usually a little earlier than picking for red wine to preserve the bright acidity. Once in the winery, the winemaker will decide how long they want the skin to be in contact with the juice. Depending on the grape variety, this can be anywhere from 45 mins to 48 hours (thinner skins require more time for colour extraction, thicker skins means this takes less time). The amount of time on the skins will affect the colour and flavour profiles, as well as tannin structure of the wine. After maceration, the grapes are pressed and fermentation begins. At this point, the process mirrors white winemaking, and the winemaker can choose to age the rosé in barrels for added complexity, or keep it fresh and release a few months later.
Saignée, meaning “to bleed” in French, is a traditional technique which starts as a by product of red wine making. Red grapes are picked at optimal time for red wine, and put into the tank on their skins, and then anywhere between 2 hours and 2 days later, a portion of juice is “bled” from the bottom of the tank. The bled juice has a lovely dark hue already, and is then fermented separately to make rosé, and the remaining juice in the original tank remains with the skins to produce a more concentrated red wine. Once separated, the bled juice follows the same process as the direct press.
The blending method is just as it sounds: blending a small amount of finished red wine into a finished white wine to create a pink wine. While this method is not widely allowed for quality still wines in the Old World, it is famously permitted in Champagne. There, winemakers can blend still Pinot Noir/Meunier with Chardonnay before the second fermentation in the bottle to make a pink sparkling wine. The blending method isn’t widely used, but the benefit is that you can choose a very aromatic grape variety, for example Pinot Gris, and preserve all those lovely aromas and tastes, while adding some colour and a little bit of complexity to the wine.
Reason number one why we love rosé, is that it is an ideal gastronomic wine. It carefully balances the freshness of a white wine while bringing some structure and body of a red to the table. The subtle tannins provide a nice bridge between a white and a red wine, so next time you’re struggling with the red or white dilemma to pair with your food, consider trying a few of the below.
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A light, crisp and mineral driven rosé (think Provence like this one or Pinot Noir based rosé from Sancerre) can be treated similar to a crisp white. They need light, fresh flavours that don’t overwhelm the delicate fruit profiles: think fresh seafood, goats cheese salads or sushi and sashimi.
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Rosé made from grapes such as Grenache such as this wine, Syrah a great example here or Merlot like this one, often carry a little bit more texture, roundness and enough fruit to balance out some spices in food. Wines such as these are perfect for picnic “picky bits” like cheese and charcuterie, olives and crisps and dip as they have enough weight to cut through fats and oils, while still showing fruit flavours.
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Bolder, darker rosés that have had some more skin contact such as this one, can almost be treated like a light red wine. They have notable structure and complexity, often with savoury notes that pair beautifully with earthy dishes such as mushroom risotto, roasted root vegetables, roast turkey with cranberry around the holidays, and even roasted duck. The trick with richer rosés is to serve them a little warmer than you would a light white wine (around 10-12°), if it’s straight out of a freezing fridge, all the complex aromas will be closed off.
Something that often comes up when discussing rosé with customers is how much the colour tells you about the wine. Firstly, there is no correlation between the sweetness of the wine and the colour, and will be impossible to tell. Even with flavour profiling, some lighter rosés will be more intense in taste than darker rosés. The biggest thing to look out for that will indicate the style of rosé will be the grape variety used. And the best way to find what you like in a rosé is to try lots of different ones, made from different grape varieties!
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To recap, rose isn’t just a wine for the patio.
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Men like rose too!
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Not just sweet, stylistic differences - savoury, floral, fruity.
Written by Maja Syska