Producing a good rosé is more challenging than you may think
Producing a good rosé is more challenging than you may think
I once offered a friend some rosé and he replied: “I don’t like any kind of shandy.” It took me a moment to realise he thought I had mixed red and white wine, but it got me wondering how many people understand what rosé is - so here’s enough detail to impress friends over a chilled glass! You can make white wine from red grapes, but not red wine from white grapes. “Well, thank you,” I hear you mutter, “that’s as clear as mud - how helpful.”
Actually, it’s the colour of the grape skin that matters. The flesh and juice are almost always pale yellow. Yes, there are grapes with red-tinted flesh, but if you’re going to be pernickety, I could point out that skins are usually green or purple, so let’s not bicker. Rosé, or ‘blush’, is made using red-skinned grapes with white flesh. They get smooshed up into a big pulpy mess, then two important things happen. Firstly, the grapes are fermented at a cool temperature, just like white wine. Secondly the red grape skins are only left in contact with the juice briefly - typically half a day to three days. Red wine often ferments with the skins for weeks. Only a limited amount of ‘redness’ transfers to the juice, and the result is pink!
The process isn’t just about colour though. White wine is revered for delicate flavours, often compared to white fruits such as peaches, apples or pears. These flavours are easily overpowered by stronger dark-fruit flavours, or made bitter by tannins. Making rosé wine is about infusing enough ‘red flavours’ into the juice, without introducing too much flavour or tannin. Other issues such as aroma and acidity also have to be balanced, so it’s not easy. This is why good rosé wine is nearly always delicate on the nose and in the mouth.
One beauty of rosé is that its appearance offers real clues to its style - the darker the colour the more ‘red influence’ there is. Grape variety etc. makes a difference, but as a crude rule of thumb, if you don’t enjoy a rosé, try one that is paler or darker. The difficulties involved in making good rosé mean that a truly cheap bottle is likely to lack balance, so don’t be put off if you’ve only ever tried cheap rosé. The best way to find out what you like is to try a variety, so why not organise a tasting? If you’ve never organised a wine tasting, what could be easier to organise than a tasting of rosés - start with the palest and end with the reddest to fully appreciate them. Cheers!
By Dave Anning