“Rosé is a wine that should ideally be drunk within two or three years of being made; it is not for keeping, but memories of drinking rosé tend to last much longer. On a shady terrace; around an herb-scented barbecue; outside a café on market day; before lunch by the pool – it accompanies some of life’s most pleasant moments. Perhaps that should be marked on every bottle…” – Peter Mayle, Provence A-Z
I’m not talking about wine coolers or white zinfandel, I’m talking about delicious rosés: the cool, delicate, versatile wine that can hold up to basically everything you pair it with.
It is believed that some of the first wines in ancient times were rosés because they were quickly and easily made and did not require the more modern wine-making tools (i.e. large vats, sturdy presses, etc.). Rosé juice spends as little as a few hours to a couple of days on the skins to produce its light pink color.
From deep raspberry to the lighter rose petal, a rosé’s color indicates how long the grapes have been left to macerate in the juice and skins. A darker rosé spends more time on the skins, and will have a richer, more savory tannic taste. A lighter, more mineral forward rosé could have only spent a few hours macerating before it was pressed and moved into a separate bin to continue to ferment. Another, less common, way of achieving the color is the “saignée” (bleeding) process. Some juice is taken from a fermenting red wine vat in the beginning of the fermentation process. The juice taken will be turned into rosé, while the remaining vat of fermenting red grapes’ flavor will intensify.
Winemakers, especially in France, do not have specific bottle requirements, so the bottles’ labels and shapes can appeal to our lighter more whimsical sides. You may have also noticed that a lot of rosés are screw caps…don’t be discouraged! Screw caps do not indicate cheap wine, but more so encourage the consumer to easily open a bottle of rosé on a whim (without having to worry about where that corkscrew went!).
I am a firm believer that rosé can be enjoyed year round (hey, we drink white in the winter, no?), but for the traditionalists out there, now that the weather is warming up, maybe you would like to swap your deep reds for a nice, crisp, fruity rosé!
MacNeil, Karen. “France.” The Wine Bible. New York: Workman Pub., 2001. 266, 312. Print.
“Rosé Wines of Provence: Ten Fun Facts.” Marvellous Provence. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016. <http://www.marvellous-provence.com/gastronomy/drink/wine/rose-wine-ten-fun-facts>
