Rosé – know what to look for as the season approaches

I’ve been hunting high and low to find a new and exciting Rose that is going to knock your socks off.  I can tell you, it ‘aint as glamorous as it sounds.  For starters, there are some shocking rosé wines out there, they may even put hairs on your chest!

Here is a little chart which outlines my general approach to the search for the right pink:

A little info about rosé wine making:

There are three major ways to produce rosé wine: skin contact, saignée and blending.

Skin Contact

As it says on the tin, the red grapes are crushed and the juice remains in contact with the skin for a short period of time – a couple of days.  The skins are then pressed and discarded.  The longer the skin remains in contact with the juice the higher up my colour chart you go!

Saignée (bleeding)

More of a byproduct of red wine making.  When a winemaker wants to make a more tannic red wine (therefore increase the skin to juice ratio) they will bleed off some of the juice early on in the process.  That pink juice can be fermented separately to produce a Saignée rosé.

Blending

Yes, it’s true, some rose is the simple result of mixing red and white wine together!  But, this is quite uncommon and in France illegal.  Except, surprisingly, in Champagne where it is accepted – although many high end producers do not use this method, they will adopt the saignée method instead.

Stay tuned for the launch of our new, super Rosé discovery!