Rosé

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(Redirected from
Rosé wine
)
For other uses, see Rosé (disambiguation).
Sparkling rosé in the cave of Schramsberg Vineyards, in Napa, California, USA
A rosé wine from Washington state, USA

A rosé (French:

grape varieties used and winemaking
techniques. Usually, the wine is labelled rosé in French, Portuguese, and English-speaking countries, rosado in Spanish, or rosato in Italian.

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

Provençal rosé to sweet White Zinfandels and blushes. Rosé wines are made from a wide variety of grapes and can be found all around the globe.[1][2]

When rosé wine is the primary product, it is produced with the skin contact method. Black-skinned grapes are crushed and the skins are allowed to remain

fermentation (as with red wine making). The longer the skins are left in contact with the juice, the more intense the color of the final wine.[4]

When a winemaker desires to impart more

tannin and color to red wine, some of the pink juice from the must can be removed at an early stage in what is known as the Saignée (from French bleeding) method. The red wine remaining in the vats is intensified as a result of the bleeding, because the volume of juice in the must is reduced, and the must involved in the maceration becomes more concentrated. The pink juice that is removed can be fermented separately to produce rosé.[5]

The simple mixing of

Champagne. Even in Champagne, several high-end producers do not use this method but rather opt for the saignée method.[6]

History

Many of the earliest red wines were closer in color to modern rosé since many of the early winemaking techniques involved pressing soon after harvest.

It is not known when the first wine labeled as a rosé was produced, but it is very likely that many of the earliest red wines made were closer in appearance to today's rosés than they would be to modern red wines. This is because many of the winemaking techniques used to make today's darker, more tannic red wines (such as extended maceration and harder pressing) were not widely practised in ancient winemaking. Both red and white wine grapes were often pressed soon after harvest, (with very little maceration time) by hand, feet or even sack cloth, creating juice that was only lightly pigmented.[7]

Even after

Hugh Johnson, the vin d'une nuit or "wine of one night", which were pale-rosé colored wines made from juice that was allowed only a single night of skin contact. The darker wine produced from must that had longer skin contact were known as the vin vermeilh (or pinpin to the English) was considered to be of much lesser quality.[7]

Similarly, in the early

Dom Perignon) learned how to better separate the skins from the must and produce truly white wine from red wine grapes.[7]

Even as Champenois moved towards producing sparkling wines, they continued to produce both sparkling and still rosés often by means of blending a small amount of red wine to "color up" an already-made white wine. The depth of color was dependent on the amount red wine added, with the red wine having more influence on the resulting flavor of the wine if added in larger volumes.[1]

After World War II

In the United States, a stuck fermentation while producing a red wine from Zinfandel would lead to the development of the popular rose-colored wine White Zinfandel.

The history of rosé would take a dramatic turn following the conclusion of World War II when two Portuguese wine producer families both released sweet, slightly sparkling rosés to the European and American markets. These wines, Mateus and Lancers, would go on to set record sales in Europe and the US and dominate the Portuguese wine industry for most of the 20th century, but their popularity has declined in the recent years of the 21st century. While they still have a presence in the European and US markets, the trend towards traditional, drier rosés, as well as the development of American "blush" wines like White Zinfandel, have cut into their market shares.[1]

In the early 1970s, demand for white wine exceeded the availability of white wine grapes, so many California producers made "white" wine from red grapes, in a form of saignée production with minimal skin contact, the "whiter" the better.

yeast goes dormant, or in some cases dies off before all the sugar is turned to alcohol.[9] Winemaker Bob Trinchero put it aside for two weeks, then upon tasting it he decided to sell this pinker, sweeter wine.[10]

In 1976, wine writer

Sonoma County, California.[8] Charles Kreck had been one of the first to plant Cabernet Sauvignon vines in California, and offered Mead a wine made from Cabernet that was a pale pink and not yet named.[8] Kreck would not call it "White Cabernet" as it was much darker in color than red grape "white" wines of the time, though not as dark as the rosés he had known.[8] Mead jokingly suggested the name "Cabernet Blush"; later that evening, he phoned Kreck to say that he no longer thought the name to be a joke.[11] In 1978 Kreck trademarked the word "Blush".[12] The name caught on as a marketing name for the semi-sweet wines from producers such as Sutter Home and Beringer. Today, Blush wine appears on wine lists more often as a category, rather than a specific wine. In 2010 Mill Creek produced a rosé wine for the first time in years, although Jeremy Kreck (Charles' grandson and current winemaker) chose not to use the Blush name.[13]

Although "blush" originally referred to a color (pale pink), it now tends to indicate a relatively sweet pink wine, typically with 2.5% residual sugar;[14] in North America, dry pink wines are usually marketed as rosé but sometimes as blush. In Europe, almost all pink wines are referred to as rosé regardless of sugar levels, even semi-sweet ones from California. As the term rosé regained popularity in the US market, shares of wine labeled "blush" declined from 22% of all wines consumed in the US in 1997 to 15% in 2003.[1]

In the United States, a record 2005 California crop has resulted in an increased production and proliferation of

varietals used for rosés, as winemakers chose to make rosé rather than leave their reds unsold.[15]

Rosé became a viral drink in 2015, with men who drink rosé being referred to as brosé.

frosé, was developed at the Bar Primi in New York.[18]

Winemaking methods

One method of making rosé is to press the wine early (often after 12–24 hours of skin contact) while red wine producers will leave the juice macerating with the skins for several days or even weeks longer.

Rosés can be produced in a variety of ways with the most common method being early pressing of red grape varieties after a very short period, usually 12–24 hours, of skin-contact (maceration). During maceration,

antioxidants, protecting the wine from degradation of oxygen exposure. While red wines will often have maceration last several days to even several weeks, the very limited maceration of rosés means that these wines will have less stable color, potential flavor components and oxygen protection. This contributes to wines with shorter shelf-life that are meant to be consumed soon after release.[4]

A sparkling rosé Champagne

Saignée

Mourvedre
and rosé that had been bled off (saignée) from the red wine juice.

The saignée (French:

wine personalities such as François Millo, president of the Provence Wine Council (CIVP) who claim that saignée method rosés are “not true rosés" because the bleeding process (which is not pressed with the must) is more of an afterthought.[19]

Vin gris

Unlike the maceration method which gives some, albeit very brief, time for the juice to be in contact with the skins

Morocco where the orange-pink wine is made from a blend of Cinsault, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon.[1]

Decolorization

Another method of producing rosé is to severely decolorize a red wine using absorbent charcoal such as activated carbon. This purer form of charcoal obtained by the dry distillation of carbon compounds (such as wood or peat) has a high ratio of surface area to weight that adsorbs color compounds as well as other phenolics and colloids in a wine. While it can be used to decolorize a wine, often much more than just color is stripped from the wine which makes this method very rarely used in the production of quality rosés.[1]

Color

See also: Wine color
Rosés can come in a variety of colors depending on the grape variety and method of production.
nocking point wines gametime rosé
A bottle of Gametime rosé from Nocking Point Wines in dark green glass.

With the exception of very few varieties, known as

tannins, acetaldehyde and pyruvic acid) to form polymeric pigments. The anthocyanins are extracted from the skin during the process of maceration which can last from a few hours in the case of some rosés (which usually only have 20–50 mg/L of anthocyanins) to several days in the case of most red wines (which often have in excess of 250 mg/L of anthocyanins).[1][4]

A rosé from Sancerre

Anthocyanins have the ability to change into three different forms—colorless, red and blue—depending on the

oxidative winemaking techniques that limit the development of acetaldehyde and other browning pigments that could add color to the wine.[1]

According to Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Provence[20] in France, rosés in Provence display one of the different colors: melon (cantaloupe), peach, redcurrant, grapefruit, mango, mandarin.

Many studies have shown that the color of wine influences consumers' perceptions about the wine.[4][21][22] While these studies have shown that consumers tend to prefer on visual inspection the darker rosés, in blind taste tests where color could not be visually discerned (such as using black wine glasses), often consumers preferred the lighter-colored rosés.[4]

For these reasons, many rosé winemakers are mindful of the color quality of their rosé and make winemaking decisions based on this factor. This includes the extent of maceration, whether or not to do a saignee from a darker red wine and even to do a color adjustment by blending in some finished red wine in order to reach the desired color.[4]

Aromas and flavors

Many of the aroma and flavor components in wine are located in the skin of the grape. The length of maceration (where the must is in contact with the skin) will influence how much of these compounds are extracted and available in the wine.

The aromas and flavor of rosés are primarily influenced by the particular grape varieties used to produce the wine, but the method of production also plays an important part. The light, fruity character of many rosés come from volatile

thiols that are found as flavor precursors in the grape skins. The most prominent of these are 3-mercaptohexanol-1-ol and 3-mercaptohenyl acetate. These are extracted from the grape skins during maceration but are less likely to be extracted at temperatures below 20 °C (68 °F). As a result, producers doing a "cold soak" maceration (with much lower temperature) to limit microbial and oxidative activity may extract less of these compounds. During fermentation, other flavor components such as the esters phenethyl acetate and isoamyl acetate also form and contribute to a wine's aromas.[4]

The stability of these aromas is very dependent on the amount of anthocyanins and other phenolics that protect these compounds from oxidation. One of the reasons why rosés have a very limited shelf-life is because of their low phenolic levels due to the very limited skin contact and extraction time. Within a year of production, the level of 3-mercaptohexanol-1-ol in the wine has usually dropped to half its fermentation level, with the presence of 3-mercaptohenyl acetate undetectable in most wines.[4] This is why most wine experts recommend that rosés be consumed as soon after release as possible.[23]

French rosés

Many of the earliest red wines produced in such notable wine regions as Bordeaux,

Mediterranean influence climates of Provence and the southern Rhone Valley.[23]

Provence

A rosé from Bandol

Rosés account for vast majority of Provence's wine production, ranging from half to almost two thirds of all the wine produced in the region

Provençal cuisine.[23]

The large

Mourvedre, Tibouren, Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon playing supporting roles.[25]

The

Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence AOC is the second largest AOC in Provence, covering 50 communes in the west and northwestern part of the region. Here rosé accounts for around 35% of the AOC's production with Grenache, Cinsault and Mourvedre being the dominant varieties and Counoise, Carignan, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon rounding out the blends.[25]

Located in the hilly central region of Provence, rosés account for almost two-thirds of the production in the

Coteaux Varois AOC. Here the wines are blends of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre accounting for at least 80% of the wine with Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carignan permitted to fill in the remainder.[25]

The

late-ripening Mourvedre grape which produces well in the limestone, silicon rich stony soils of the region. While the AOC produces mostly red wines, at least 33% of its yearly production is made up of rosé wines with Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Carignan playing supporting roles to Mourvedre.[25]

Around the city of Nice in southeast Provence is

Folle Noire, Grenache and Cinsault.[25]

Tavel

A Tavel rosé

While most of the southern

co-operative.[24] According to wine expert Karen MacNeil, the Tavel is "southern France's self-styled capital of rosé". This is due, in part, to its long history of rosé production and its proximity to the tourist-rich regions of southern France where, like Provençal rosé, Tavel is often served at beach-side cafes overlooking the Mediterranean.[23]

Located 10 miles southwest of the

Picpoul.[24]

While Tavel rosé can be made using the saignee and skin-contact method, the tradition in the region is to do a type of

free-run juice is then drained off, like a saignee, and the wine then fermented as normal. This method produces what Karen MacNeil describes as "rugged wines with robust, spicy berry flavor."[23]

Other Rhône rosés

Outside of Tavel, rosés are produced in some significant quantities in the Gigondas AOC on the eastern side of the Rhône valley. Here at least 15% of the wine must be made from Syrah and Mourvedre with Grenache permitted to make up to 80% of the blend and Cinsault and Carignan playing minor roles. Next door to the south in the Vacqueyras AOC rosés only account for around 4% of the yearly production using the same grapes as Gigondas.[25]

Across the river from Châteauneuf-du-Pape just north of Tavel is the Lirac AOC which, like it southern neighbor, has a long history of exporting dry rosé wines to the United States and United Kingdom. While often overshadowed by neighboring Tavel, some critics, such as wine expert Oz Clarke, describe them as having noticeable strawberry notes and being "breezier, more refreshing" than its more prominent neighbor.[2] However, rosés usually account for less than a fifth of this region's yearly production.[25] Here in the sandy soil on the banks of the Rhône, Grenache makes up to 40% of the blend with Cinsault, Mourvedre, Syrah and Carignan making up the remainder.[24]

Loire

Groslot
grape.

Rosé making has a long history in the Loire valley, particularly in the

age for a decade or more.[1]

For most of the 20th century, the sweeter Rosé d'Anjou was the most prominent Rosé but even as the trend of consumers moving to more drier versions of rosé, the AOC still produces an estimated 18 million bottles of wine a year.[2] In addition to Groslot, Gamay and Malbec are also permitted varieties in the wine.[25]

A larger Rosé de Loire appellation exist that includes wines made from Anjou, Saumur and Touraine. Cabernet grapes must account for at least 30% of the blend with Groslot, Pineau d'Aunis, Pinot noir and Gamay permitted to fill out the rest of the blend. According to wine expert Jancis Robinson, the wines are always dry with a quality level that falls somewhere between Rosé d'Anjou and Cabernet d'Anjou.[1] Wine expert Karen MacNeil describes well made examples of Rosé de Loire as being fruity with light cherry flavors and moderate acidity.[23]

Champagne

Rosé Champagnes can range in color from pink to copper.

Rosé Champagnes account for between 3-5% of Champagne's yearly production.

age-ability to the wine.[23]

In the

full-bodied and nutty with a golden pink color.[2]

Other French regions

A French rosé in a one-liter squat bottle

In

PGI appellation system
.

In the

Trousseau varieties. But the region also makes even paler actual rosés from the same grape varieties that are pressed after only a few hours of skin contact.[24][25]

In

free-run juice that is released by the weight of the whole berry grapes in the tank is periodically drained off throughout the process to avoid extracting too much color and phenolics.[4][24]

In

Carmenere.[24]

Other European rosés

Italy

A slightly sparkling Lambrusco rosé

Like France, rosés are made throughout Italy with the style and grape varieties used changing depending on the region and local climate. The long history of Italian rosés, particularly in the warm southern part of the country, stem from difficulties in the early days of winemaking to make dark, fully colored dry red wines without temperature controlled fermentation vessels. As the must macerated with the skins, the intense heat of the process would often kill the yeast resulting in a

residual sugar in the remaining wine. Eventually Italian winemakers realized that if they pressed the wines early in the process, remaining the skins, they could complete the fermentation albeit with a lightly colored wine.[28]

The Italians have several terms for rosé style wines beginning with the term rosato that is a permitted wine style in several

Abruzzo region where rosé made in the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo region from deeply pigmented Montepulciano grape are given a special designation within the DOC.[28]

Today, Italian rosés are most often made by the short maceration method though some regions do have a tradition of blending red and white wine grapes together to make a lightly colored wine.

Calabria, Apulia and Sicily) makes fuller bodied and "fairly gutsy dry rosés".[2]

A Cerasuolo made from the Montepulciano grape in the Abruzzo region

In the

David Lynch, Valle d'Aosta Premetta rosés are very fruity with strawberry aromas and spicy cinnamon notes.[28]

Occhio di Pernice

In

Bolgheri and Elba DOCs.[29]

Germany, Austria, Switzerland

In Germany, several regions are noted for their distinct style of rosé (German rosewein or roseewein). Several terms are used to denote these different styles depending on how the wine was made, from what grapes and in what region. The term Weißherbst is a type of German rosé made from a single variety of grape with that particular variety needing to be denoted on the

Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA) level but its presence on the label is optional for Prädikatswein (the highest classification of German wine).[31]

In the

co-fermenting red and white grape varieties together. While not always a rosé, the color of Schillerwein range from dark red to pale pink depending on the grape varieties and percentage of each used in the blend.[32]

In

Blauer Wildbacher grape that is rarely grown outside of western Styria. The wine is noted for it fruity flavor and high levels of acidity.[23]

In the eastern regions of

Switzerland.[31]

Spanish rosado

A rosado from the Cigales region

In Spain, rosés are known as rosado and are produced throughout the country with the

Rioja being the most noted region. Even today, more than half of Navarra's wine production is dedicated to rosados made primarily from the Garnacha (Grenache) grape. Other varieties that can be used for rosados in Navarra include Graciano, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Carignan.[33]

In the

ripasso method). The rosados are made like normal with a light, fruity style while the red wines made with the extra skins are darker in color and more deeply concentrated.[33]

Other

Tierra de Leon and Ribera del Duero.[33]

Portugal

In 1942, a winemaker from

Vila Real Municipality, was in full operation with sales steadily climbing. By the 1980s, both the red and sparkling white versions of Mateus accounted for over 40% of the entire Portuguese wine industry, with worldwide sales of 3.25 million cases. However, sales of Mateus eventually started to decline, and though it still being produced, with Mateus introducing a Tempranillo sparkling rosé in 2005, it is not quite the dominating force in the market that it once was.[1]

The history of Lancers, the other, notable Portuguese sparkling rosé that rose up after World War II, is quite similar to Mateus. The winemaking family of José Maria da Fonseca in the Setúbal DOC, one of the oldest Portuguese wine producers, received word from a distributor in New York City about American servicemen returning from Europe having a taste for many of the new wines they tried on their tours. In 1944, Fonseca released Lancers in a distinctive stone crock. Today, the wine is fully sparkling, using the "continuous method" of fermentation in large stainless steel tanks instead of individual wine bottles. While its rival, Mateus, is mostly still found in Europe, Lancers has remained in the North American market.[1]

New World rosés

White Zinfandels and blushes

While there have been rosés made in the European style throughout the American winemaking history, it wasn't until the end of the 20th century that "pink wines" became a truly significant segment of the American wine market. In what has been described by wine experts such as Jancis Robinson as a "

international varieties, and even encouraged newer plantings.[1]

The term "blush" also originated in the 1970s when wine writer Jerry Mead visited the Sonoma County winery Mill Creek Vineyards and sampled a pale, pinkish wine that the winery made from Cabernet Sauvignon. The winemaker was thinking of calling the wine "White Cabernet" but Mead suggested the term "blush" instead. However, by the 1980s, white wines were still extremely popular among American consumers. Seizing on this interest, makers of sweeter "blush" style rosés began affixing the terms "white" or "blanc" to the varietal name on their wine labels anyway — White Zinfandel, Cabernet Blanc, White Merlot, etc. Throughout the rest of the 20th century, these sweeter blush wines saw tremendous popularity among American consumers but their numbers had started to decline by the turn of the 21st century falling from representing 22% of all the wines consumed in the US market in 1997 to 15% in 2003.[1]

Today, White Zinfandels are considered part of the "blush wine" category of noticeably sweet, pale pink wines that often have very slight

aromatic varieties like Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Muscat to add to the fruity nose of the wine.[1]

Long Island Rosés

Since the early 1990s,

Long Island has begun to distinguish itself as a source of rosé, often producing dry rosé wines that model the rosé makers from southern France.[34] The eastern end of Long Island has over 60 vineyards and wineries that produce a range of rosé wines.[35]

See also

References

  1. ^
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  2. ^
    ISBN 0-316-72654-0
  3. ^ Lichine, Alexis (1967). Alexis Lichine's Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits. London: Cassell & Company Ltd.
  4. ^
    ISBN 9780123736468
  5. ^ Lourens, Karen. "Focus on Rosé". Anchor Yeast. Archived from the original on 27 October 2007.
  6. ^ The Wine Doctor, Glossary: S Archived 2011-12-15 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
  7. ^
    ISBN 0-671-68702-6
  8. ^ a b c d Mead, Jerry D. (1996) Mill Creek Revisited Mead on Wine Vol. I No. 6
  9. ^ Dunne, Mike (2005) Wines of yesteryear still kicking. The Sacramento Bee, 29 July 2005
  10. ^ Murphy, Linda (2003) White Zinfandel, now 30, once ruled the U.S. wine world San Francisco Chronicle, 3 July 2003.
  11. ^ Mead, Jerry D. (1996) Mill Creek Revisited Mead on Wine Vol. I No. 6; Mead says this story is also mentioned in Leon Adams' The Wines of America
  12. ^ USPTO Trademark #73164928 "Blush"
  13. ^ Mill Creek Vineyards Our Wines
  14. ^ California Wine Institute. "California Rosé and Other Blanc de Noir Wines".
  15. ^ Voss, Roger. Heimoff, Steve Wine Enthusiast Online, July 2007
  16. ^ Wyma, Chloe (3 June 2015). "Make Way for Brosé: Why More Men Are Drinking Pink". GQ.
  17. ^ Wilson, Jason (29 July 2015). "Brosé: wine for the angsty bro who blushes when he 'drinks pink'". The Guardian.
  18. ^ "How Frosé Became the Drink of the Summer—and How to Make It at Home". MyRecipes.
  19. ^ Lucy Shaw "Saignée rosé “not true rosé”" The Drinks Business, 30 May 2012
  20. ^ Provence rosés colors on Conseil Interprofessionel des Vins de Provence website (English)
  21. S2CID 21720724
    .
  22. ^ A. Tromp and C.J. Van Wyk The influence of color on the assessment of red wine quality Proceedings of the South African Society for Enology (1977)
  23. ^
    ISBN 1-56305-434-5
  24. ^
    ISBN 1-55297-720-X
  25. ^
    ISBN 0-7645-5354-2
  26. ISBN 0-7513-3740-4
  27. ^ "Tendance Rosé : Les AOC et IGP du Languedoc-Roussillon en tête des ventes".
  28. ^
    ISBN 1-4000-9774-6
  29. ^
    ISBN 9780756686840
  30. ^ e-wineplanet.com Germany
  31. ^
    ISBN 9780756686840
  32. ISBN 1854105140
  33. ^
    ISBN 9780756686840
  34. ^ McInerney, Jay (5 June 2010). "For Summer, Think Pink". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.
  35. ^ "Cinque Family Wines". Cinque Family Wines.

Further reading

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