We say, hand over a glass of each!  ‘Tis the season to think pink! Even Riedel is giving Rosé its own glass!

Rose. We’ll take it any way it comes, sparkling, saignée, as long as it’s pink — and at least mostly dry. But that’s just us.

3 ways – Saignée, skin contact, blending. Rosé is always made almost entirely from red fruit. Saignée and skin contact are the two most common winemaking styles.

Saignée

Saignée (literally “bleeding” in French) involves drawing some of the juice off of the crushed grapes. After a short amount of time on the skins. Since juice from grapes, red or white, is clear, color acquisition occurs when the grapes are crushed, and the juice is left to sit on the skins for hours, or several days, called “maceration” or “cold soak.” The longer the juice sits with the skins, the darker it becomes. Sometimes, if the amount of time desired is just a few hours to produce a very light colored rosé. After harvesting the fruit, it will be crushed and left for only hours. The juice will attract primary flavors from the skins and at this time, a portion of juice will be drawn off to ferment into rosé. The rest of the juice will go on to make a red wine, staying on the skins for several more days or weeks. A higher ratio of skins means thicker tannin, fuller body and richer concentration in general.

Maceration

The Maceration method of rose winemaking also starts with limited maceration. Although, with this method, the fruit is harvested just for the purpose of making rosé. After the desired amount of color has been extracted, to the press it goes. The longer period of maceration extracts more color and flavor from the skins, adding complexity. The pink juice is then fermented as any white wine would be.

Blending

Blending wine and red wines – don’t laugh! A large amount of Champagne Rosé is made this way. The red wine is added to white, often at the dosage stage, called Rosé d’Assemblage. The white wine undergoes alcoholic fermentation and is bottled, but at the time of disgorgement, the house will add a small percentage of limited-tannin red wine to create a Rosé.

“Several Rhone and Provence roses” by nadia & massimo – Flickr: Menérbes.

Depending on where you are, Rosés pair great with the following foods:

Salty Cheeses – get creative! Grilled Cheese sandwich anyone?
Asparagus & Prosciutto, Hummus, Olives
Barbecue Chicken

Seafood – especially crab and grilled fish, tuna…

Rose also loves dishes with a kick – Mexican, Thai, Indian
And don’t forget about its roots in the South of France. Provencal food is a fantastic pairing as well

Note: Non edible pairings include poolside tanning, bubble baths, beach sunsets and massages. You’ll be tickled – you guessed it – PINK!

And we’re out!