Rosé-All-Day : It’s time to get serious about this fun wine.

Spring is in the air, terraces are opening up and it is coming into rosé season! But what is a rosé and why do we tend to group all rosés together unlike red and white wines which we define by grape or region like Cabernet Sauvignons, Zinfandels and Pinot Noirs and Chabis?

Actually, I don’t know why we do that – rosés are made from a whole range and spectrum of grapes, using different techniques and from different regions – so actually it makes no sense to call them all “rosé” and have done … but on to what I can actually answer for you…

In simplest terms, a rosé is a red grape made in a white wine way.

If you take a red or white grape and crush it, the juice is the same colour – clear. What gives red and rosé wines their colour (and tannin) is how long the juice has spent on the grape skins. The more time they have spent on the skins, the deeper the colour and those rosés may also have a lick of tannin too.

There are two main ways of creating a rosé. Red grapes are pressed and the juice is left on the skins for a brief amount of time – called maceration – before fermenting the juice into wine. This is typical in places such as Provence is France and tends to create a very pale pink style of wine. Another option is that during the making of a red wine some of the juice is run off separately in the first few hours and then that batch is fermented at cooler white wine temperatures and the rest goes on to be a red wine. This is rarer but more typically found in places like Napa in the US, it makes a rosé and it also concentrates the red wine’s flavours more but reducing its liquid.

Of course, there is the old “joke” of blending a white and a red wine together to make rosé (am I the only one who did this at sixth form…?) but this is a method too, though largely frowned upon and in some countries – like France – actually illegal. A wine made this way cannot be legally called a rosé in France unless, and there is always a wine caveat, it is champagne. Champagnes, for some reason, are different and blending is allowed. A splash of pinot noir wine is added to colour the chardonnay sparkling wine.

Rosés are typically fermented at a lower temperature, like white wines, to keep flavours fresh and acidity higher – and just like white and red wines they can be made from a huge range of grapes, so though we think of them as summertime-sipping-by-the-pool wines they can actually be extremely varied, versatile and fantastic with food.

To quote the great Victoria Moore “Whatever the (food) question, rosé is generally a good answer”. Thanks to the fruit forward notes, refreshing acidity and easy-drinking qualities they made excellent foodie wines. They can easily handle charcuterie, chicken, feta salads, duck, salmon and meatier fishes, prawns and seafood and soft cheese. Personally, I especially enjoy a rosé with a curry – especially a New World one which tend to be a bit riper. They are still zippy and refreshing and they’re low in tannin – as tannins tend to inflame heat and spice which isn’t my personal preference.

Finally, a fun fact for you. The pale pink style of Provance rosé so fashionable today was actually created by female winemaking pioneer Régine Sumeire in 1985. It is called “Petale du Rose” and it is still sold today by Corney & Barrow. And it is delicious.