Rosé Wine - Everything you want to know in 2 minutes!
Angelica Nohra
Wine Importer | Wine List Consultant | Speaker
I had someone on the weekend tell me they thought rosé wine was just because white wine and red wine was blended.
Ouch.
It broke my heart. Rosé wine is so technical to make, even though it can be made from any red wine varietal. Rose wine is also my drink of choice when I’m out and about so it has a space in my heart!
Here are some key things to know about rose wine!
- Rosé Wine can be dry or sweet depending on the varietal and the fermentation process. Especially more aromatic wines like Moscato and Pinot Gris can be fermented to sweet by stopping the ferment early (before all the sugar of the grapes is transformed into sugar)
- Rosé wine can come from anywhere in the world and be made of any red wine varietal.
- Colour of the rosé wine depends on how dark and ‘tough’ the skin on the grape varietal is and how long the winemaker decides to leave the skins on the juice before taking them off. E.g. A red skinned wine like Cabernet Sauvignon will quickly become a darker rosé colour even after 30mins compared to a Pinot Noir skin which may be able to spend 4-8 hours on the juice and produce a paler, salmon colour.
- Rosé wine can also be made by the winemaker making a white wine and bleeding the red wine into it. This is called the Saignee method.
- Rosé wine is very versatile and can accompany many meals and many days sitting in the sun. It can even be used in cooking.
- Provence rosé is very high in acid (makes your mouth water) compared to a lot of Australian (and many other new world styles) rosé wine which has more fruit characters and spice.
So, there you go! Hopefully that helps. I highly recommend trying the Marrenon Petula Luberon Rosé and Triniti Provence Rosé to see how terroir and wine making style can’t be so different between two southern rhone areas!
Otherwise, take a look at our Rosé Lovers Pack so you can try different rosé from countries all over the world and start understanding rosé even more.
Rosé Lovers Pack
Introducing our Rosé Lovers Pack that includes different rosé from countries all over the world!