Summer is finally here. It’s time to ditch the meaty, full-bodied and complex wines and concentrate on something a little more crisp and fresh. This can be found in many styles of white wine, but for me, it’s rosé season.
As a tall, rugby-playing man I have been a rosé drinker for most of my adult life (the drier the better) and it delights me to challenge that hackneyed nonsense that it is a feminine drink— rosé is for everyone.
Someone once told me they didn’t drink rosé as it was poor quality and often just a blend of the leftover white and red wine. This is absolutely not the case. Rosé can be made in one of four ways; and each can produce high-quality, delicious wine.
The most widely used method is a process called “limited skin maceration”. Here the hue of the rosé is directly attributable to the time the juice remains in contact with the remaining skin of the grape; always using red grapes, it is the naturally occurring dye in the skin that creates the colour. This soaking can be anywhere from six to 48 hours — the fewer the hours the lighter the rosé.
“Direct pressing” is a method used to produce the lightest-coloured rosés. Here the red grapes are vinified as one would a white wine with the natural colour tones coming from the shortest possible skin contact. The benefit of this style is the emphasis on the notes of fresh red berries — strawberry and cranberry.
Saignée or “bleeding” method is one used to produce wines that are likely to be a bit richer in style — specifically used by some of the famous Grande Marque champagne houses. Here the red wine process is begun before winemakers bleed off a portion of the juice within a few hours of the fermentation process beginning. The red wine and the rosé drawn off will then finish fermenting separately. If you have enjoyed rosé champagne from the Roederer, Laurent Perrier or Delamotte houses, this will be a style you have already tried.
The final, and probably most obvious way to make rosé is the blending method. Obvious yes, but prohibited in Europe for any wines that claim specific regions of origin —with one exception. Champagne is the only wine in Europe that can legally blend a portion of red wine into white wine to create rosé.
Here it is tradition to use a touch of the famous “Bouzy Rouge” Pinot Noir to bring the pink tones to their wines; not much is required, and it accounts for only five per cent of the final product.
I hope you’ll agree that rosé really is a serious product and a perfect wine for those long rolling days of British summer to come.
Try these:
The Unusual: Schola Sarmenti Masserei Rose, Puglia, Italy from Virgin Wines – £11.99
The “Celeb”: Ch. Miraval Provençale Rose from Fortnum & Mason – £19.50
The Superb Value Fizz: Champagne Nicolas Maillart Rose Grand Cru NV – £36
