Rosé Wine – lets discover the truth!
Despite the ever-increasing popularity and consumption of this wine style, no other wine gets more prejudices and misconceptions than a Rosé wine! Whether it’s been classed as only a sweet beverage or that it’s only for women or only suited for summer days, we’re here to dive into some of these trains of thought and set the record straight!
- Rosé Wine is a blend of red and white wine.
We’ve all been taught in school that red and white makes pink so the natural train of thought would be that Rosé wines are a blend of red and white wine. However, Rosé wines are most often made from only red grapes and the process of Rosé winemaking takes copious amounts of skill and attention from winemakers.
You may be wondering how red grapes are made into a pink hued wine; fundamentally, red wines attain their flavour, aroma, tannin, colour and body from their skins and the skins of the red grapes are left in with the grape juice during the entire fermentation process. Similarly, a Rosé starts off the same as red wine fermentation but after a chosen length of time by the winemaker, the skins are then removed. Although only left in for a short period, the pigment from the red grape skins add colour to the wine to produce different shades of delicate pink.
- Pale is dry and dark is sweet.
This is one of the biggest stereotypes Rosé wines are associated with and the truth is, colour has nothing to do with the sweetness the wine. The sweetness of a Rosé is determined by the residual sugar in the bottle and the colour is determined by the pigment in the skin of the red grapes. Therefore, a darker Rosé is telling you that the juice has had more time in contact with the skins during fermentation. The variations of how sweet or whether the Rosé has the colour of pale salmon pink or dark berry pink all depends on the result and style the winemaker wants to achieve.
- Rosé doesn’t pair well with foods.
Often, Rosé wine is served as an aperitif or as a starter rather than accompanying a meal. Well, Rosé wine made in all it’s different variations and styles are very versatile personalities and can be great with pairing with salads, cured meats, smoked meats and cheeses. Try our He Said She Said Rosé with our Rocket, Blue cheese and Vinofood Semillon Picked Pears recipe.
