Rosé: It's Not White Zinfandel

Gentle boozers, it's not White Zinfandel.

The Wino explained this to a friend of hers who seemed a bit confused over her enthusiasm for the pink stuff. Her friend's confusion is well founded, of course. The Wino's friend had no experience with pink wine beyond the cheap White Zinfandel his mother used to drink at backyard BBQs and the Strawberry Cisco he regretfully quaffed during his college years. Heck, before a year or so ago, The Wino's experience with pink wine was virtually the same.

Well, times have changed fellow boozers. Pink wine, aka rosé, is all the rage now and it is threatening to reach peak popularity this very summer. And The Wino thinks we all could desperately use a whimsical boozy beverage to distract us from the demoralizing effects of the recession right about now.

Drink Up!
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in late May, armed with a cheese plate, The Wino held a small rosé tasting in her very own backyard. Every one had to work the next day, which made the opportunity to drink even sweeter. She served three rosé wines:

• French – 2008 Bieler Pere et Fils, Coteaux D’Aix En Provence, France 2008, (15% Syrah, 25% Grenache, 60% Cabernet Sauvignon)
• South American - 2008 Melipal Malbec Rosé, Mendoza, Argentina
• USA - 2008 Chatter Creek Rosé, Columbia Valley, WA

She chilled them in her freezer because she does not have a wine fridge—she is a novice after all and was definitely raised in a barn or log cabin or something. She awkwardly pushed glasses (from IKEA) of pink, improperly chilled wine into the hands of her guests and encouraged them to smell deeply and taste critically as if they were fancy sommeliers (not that any of them, including the Wino, actually knows what a sommelier is).

The group agreed that the overwhelming flavor and aroma the wine presented was strawberry, ranging from “heavy/overripe” to “light/fresh”. The group preferred the dry more mineral style of the French rosé to the sweeter New World styles. However, despite that preference, all bottles were happily and quickly consumed.

In conclusion, fellow boozers, get yourself a bottle of rosé and start drinking. To follow is some information about rosé wine.

The Wino's Guide to Rosé Wine

What is it?
Well, Rosé is wine of course, and it's not red wine and it's not white wine. Seriously. According to wisegeek.com, Rosé wines are wines which are not truly red, but have enough of a reddish tinge to make them not white.


How is it made?
There are three main methods of producing Rosé wine.

1. Skin contact. Red-skinned grapes are crushed and the skins are allowed to remain in contact with the juice for a short period, typically two or three days.
2. Saignée. Indeed, that's a fancy French word. Translated it means bleeding the vats. When the grapes for red wine are initially pressed, some of the pink juce is removed in order to concentrate the flavors of the wine. The pink juice that was removed is then fermented into rosé wine. In short, rosé made in the Saignée method renders it nothing more than a by-product of red wine fermentation.
3. Blending. Simply take a little white wine and add a little red wine until the desired color is acheived. Apparently this method is frowned upon. The Wino can't imagine why. The Wino suggests that everyone try this method at home and try to pass it off as a classy bottle of wine.
   

What does it smell like?
Rosé aromas generally consist of flowers and fruit. If you recognize any of these scents, good for you. The Wino is still trying to figure out what “broom” and “medlar” smells/tastes like.

• Flowers: Common Rosé aromas include rosé, violet, dried rosé, hawthorn, wild rosé, dog rosé, peach flower, wild flowers, peony, jasmine, freesia, orange blossom, lime, and broom.
• Fruit: Fruit aromas can include cherry, strawberry, raspberry, peach, black cherry, black currant, blackberry, banana, apple, plum, pear, blueberry, apricot, kiwi, medlar, pomegranate, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, litchi, and pineapple.
  

What does it taste like?
Since taste and smell are so intermixed, Rosé Wines have the same fruit and flower tastes as the aromas mentioned previously.


Rosé Styles
European or Old World Rosés tend to be dryer and have more floral and mineral tastes and aromas. New World (North/South America South Africa, Australia and New Zeland), rosés are sweeter and more fruity tastes and aromas. However, these are not hard and fast rules.

Although somewhat difficult to read in both page formatting and language, The Wino found this Web site helpful. And it's where she found much of the information she used for this post.