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Calendar Dates 2025 - 2026

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Let's Talk Rose' Wine

Rosé sits between red and white wine.  It is produced when the skins of red grapes touch the wine for only a short time, and whereas some red wines ferment for weeks at a time on red grape skins, rosé wines are stained, for sometimes just a few hours.

The winemaker has complete control over the colour of the wine and when the red grape skins are removed.  This is done when the wine reaches the perfect colour, sometimes the palest blush, or  sometimes a rich rose pink. There is a wide range of rosé wines produced from all over the globe. In France it is called Rosé, Rosato in Italy, and Rosado in Spain.  Rosé from the U.S. is mostly produced from Primitivo grapes (Zinfandel) and can tend to be on the sweeter side.

Rosé wine can be made from pretty much any variety of grape varieties, including  Grenache, Syrah,  Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Malbec, Mourvèdre, Carignan, Primitivo, Cinsault, and    Pinot Noir which are all common varieties used in its production and often blended. Each grape brings its own unique flavour profile to the wine.  Flavour profiles of rosé include strawberry, honeydew melon,   citrus zest or sometimes raspberry.  The depth of colour is not necessarily an indication of the sweetness or dryness, but does offer an insight as to what you can expect from the flavour profile, giving a hint at what grapes were used in the process. The paler the colour, the closer towards a white wine the flavour will be, whereas the darker the colour the rosé’s may be fuller bodied and have greater red berry and earthy notes.  

France, Italy and Spain are the top countries for producing rosé wines, with France having the highest   consumption of it at 33% in contrast to the U.K. at 6% (source of data from the June 2024 report from www.rosewinesworldtracking.com)

There are four methods for producing rosé wine:

Maceration:  This is the most common method and involves crushing the grapes and allowing them to rest, or macerate, in their skins for a short period of time. Macerated rosé leans toward deeper hues and fuller-bodied rosé.

Saignée: The saignée method is less common and involves “bleeding off” a portion of red wine juice during the fermentation process and using it to make rosé wine.

Direct Press: This process drains the pressed juice off the skins pretty much immediately,      resulting in a very light pink hue and brighter flavours.

Blending :This method is a literal blend of white and red wines and is most common in the production of rose champagne and rosé sparkling wine.

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