In my opinion a lot of rosé wines taste almost the same – so could one argue that it “taste like chicken”? Well.. Maybe after a couple of bottles from, but lets not go there yet. The same could also be said about reds and whites, but this article is about rosé wine and some of the differences in how to produce it. But most importantly – What can you do to find the best rosé for the summer. If you know all about production you can skip to the “How do you find the best rosé” section.
Some say rosé is the best of two worlds and perfect for pairing with food. Some say it’s a pop wine. All we know is that there is a lot of it.
The latest archeological Study of pottery in whats now Georgia suggests that wine has been made in 300 liter jars 6000-5800 BC. One thing is for certain – I wasn’t around back in those days. But if you think about how we’ve mashed red grapes by hand and foot – before we moved onto electronic and pneumatic equipment – I think there is a good chance of a lot of rosé coloured wine being made right from the start in the Neolithic age.
Fast forward to today and and there are several rules on how this type of wine should be made all over the world. EU has rules for how producers can blend or not when making a rosé. You can still stomp your feet in a basket or go all techie on it with the latest all shiny grape press from Coquard.
Four common production methods.
There are many ways to give the rosé its colour and add to the flavour. Here’s some light reading about some of the most common.
MACERATION
Maybe the most popular method of making rosé? I have no stats to confirm that. But after the grapes are picked and put in the press they are crushed and the juice is left in contact with the skins. Just like a red wine would be made. The skins are left to soak only for a limited amount of time. Depending on the desired style of rosé, this can last anywhere from a couple to many hours. The longer the maceration, the darker and more richly flavoured the rosé. The maceration method can be used to make many styles of rosé depending on grape variety and length of maceration.
DIRECT PRESSING
Kind of the same method as skin maceration. With direct pressing the grape juice has contact with the skins, just enough to add the color, tannins, and flavours from the skins to the juice. This process tends to produce the lightest-coloured rosés of all.
SAIGNÉE (Rosé du nuit)
The saignée method – which means “bleeding” – is a method that let the winemaker produce not just a rosé but a red wine as well. It is a way to concentrate red wines where a winemaker wants to vinify a red wine according to standard methods. Early in the maceration process a part of the juice is “bled” from the tank. This juice is then vinified separately as a rosé. The rest of the juice is left to continue the process into a more concentrated red. The saignée method rosés are likely to be richer in style. A common french expression you will hear is “Rosé de nuit” which refers to the fact that the juice was bled after staying overnight in contact with the skins. Philippe from Roger Brun Champagne makes a 4 Nuits rosé Champagne, which is a bomb and all the way over in cranberry land. (yay!)
I my opinion you get some of the most interesting and fantastic rosé wines from this method. Champagne Roger Brun makes two different rosés which is Romance Rosé and 4 Nuits with the saignée method. Check them out in the shop.
BLENDING
You blend White and Red – you get Rosé.
These wines can vary in style and colour from light to heavy depending on the amount and type of red wine used in the blend.
For some reason you can find many articles [usually poorly researched] online which mentions that the practice of blending white and red wines is prohibited by EU in Europe unless you are making rosé in Champagne.
Yes – the Champagne district is allowed to blend white and red to make rosé, BUT so is the rest of EU as long as it is made from appellation wines as defined by PDO/PGI standards.
Thanks to Wine enthusiast Steve Slatcher for this article: http://www.winenous.co.uk/wp/archives/2496
Article 8 page 4.
General rules on blending and coupage
A wine may be obtained by blending or coupage only where
the constituents of that blending or coupage possess the required
characteristics for obtaining wine and comply with Regulation
(EC) No 479/2008 and this Regulation.Coupage of a non-PDO/PGI white wine with a non-PDO/PGI red
wine cannot produce a rosé wine.However, the second subparagraph does not exclude coupage of
Reference: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:193:0001:0059:EN:PDF
the type referred to therein where the final product is intended for
the preparation of a cuvée as defined in Annex I to Regulation
(EC) No 479/2008 or intended for the production of semisparkling
wines.
Which means that if the wine can not meet the standards defined for a PDO/PGI wine you can not blend them to make a rosé.
For example In France you could not use “Vin de France” formerly known as “Vin de Table”.
What about “good taste”?
What about taste? Initially I was going to write about quality but it is so subjective and what I really want to talk about is good taste. I don’t think that one production method produces better quality than the other, it will just produce different wines. Your taste and preference for what is a quality wine is individual and what I think is a good bottle might not be good on your palette. This summer there have been a vast supply of rosé wines to choose from on the shelves. Even though I’ve still had a hard time finding rosé wines, which I thought were good quality and tasty. Sure I’ve found a few, but I was under the impression that I would have found a lot more. I don’t import any rosé still wines but maybe I should accept the challenge and find some decent ones for my shop.
This lead me to the next paragraph
How do I find the best rosé
The key to find the best rosé is to taste as many different bottles as possible. The important bit here being that you need to compare the bottles to each other at the same time. The important thing is the direct comparison of flavours, smells and textures. You could for example buy 4-6 different bottles and taste them in the same type of glass[important! We’ll get into this in a later blog] and at the same temperature. You could do it together with friends and have a good discussion about the wines you try. Write down what you think on paper so you have notes for the next bottles you want to try. The more you try, the more data you will have and maybe after a while you can determine if a certain type of grape is a favourite or a region or a production method.
Nothing in tasting is wrong. If you are reminded of a certain flavour or smell when you are trying wines, then it is right for you. Others might not agree with you, but then you can always have a good conversation about why you think as you do. You might find that you like certain wines when they make you smile, no matter where or how they are produced.
So does rosé “taste like chicken”…?
Getting back to the initial question – So does rosé “taste like chicken”…? I would really like to write a big NO, but I find that a lot of the Provence rosé wines I have tried is hard to separate for my palette. So I could argue that some of them “taste like chicken”. 🙂 I will still recommend to do your own exploring and find the wines you really like. On a final note the best rosé for me is still a Rosé Champagne. It will put a smile on my face every time.