A Rosé By Any Other Name…

Call it Blanc de Noir, blush, Vin Gris or Rosé, pink wines are gaining popularity in the U.S. for good reason. Wine neophytes often find blush style wines, like White Zin (the wine craze of the late 1970s) with their uncomplicated structure and high sugar content approachable. Wine enthusiasts find dry Rosé to be refreshing--with depth, character and tannin structure fuller than white wine. From the pinkish orange of a tropical sunset to an intense, near purple, the color of a Rosé will depend on a winemaker’s choices.

Skin Contact
The hue of a Rosé will depend, in most cases, on the length of contact a wine has with the grape skins. For a winemaker who sets out to make a Rosé, the grapes will be crushed, and the juice allowed to sit with the skins for anywhere from an hour to two days. As the tannin of a wine will depend on how long the wine is exposed to grape skins, stems and seeds, the longer a Rosé stays with these materials, the greater the tannins.


Saignée
French for “bleeding”, the saignée method of Rosé creates a wine from the by-product of red wine. Many winemakers choose to create intense red wines—one way to concentrate flavors is to reduce the wine by removing some of the juice during the maceration or fermentation process. The wine removed has tannin, but is still a Rosé wine.