What really is Rosé Wine? The pink wine revealed

Rosé wine happens when the skins of red grapes touch wine for only a short time. The winemaker has complete control over the color of the wine, and removes the red grape skins (the source of the red pigment) when the wine reaches the perfect color. As you can imagine, nearly any red wine grape (from Cabernet Sauvignon to Syrah) can be used to make rosé wine, however there are several common styles and grapes that are preferred for rosé.

The primary flavors of rosé wine are red fruit, flowers, citrus, and melon, with a pleasant crunchy green flavor on the finish similar to celery or rhubarb

There are 3 primary ways to make rosé wine:

1. Maceration Method: the maceration method is probably the most common type of rosé and consist in letting the wine grapes to rest, or macerate, in the juice for a period of time and afterward the entire batch of juice is finished into a rosé wine.
2. The Saignée: this method is when during the first few hours of making a red wine, some of the juice is bled off and put into a new vat to make rosé. Saignée wine are pretty rare and usually they are produce in those regions that make fine red wines.
3. Blending Method: The blending method is when a little bit of red wine is added to a vat of white wine to make rosé. It doesn’t take much red wine to dye a white wine pink, so usually these wines will have up to 5% of a red wine added.

A good rosé wine has a delicate fragrance and a fine expression of fruits. Rosé wines are excellent served fresh for aperitif or paired with salads and grilled sea fish, but also as accompaniment for chicken and vegetables. A special rosé wine is Sand Tropez wine: large in flavor with a hint of fruit and ideal for starters.

Here the infographic with colors, flavors and pairings of rosé wines