What is Rosé?
Many people still imagine that rosé wine is made by mixing together red wine with white. Luckily though the number of wine enthusiasts continues to grow and these are well aware that rosé or pink wine is produced from the black grape varieties used for the production of red wine, most commonly by the method of short contact with the crushed grapes (must).
It is said that rosé starts its life as a red wine but then lives on like a white wine. As a rule the red-grape must is left to macerate for just 4 to 6 hours, in order that the skins release only a small amount of their red colouring. After this the must is separated from the skins and thenceforth it is treated in the same way as if it were a white wine. This production process lends the much desired youthful esprit to rosé wines. The vivacity which we come to expect from a rosé requires a necessary amount of acidity. And this decreases with the ripening of the grapes.
Moreover, the higher the sugar-levels in the grapes, the more the wine‘s colour begins to acquire less attractive brownish tones. This is why winemakers prefer a short maceration, which gives the wine its freshly invigorating light character and distinct taste. Thanks to this rosé wines are able to boast a whole spectrum of colourful shades. Rosé can display sweet tones of raspberry, soft salmony or orange, as well as darker Spanish onion-skin hues, all depending on the grape variety and the processing technology used.
