Rosé time is summertime

I’ve got a great friend who’s also a major wine guy and whose opinion on many wine topics I regularly solicit. But he won’t drink rosé. If that’s the only wine available, he’d likely have a beer. Of course, one’s own preference comes first, but in rosé’s case, this may be a bit limiting.
To better appreciate rosés, it’s helpful to know how they get their pink color and, what grapes are used to create them. Let’s start with the color. Where do all those different shades of pink, from very pale to brick red come from? Especially when you consider that while the grapes used are red, the juice inside a red grape is white.
To create a typical red wine, once the juice is pressed from the grape, it’s left in a wooden barrel or a stainless-steel vat to macerate. Maceration is simply leaving the juice on the crushed grape skins, stalks and seeds. A typical red wine will undergo this process for one to three weeks. The more time, the deeper red the resulting wine. Anthocyanin is the component in the red grape skin that gives both the grape on the vine, and the macerated juice, its red color.
Rosés are made this way as well, except the maceration time is usually between two or three hours, to two or three days. This yields the various degrees of pinkness. (Maceration is a winemaker’s tool for other purposes too. It greatly impacts tannin levels, structure and flavor intensity in addition to color.)

What grapes are used? Any red grape variety will work, but there are seven most commonly used, either alone or in combination. These are Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Carignan, Cinsault, Sangiovese and Pinot Noir. Savvy rosé lovers will notice all but the last two are originally from France’s Rhone region (though now also grown all around the world). The southern French wine region of Rhone is, indeed, the world’s rosé capital.
The flavors generally associated with red wines made from these grapes are also evident in their rosé forms, though much less intensely. Replace that deeper flavor profile with a lighter, more delicate and refreshing feel and you’ve got a wonderful, summertime rosé. Particularly terrific with shellfish, rosés are quite universal in their food pairing roles. While hugely enjoyed in our household, my great friend will have to do without.

Ernest Valtri of Buckingham is a sculptor, graphic designer, and a former member of the PLCB’s Wine Advisory Council. Please contact Erno at ObjectDesign@verizon.net.

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