Rosé wines are seen by some as a compromise - neither white nor red and can be overlooked because of it. However, the production of rosé wines is just as intense and complicated as the making of white or red wines.
Rosé wines historically have been made by a number of different processes but today, two methods are in general use. The preferred technique is a short maceration of the juice (from either white or red grapes) with the skins of red grapes just after crushing. The exposure of the juice to the skins lasts only long enough to extract the required amount of colour. The juice is then separated from the skins by draining or pressing and fermentation proceeds as in white wine making.
Some basic rosé wines are made by blending a small amount of finished red wine to a finished white wine. Pink wines may also be made by using charcoal treatments to remove the colour from red wines which, for some reason, are not saleable as reds.
In France, rosés are particularly common in warmer, southern regions where there is local demand for a dry wine refreshing enough to be drunk on a hot summer's day but which still bears some relation to the red wine so revered by the French. Provence is the region most famous for its rosé, often in a strange skittle-shaped bottle, but in the southern Rhone and Languedoc, rosés are as common as its whites. The Loire Valley also produces a high proportion of rosé wine of extremely varied quality and sweetness levels, particularly around Anjou.
Spain also takes pink wines seriously with lighter coloured wines bearing the name Rosado and the darker ones Clarete. Portugal's best known pink wines are exported, as in Mateus and Casal Mendes.
The New World is slightly bemused by the idea of rosé although Australia makes some swashbuckling deep pinks. Miguel Torres in Chile has produced one of the best rosés on the market, Santa Digna. Deep in colour and bursting with flavour, it shows how good a rosé can be and sells for under £6 too.
So, if the summer ever comes, don't dismiss rosé wines. You could be in for a pleasant surprise.
