Spring for Rosé

Chill facts about the pink drink

From the LifeMinute.TV Team

June 10, 2023

National Rosé Day is celebrated on the second Saturday in June. On June 10th, uncork a bottle and raise a glass to this simple guide about the history of the pink drink and how to enjoy it.

Vive la France!
Rosé may have been the first wine ever created, traced back to ancient Greece, where diluting wine to avoid drunkenness was not uncommon. But it wasn’t until roughly the middle ages when the Phoenicians brought grapevines to the South of France, introducing people to the pink drink. The Provence region is considered the most consistent for creating high-quality rosé. But you can find luscious ones in places like Applegate Valley in Oregon and the Russian River Valley in California.

Pretty in Pink
Rosé can be made from just about any red wine grape, but unlike red wine production, the grapes are soaked for a shorter time. This reduced skin contact gives rosé a pink hue and lighter flavor. Rosé wine is best consumed within about two years of its release.

Light and Bright
The primary flavors are red fruit, flowers, and melon, with a crunchy green flavor on the finish comparable to celery or rhubarb. Typically, the alcohol content of rosé isn’t higher than 13.5 percent. And since rosé tends to be less boozy, it doesn’t require pairings to appreciate it. Like white wine, rosé is best served chilled and in a medium-sized glass so that the flavors gather toward the top.

Four Ways
Generally, there is one of four ways to make rosé. Maceration, the most common method, is when red wine grapes are left to soak, or macerate, in the juice for some time, and afterward, the entire batch of juice is finished into a rosé wine. This produces darker-colored wine, but the color has nothing to do with sweetness. The second practice is called direct press or, in French, vin gris (pronounced “vaahh gree”), meaning “gray wine.” This process uses the maceration method but limits the time grapes sit soaking with their skins to a short timeframe. The saignée (pronounced “san-yay”), or “bleeding” 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. Bleeding it off helps concentrate the intensity. The blending method involves adding a small amount of red wine to white wine, resulting in pink wine. This process is used more commonly to produce rosé Champagne.