A Rosé By Any Other Name…

Yes, I drink a rosé every now and again.  It’s a great summertime cool-me-down, and with some meals it’s the perfect pairing.  I’ll say it… Real men can drink rosé.

I’ve had rosés made of Pinot Noir and Syrah from California, as well as bottles from Spain and France.

As you may know, Rosé can be produced a few ways.  Generally it’s done by pulling the red grape’s skins (like my syrah or pinot) out of the vats within a few days of the crush,  so the press and fermentation is done without the skins present.  Another method,  is a process of ‘bleeding the vats’ when making red wine.  As the winemaker strives to make his red wine stronger and more tannic, he bleeds the vats of some of the light, pink juice early on.  That pink juice can then be fermented as a rosé.  A third method is achieved by simply blending red and white wine into pink (remember how we used to do that in school with a red and white crayon?  Real boys can color in pink…)

I didn’t know this, but blending is generally frowned upon by rosé purists as a sort of cheating.  It’s not even allowed in France- that is until now.

That’s right folks, according to this article at Yahoo News, the European Commission has voted to allow winemakers in Europe (including France) to blend their rosé if they like, in an effort to allow more inexpensive ‘vin de table’ to hit the streets.  The only requirement is that the label denote whether the rosé is “traditional rose” or “blended rose” thus ensuring that the French can preserve the quality of their traditional rosé making methods.

So next time I’m watching football and sipping rosé, I’m gonna check the label.  I have to decide if real men can drink blended rosé.