{"id":47880,"date":"2019-06-06T07:07:11","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T07:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/?p=47880"},"modified":"2019-06-06T08:09:53","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T08:09:53","slug":"getting-know-rose-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/getting-know-rose-wine\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting to Know Ros\u00e9 Wine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rose<\/a>\"Wine<\/a>Ros\u00e9 wine is one of the fastest growing categories of wine internationally and in South Africa where sales trebled between 2007 and 2014. This is exciting for consumers and winemakers alike. 2017 saw Ros\u00e9 wine take the international wine publishing sector by storm with no less than 5 books being published on Ros\u00e9 this year.<\/p>\n

Ros\u00e9 wine isn’t from a specific grape or region, it’s a genre of wine, like red or white. The biggest producers by volume are France, Spain and Italy but many excellent examples are made in South Africa. Most Ros\u00e9 wines are made from blends of multiple grapes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ros\u00e9 wine is the perfect year-round wine to be enjoyed at spring picnics, summer braais and autumn dinners and pairs well with many types of food. Calling wine \u2018food-friendly\u2019 can be an annoying clich\u00e9 but in the case of Ros\u00e9, it’s not wrong. These wines are versatile because they fall in between the extremes of red and white \u2014 less intense than a big, tannic, mouth-busting red, but often with more depth than a super-light white.<\/p>\n

That happy-medium flavour profile (and the fact that different varietals span a broad spectrum from bright and zippy to darker and meatier) means that you can almost always find a Ros\u00e9 wine that plays along with whatever you’re eating \u2014 fish, veggies, chicken, grilled steak, potato chips, choc-chip cookies, you name it. Just make sure that the wine is well chilled before drinking.<\/p>\n

It’s the perfect braai wine, the perfect beach wine, and the perfect picnic wine, but it’s also the perfect sitting-around-watching-TV wine.<\/p>\n

How is Ros\u00e9 wine made?<\/h3>\n

Maceration Method<\/h4>\n

The maceration method is by far the most popular method of making quality Ros\u00e9 and this process is essentially exactly what the name describes. Since colour is held in the skin of the grape, the grapes are crushed and the juice is left in contact with the skins, as a red wine would be made. However, the skins are left to soak only for a limited amount of time, depending on the desired style of Ros\u00e9. This can be anywhere from 6-48 hours (as opposed to weeks, or months, for a red wine).<\/p>\n

The longer the maceration, the darker and more richly flavoured the Ros\u00e9. The juice is then racked, or drawn off of the skins, and the rose-tinted wine begins fermentation. This method can make many styles of Ros\u00e9 depending on grape variety and length of maceration.<\/p>\n

Saignee\/Bled Method<\/h4>\n

The Saign\u00e9e (pronounced \u2018San-yay\u2019) method is when some of the juice is bled off during the first few hours of making a red wine and put into a new tank to make Ros\u00e9. The purpose of bleeding off the juice not only produces a lovely Ros\u00e9 but also concentrates the intensity of the red wine. Saign\u00e9e wines are pretty rare, due to the production method, and often will make up only about 10% or less of a winery\u2019s production.<\/p>\n

Blending Method<\/h4>\n

The blending method is when a little red wine is added to a tank of white wine to make Ros\u00e9. It doesn\u2019t take much red wine to dye a white wine pink, so usually, these wines will only have about 5% of added red wine. This method is no longer such a common practice with still Ros\u00e9 wines but is used in the production of pink sparkling wines and MCC.<\/p>\n

3 Facts you should know about Ros\u00e9<\/h3>\n