Rosé Wine

Rose is made from red grapes given only brief contact with their skins, usually from a few hours to a day. That short time gives the wine its pink color, and the juice is then pressed off before it develops into a full red. It is not made by blending red and white wine.

Almost always dry. The sweet pink wine many people picture is a mass-market style. Natural rose is made dry and savory, built to drink with food, with the fruit coming through as freshness rather than sugar.

Saignee, French for bleeding, is one way to make rose. Early in a red-wine fermentation, some juice is bled off after brief skin contact and finished separately as rose. It is a traditional method that also concentrates the red wine left behind.

It depends on the region. Provence-style rose leans on Grenache, Cinsault, and Mourvedre, while cooler regions use Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Cabernet Franc. In Italy you will find rose from Nerello and other native grapes. Almost any red grape can make it.

The grapes and the skin time. Rose is made from red grapes with only brief skin contact, giving a pink wine. Orange wine is made from white grapes left on their skins for weeks, giving an amber color and more tannin and grip.

Serve it well chilled but not ice-cold, so its aromas and texture can show. Drink it young while it is at its freshest, and treat it as a flexible, food-friendly wine for any time of year rather than a summer-only pour.