The One About Pink Wine

In which we stop judging each other for what's in our glasses

Photo by Dennis Vinther on Unsplash

As I sit and ponder the relative importance of talking about rosé wines at this particular moment in the world’s history, I am feeling both stir crazy and anxious. But you know what? At the same time, I also believe that things will improve so both while they are nuts and afterwards when there is a whole new level of nuts, you owe it to yourself to learn a thing or three about the “other wine” that is to say, not red, not white, but … pink.

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH ORANGE WINE which one of my Millennial Offspring claims as “theirs” as in “Millennial.” I digress. What else is new?

Let’s start with a few basics. Firstly, rosé is not a grape. It is a style of wine, different from reds and whites. To back up even further, you should know that most grapes, with very few exceptions create a clear or colorless juice—even grapes like cabernet sauvignon. The color of the resulting wine comes from something called anthocyanins, which are water-soluble pigments that will produce red, purple, blue or black colors depending on their chemical make up. Think “blueberries” and “blackberries” and you’ll get an idea of an anthocyanin-rich food. In wine, anthocyanin reacts with other components like tannins, acetaldehyde and pyruvic acid to form the pigment color. The process of maceration—where in the skins, seeds, and stems from the grapes are soaked in the clear juice—draws out all of these compounds, including the color.

Oh, and yeah, that whole grape stomping thing? That is technically a maceration process, albeit a kind of icky one. Oh! Oh! Also, fun fact: lambic beers, absinthe, and Campari use maceration as part of their process.

Whew. Okay. So now that we know enough about the process stuff, it stands to reason that one way to make a rosé wine is to only allow the maceration (exposure of the clear grape juice to the skins) to occur for a few hours or days, as opposed to the time it takes to create a deep red cabernet, which allows the skins and whatnot* to remain in the juice all the way through fermentation. There are a couple of other ways, according to Our Favorite Wine Guru, Brian Hay. “You can blend a red and white wine, or you can use the bleeding process.”

I mean, bleeding? Really.

Relax, it’s a French term and process called saignée which takes 10% of the macerated red wine juice out, puts that in a separate tank for fermentation. This gives you both a nice rosé in one tank and a red wine that’s 90% of the juice with 100% of the skins and whatever else* that will result in a nice, strong, definitely not rosé.

“Rosés get a bad rep, for no reason other than the fact that some of the more mass-produced white zins and other sweet, pink-colored wines are considered to be of low quality. But places like Sutter Home have produced these sorts of palate entry-level wines for years with much success so I certainly never fault them for that,” says Brian. And really, I get this, on a beer level. I gave up judging people on what they drink years ago. Producing a large amount of booze at the same level of quality every time (see: “the Bud you drink today tastes exactly the same at the Bud you drank three years ago”), selling it to the masses and continuing to make money doing so takes skill, organization, and committed fermentation specialists. This in turn makes money that can be spent on large advertising budgets. No arguments from me on that.

Back to the process for a minute now that we have re-established the judgement-free nature of this column. You can make a rose wine from pretty much any grape. Brian is of the opinion that a grape that is low acid and tannin levels makes for the best option—pinot noir, grenache, and zinfandel  being among them. In fact, the lower the acid, the dryer the result. Many French versions are crisp, and “off dry” which is wine talk for “not sweet but not dry either,” which is Brian’s preference for this style. He’s not inclined to give us specific recommendations because quality varies depending on if you want your rosé sweet or not, not to mention where you live and what wines are available to you, but he will say that if you can get your hands on one made in Oregon, you will be a happy drinker. If you prefer French, look for rosés from the Loir Valley, Tavel (Southern Rhône), and Provence.

“When it comes to rosé wines you have to keep an open mind and listen to your local expert. Not all rosés are available in every part of the U.S. so relying on your wine steward or wine shop owner is key.”

Decide if you want it sweet or not, too because that’s where large variations occur, along with color. Remember when we talked about how any wine’s color (red, white, otherwise) comes not from the juice of the grape but from adding the skins and stems back in to allow them to soak in that juice? Yeah. So the light pinks to salmon to near fuschia you get when you’re facing that enormous shelf full of rosés is a direct result of which skins were used and how long they sat in the juice. Therefore, it stands to reason that there will be a wide variety of color on that pink spectrum.

Personally, I can highly recommend Rendezvous Rosé from Carol Shelton Winery. When you’re shopping and want a delicious, deep pink option made by bleeding half of the “pink” juice off of red Carignane grapes a full three days after crushing them and fermenting the result cold like a white wine, ask your local wine shop owner to find that one. The process gives the Rendezvous not only a compelling color in the beautiful bottle (yes, I am a sucker for packaging) but also a distinct strawberry fruitiness that is delicious served cold. I also tried and can recommend a solid Michigan made rosé—the Etcetera Rosé from Chateau Grand Traverse made from a combination of pinot noir, gamay noir, merlot, and cabernet franc.

A word about “White Zinfandel” (a.k.a. “Cougar Juice” in Texas according to our aforementioned wine expert Mr. Hay). First off, it is a rosé, one made from Zinfandel grapes. It is very sweet. It is also very popular. That does not make it bad (or good), but simply a fact. Many people new to wine start on the sweet end of the spectrum as a gateway and end up elsewhere. Some don’t. No judgement.

As for pairings, for best results, Brian recommends keeping things light to match the style of rosé wines. Chicken, fish, poached or grilled with some peppery greens would make a lovely summer meal with your choice of sweet or off-dry rosé. On the other hand, you might consider going all in with something…else. “One of the best meals I’ve had is a local bbq brisket, consumed at the Fall Creek Vineyards, in the hill country of Texas, alongside their 100% grenache (grape) rosé.”

Just in case you were confused about what food to pair with what wine…go with what you love. I mean, just last night, after a long day of writing/promoting/scrolling, I consumed a delicious, creamy yet delightfully perfect rice crispy treat alongside a pinot noir.

Okay, I consumed three of them. And the whole bottle. An apt pairing for the times and zero judgement.

Enjoy life.

Drink more wine.

That’s the gist.

If you like it pink colored, I hope you gained some assistance from this, my 89% Unfiltered attempt at helping you drink better and judge less.

I have not consumed much new media since last we spoke but I will update you when that happens because I realize how important that is to the universe at large.

*the terms “whatnot” and “whatever else” are used as Serious Winemaking Terms only here, and nowhere else. It is not recommended that you use them too much lest you be considered a wine snob.