The trend is most definitely towards lighter colour rosés, one look around the wine shelves and that’s pretty clear. All too often we hear from those selling to us ‘you’ll like our rosé this year, it’s lighter in colour’. Why then the interest in lighter coloured rosés?

Speculative of course, but my view is - it’s fashionable, and jumping on the bandwagon of success that Côtes de Provence rosés are experiencing. It would certainly be interesting to do a tasting of rosé in a black glass and see what the favourite is. I definitely have light coloured rosé that I adore, though it’s not an exclusive relationship; the bolder coloured rosés feature in the favs list too.

So why are some rosés lighter and how is the colour defined? The colour comes from either the amount of red wine added to the white wine, or the amount of time the white wine spends with the grape skins, depending on the way the rosé is made.

There are three main ways to produce rosé wines: through skin contact, the saignée method or blending.

The first is most commonly used when the aim from the start to the finish is to make a rosé wine. Red skinned grapes are picked and then crushed, and the skin and the juice are left together for a short period of time. After this the skins are pressed and then discarded prior to the fermentation. In red wine production, the skins would remain with the juice until after fermentation. The resulting colour of the rosé depends on how long the skins and juice have been in contact for. This method of producing rosé usually results in wines with tannin and a reasonable amount of colour.

The second method, saignée (or bleeding), is a technique whereby rosé is made as a secondary product to red wine production. This method of production involves removing some of the pink juices from the initial crushing of the red grapes. This juice is then fermented, and a rosé wine produced. By doing this, the red wine being produced has more tannin and colour. This style of production results in very light, fruity rosé.

The third method is blending. This is where red and white wines are blended to produce a rosé wine. This method is not as common as the first two and is, in fact, banned in Europe, except in Champagne, where some rosé champagne is made this way, predominantly with Chardonnay and a little Pinot Noir added.

Alongside the method of production, the variety used plays a big role in the style of wine produced, whether it’s Pinot Noir (typically from Central Otago in NZ), to Merlot from Gisborne, or a French style (predominantly Cinsault), or another varietal.

Whilst it’s a huge generalisation, in NZ we tend to make very fruit forward aromatic styles from Pinot Noir in Central Otago, the diurnal extremes producing fruity and fragrant wines that are immediately appealing. Those from Gisborne tend to be produced from Merlot, are brighter red in colour and far more flavourful than fragrant. Marlborough sits in both camps with Merlot and Pinot Noir used. One of my favourites recently has been the rosé coming from Waipara, particularly the wallet friendly Waipara Hills Rosé, a superb tip. We also make very good rosé on Waiheke Island, generally produced using the saignée method and from the production of red wines.

French rosé is often bundled together and usually starts and stops with Côtes de Provence, which is an exceptional style of rosé, though there’s far more to French rosé than just the very south. A personal favourite is the Grenache dominated appellation of Lirac, where the wines are finely structured and great with food. Côtes de Provence rosés have a delightful pale pink colour, which, from a technical winemaking point of view, is very hard to get just right and produce a wine that is stable at the same time. You’ll find far too many poor examples, brown around the edges after a year in bottle. Whilst one of the superstar names continues to be Domaine Ott, check out Domaine Léoube - next door neighbour to Ott and made by the Ott family. Oh, and for those car enthusiasts, Léoube is Jeremy Clarkson’s favourite rosé.

Rosé wines are very food friendly. The heavier full-bodied styles tend to go well with turkey, chicken and duck: the lighter style wines with fish and salads (without too much vinegar in the dressing). They are also a great match with curries and Chinese cuisine.

As we come into the warmer months, the 2018 NZ rosés are starting to hit the shelves. The 2017s from Europe (their 2018 vintage is just about to start), here now.

Glengarry, Devonport and Takapuna.
www.glengarry.co.nz