Rosé Techniques Roundtable

Asking a winemaker if they make rosé should be like asking a winemaker if they drink beer. The two beverages, pink wine and a tasty lager, belong in any cellar and in any winemaker’s glass. Why? Quite simply, rosé (and beer) is easy to make, quick to bottle, quick to market (or mouth) and delicious to drink with almost any food (or none at all). It can be made a few different ways, including as a “bleed off” of juice (known as the saignée method) from an underperforming red wine fermentation to add flavor intensity, color and “grip.” Rosé is also a fantastic way to make a drinkable wine from underripe fruit in a cold or short vintage. It can also be made to have lower alcohol and great liveliness in the palate so can be a drink for fun activities that require some sobriety such as boating, golfing or hiking/picnic where beer would usually be de rigueur. So here’s the big question: If rosé is such a fundamentally important style of wine for food, friends and fun, why do