All About Rosé | One on Wine

Hey everybody! Today we are talking all about Rosé. Rosé is like your wild friend with the pink hair. You don't see her too much at parties, but when she shows up, bust. Rosé has been around forever, and although it's been ignored, made fun of, and looked down upon over the years, we are currently in the Rosé Renaissance. This is one-on-wine, the rise and the fall, and the rise of Rosé. What is Rosé? Most people think it's a white. It's served cold, it's lighter, and it's fruitier than a red, right? Wrong. So does that mean Rosé is a red? Not really. The best way to explain Rosé is to explain how it's made. A rose is a beautiful flower, and it all starts with the soil. No, no, nope, nope, nope, nope. Okay, we emailed the wrong guy. Rosé is generally made one of a few different ways. The first and most popular is the maceration method. Much like red wine, red wine grapes are pressed, and the seeds, stems, and skins, known as the pumice, they sit in the juice. To make a traditional red wine, winemakers leave in that pumice throughout the entire maceration process. The wine gets dark and tannic. Now rewind. When they're making Rosé, they remove pumice early. This leaves you with a pink juice that has taken the flavor of the red grapes, but without the heavy tannin or the deep color. Once that wine ferments, you got yourself a Rosé. Much like red wine, Rosé's color will match the boldness of the grape. A light Pinot Noir grape has a light, almost translucent, pale red color, while a Syrah grape Rosé will have a darker color. So how long has Rosé been around? Feels like a new thing, right? Wrong. Some of the earliest red wines were Rosés. Winemakers didn't have the tools they have today, and the maceration process of red wine was much shorter. So most wines were pale red. Even crazier is the darker, more tannic wines were considered unfavorable. This went all the way into the Middle Ages when claret was introduced. It's a pale red wine from the Bordeaux region. Claret was loved and adored by the French and the English. Actually, famous writer Samuel Johnson stated, he who aspires to be a serious wine drinker must drink claret. Basically, he's saying, if you don't drink Rosé, you ain't crap. So what happened to Rosé? Well, around the 18th century, winemaking got a little more sophisticated and so did the wine drinker's palate. The darker red stepped into the spotlight in a way that made Rosé somewhat unnecessary. And Rosé disappeared for a little while. Then in the early 1970s, the California winery Sutter Home was creating a Zinfandel. Bob, the head wine guy at Sutter Home, was making his Zinfandel and thought, the higher ratio of pumice to juice will result in a richer red. So we either need more pumice or less juice. So he skimmed off some of the juice. Boom! He got a darker, more intense Zinfandel. But instead of throwing away that excess pink juice, he fermented it into a Rosé he would call white Zinfandel. This is the second most popular method of making Rosé, called Sagné, which is French for bleeding. So during the maceration process, we take away the pumice and ferment. During the Sagné method, we drain the excess juice from a batch of macerating red wine and ferment that. You got it? Did you write that down? It's a quiz later. White Zinfandel was pretty popular. It was dry, crisp, and a little sweet. But it wasn't until 1975, it's good here, that things took off. Old Bob at Sutter Home was making his white Zinfandel, and the batch experienced stuck fermentation. That's when the sugars refused to become alcohol. I ain't doing it. I don't feel like doing it today. The result of this stuck fermentation was a super sweet, low alcohol Rosé. Bob at Sutter Home said, let's sell it. And boy, did it sell. It was huge. White Zinfandel was the go-to Rosé in the supermarket, and people were buying as many bottles as they could hug. But again, wine drinkers turned their nose up. People got over the novelty of white Zinfandel. But in the early 2000s, French winemakers started making serious quality Rosé. Winemakers around the world were motivated to push better product. Sales started to tick. Quality started to rise. Then social media cemented Rosé's place in wine culture, specifically amongst millennials. The millennial generation loved the unpretentious anytime wine, perfect for any occasion. And winemakers fell in love again, too. We got back together. You see how that works? Look, I can get specific, but Rosé goes with everything. Like a crisp white, it complements veggies and light fare. But with its red berry and melon flavors tucked between a slightly acidic profile, this wine can hang with you through dinner. Just a hint, if you're having barbecue, grab a Rosé. So here we are, and it's 2019, and Rosé, a queen who fell in the 18th century and has been beaten down ever since, has finally gotten back up. And centuries later, she's in her prime! It's great for summer. It's great for winter. It's great for Earth. It's great for space. Welcome to the Rosé Renaissance. Hey, Zepta! The flower guy's still here. I need a ride.