It's Friday evening in London, the sun is still shining and the weekend's here. I'd just love to know how much pink bubbly wine, Champagne or even pink still wine is being consumed right this minute. My bet is that it's much more than on a sunny Friday afternoon last spring. That pink is the new black when it comes to wine is evident by the large amount of shelf-space devoted to rosé wines on the supermarket shelves these days. It used to be that rosé was just for girls or wimps, but no longer. That was absolutely confirmed to me when I saw a group of men (real blokey blokes, if that makes sense) drinking several bottles of French rosé on a sunny terrace up the mountain in a fashionable French ski resort. Today it's really OK to be seen to be drinking a glass of pretty rosé with or without bubbles.
Rosé is made anywhere that black grapes are grown or red wine made - in brief, it's made by leaving the grape juice in contact with the skins for just a short time to pick up the colour. Virtually the only exception to this method, certainly for quality wines, is in Champagne, where some producers traditionally blend a little red with the white to make a rosé base wine before the Champagne process starts. Because it's the skins of the grape that give not only colour but tannin to a wine, rosé wines rarely have any perceptible tannins, and they are made just like white wines to preserve freshness. And, just like whites, they need to be served chilled.
Australia and Chile are currently producing some monster rosés with a deep pink, almost a pale red colour, full of crunchy red fruit character. France has a huge selection of rosés from dry Provençal rosés and Côtes du Rhônes usually based on the Grenache grape, to delicate, pale Pinot Noir rosés such as the rather expensive Sancerre Rosé.
Rosé bubblies I've tasted and enjoyed recently include Green Point from Australia (called Domaine Chandon in some markets as it's owned by Moët & Chandon) and a very delicate Taittinger Champagne. Note that in the UK market (and most likely, in Australia) Green Point are using the radical 'crown cap' closure instead of a cork, very brave of them.
Of course the biggest selling rosés in the world over the years have been White Zinfandel from California and Mateus Rosé from Portugal in the flagon bottle, used by many in the 1970s as a lamp stand. White Zinfandel is still a huge seller in the USA and in some other markets, and Mateus still exists. Both though are medium sweet rosés, and if this has put you off this colour of wine, think again. There is a growing range of excellent dry rosé on the market and you won't look silly drinking it any more, or at least not in most places and somehow it feels right drinking rosé in the sunshine.
