Quiz - Harvest to Bottling for Rosé Wines Flashcards
Identify the three key ways of making rosé wines, then briefly describe each process.
1. Direct Pressing
Black grapes are whole bunch pressed or destemmed, crushed and pressed immediately, the same process for making white wine, and then fermented. White grapes can be added to the black grapes from the beginning of this process to balance the final wine, this will depend on local legislation. The color achieved by this method is pale but will depend on the grape variety and the press cycle. Examples of this wine style include Provence Rosé and wines labelled “Vin Gris”, among other styles.
2. Short Maceration
The black grapes are crushed to break the skins and macerated for a period, pre-fermentation. The grapes need to be protected from oxidation and kept at a cool temperature. Depending on the grape variety, the longer the maceration the more color extraction. There are 3 options after maceration:
a) Fermentation may start on the skins until the desired color and tannin extraction is achieved, taken off the skins, pressed and the fermentation finished as in white wine.
b) Pressed and fermented off the skins, like white wine.
c) The fermentation may continue as a red wine, on the skins, and a proportion of the juice is ‘bled’ off to make rosé and concentrating the remaining red wine ferment.
This style of rosé tends to be darker in color and examples include some traditional Spanish styles.
3. Blending
Involves blending white wine and red wine to make a rosé, this method is not permitted in most European wine regions, with the notable exception of Champagne.
Which technique of rosé production is usually used to produce the light, delicate styles of wine typical of Provence?
Direct pressing
Wines made by this method are often called ‘vin gris’ and they include many of the lightest-colored Provence wines.
Which technique for rosé production sometimes uses a by-product from red wine production?
Short maceration
The potential disadvantage of this method, from the perspective of rosé wine production, is that the black grapes will have been grown and harvested as if they were going to make red wine, and therefore the juice that goes on to make the rosé wine may be less suitable for this latter style of wine.
Other than blending red and white wines to create rosé, what other reasons might a winemaker choose to blend for when producing rosé?
It can be a simple and cheap method if a producer already makes red and white wines and it expands the portfolio of wines the producer can offer the consumer.
When making rosé by the more traditional methods, it is more difficult to predict what the final color of the wine will be as color decreases during fermentation. With this method the winemaker has full control over the final color of the rosé.
