Rosé/Blush Wine

Rosés are often underrated amongst their red and white counterparts, and have been gaining in popularity in recent years. These wines can be a wonderfully refreshing change of pace to your everyday red or white.

A rosé may be produced in one of three ways, though only the first two ways are typically used. The first method is used when the winemaker's primary focus is to make a rosé. In this case, the skins of the crushed grapes -- which are responsible for producing the color in wines -- are allowed to remain in contact with the juice for a short period of time, though not throughout fermentation as is the case with red wines. This method imparts some of the red coloring of the skin, but by removing the skins before fermentation it removes the tannins and other compounds typical of a red wine, leaving behind a blush wine with characteristics more typical of a white wine.

The second method for producing roses is the through the fermentation of excess juice (or must) from a red wine. Winemakers may wish to make their red wines more tannic and intense in both color and flavor. When that's the case, they sometimes will remove some of the pink juice from the wine at an early stage in fermentation. That juice is then sometimes fermented on its own to create a rosé.

And the final method for creating a rosé, which is rather uncommon and discouraged, is a simple blend of red and white wines. This method is actually forbidden by law in France, with the exception of Champagne.