It is already the 10th episode of the Club, and it gives me great pleasure to be back with you every week to learn about wine. I’m curious to know what you think of these episodes, so I invite you to send me a message via the contact page. I’m also interested in finding out a little more about you, so don’t hesitate to introduce yourself. If this is the first time you are listening to the Club, I invite you to listen to the 9 episodes that come before this one. There you will find, I hope, plenty of things you will really enjoy and thanks to which you will be able to learn about wine. Let’s move on to today’s episode about rosé. Summer is fast approaching and I thought an episode on this subject was a good idea to know what you will have in your glass at the beach or on a terrace this summer.
How is rosé made?
There are two main methods for making rosé wine: direct pressing and the saignée (bleeding) method. Before I explain them to you, if you want to know how to make wine, I invite you to listen to the podcast episode on this subject. Let’s get back to the vinification of rosé wine and the two methods.
Direct pressing
First, direct pressing, which is also called slow pressing. In this technique, the colour is given to the wine during pressing. The grapes are placed in the press and the fruit bursts. However, care will be taken to take one’s time during this step so that the grape skin has time to colour the juice at this stage. The grapes are therefore pressed for a duration of between 8 and 10 hours to obtain a rosé juice that will then be set to ferment.
The saignée method
Furthermore, the second technique is the saignée. With the saignée, the colouring of the rosé wine takes place during maceration. In this technique, everything begins as for making red wine. That is to say that the grapes are crushed and the juice set to ferment with the must. However, maceration is ended much earlier to recover the lightly coloured juice. Fermentation then resumes, but without the must. And there you have it, you now know the two methods for making rosé wine.
The history of rosé wine
As you might expect, we are now going to do a little history and dive into the origins of this famous wine. You will never look at your wine glass filled with rosé the same way again.
Rosé: a wine at the heart of history
We find traces of wine and of grape growing that go back thousands of years. The history of wine is a fascinating subject and we could dedicate several whole episodes to it if it interests you. The ancient depictions of wine have been studied. Historians have deduced that the wine of the Greeks was surely rosé, or at least very pale, because only the juice was left to ferment after the grapes had been crushed. Wine stays very pale until the fall of the Roman Empire. Other types of wine start to develop at that point. From the 13th century, many wine regions establish a significant trade in clairet. This is notably the case in Bordeaux, where it accounted for 87% of production against 13% of red wine production. Bordeaux, moreover, traded a lot with England in these wines at that time. We won’t go into the details of clairet, but you can remember that it is an intermediary between red wine and rosé wine. It is a term you can still find today for wines from the controlled designations of origin of Bordeaux and Burgundy. That said, its production is now marginal compared with the success it once knew between the 13th and the 17th century. Clairet was the fashionable drink, especially among city dwellers and aristocrats. You can, moreover, see clairet in many 17th-century paintings, but I’ll also do an episode for you on wine and art.
A gradual decline of rosé wine
From the end of the 17th century, demand for this type of wine begins to decline in favour of fuller-bodied wines, with more tannins in the wine, you could say, and more deeply coloured. Red wine then begins its great domination, to arrive on every table in Europe. Rosé has thus almost disappeared from our everyday consumption. Yet there are absolutely incredible rosés. Furthermore, an interesting fact: paid holidays revived the appeal of this drink. Yes, the great annual migrations to the south strengthen demand for this drink. To this should be added that rosé has made a qualitative leap and it is clearly no longer the same wine we drink today.
What to eat with rosé?
Now that you know rosé by heart, you are probably wondering what to drink with rosé wine? Good news, I’m not going to abandon you. Of course, rosé is perfect as an aperitif. You can also pair it with some seafood: it will go very well with their iodised flavour. If you are drinking a rosé with a pale colour, almost a grey wine, you can turn to spicy dishes such as a couscous or a curry. Overall, the cuisine of the south pairs very well with rosé wine. A ratatouille accompanied by a good rosé wine should delight you to the highest degree. For dessert, the fine acidity of rosé and its nicely fruity notes can cut through pastries that are a little heavy or rich.
Key figures on rosé
You know me, I can’t leave you without giving you a few key figures on rosé:
- Rosés account for a little more than 8.5% of global wine production;
- France is the world’s leading producer of rosé, with 29% of production (in 2006);
- France consumes 7 million litres of rosé per year;
- It is Provence that produces the most rosé wine in France, with 89% of its production geared towards this colour.
And there you have it, well done, you now know rosé wine by heart. We have once again seen that wine is not a drink like any other. All of its colours are full of secrets. Learning about wine is crucial to finally being able to fully enjoy it. So I’ll see you in the next episode. In the meantime, to continue your wine-learning efforts, head to the Club. By signing up, you can be notified of the next episodes and have all the bonuses associated with them, and learn about wine simply. It’s free, it’s interesting and if you ever change your mind, you can unsubscribe whenever you like. So go and sign up right after this episode to our club.
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