Rose wine is perfect foil to beat the summer heat
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ISACS is the founder and CEO of EnjoyGourmet, a leading gourmet digital (www.enjoygourmet.com.cn) and print media company in China. He has authored over a dozen wine and food books including the awarded ISACS Guides and other gourmet books and is a wine consultant to governments, wine regions and organizations. He also hosts wine events for leading organizations and companies throughout China. Contact John via jcolumn@enjoygourmet.com.
Shanghai readers fret not, before you know it the oppressive heat of our summer will have dissipated and more moderate weather will be upon us. Until this happens, I have the perfect foil to these super inflated temperatures. Rosé wines.
Short History
Most wine historians believe rose wines are the oldest style of wines. Because the simple skin contact method used to make rosé wines is the easiest and most natural way to make wines, the first wines were most likely neither white nor fully red.
In ancient times, most wines resembled the rosé wines of today in color, not the modern dark and tannic reds. As recently as four or five centuries ago the red wines of Bordeaux were significantly paler and this resulted in the English referring to them as claret wines. The same was true in Burgundy, Champagne and Piedmont. In fact, the wine world was replete with rosé style wines before the term and category was even created.
The latter half of the 20th century was not kind to rosé wines. Insipid and cloyingly sweet mass-produced Portuguese rosé wines under the names Mateus and Lancers flooded the markets. Equally indifferent wines were made in the United States using Zinfandel grapes under the name blush or white Zinfandel. Fortunately, palates around the world matured and these characterless wines lost favor and quality rosé wines grew in popularity.
Method
There are several different methods to make rosé wines. Like reds, rosé wines get their color from the skins of dark colored grapes. Most still rosé wines are made using the limited maceration process. No need to get lost in technical wine lingo, all this really means is that the skins are left in contact with the fruit of the grapes for a limited period of several hours to a few days. The longer the skin contact time, the darker the color.
And there’s no need to sweat when it comes to choosing rosé wines in Shanghai. Choices are plentiful. Nothing sooths the summer heat quite so eloquently as rosé sparklers. At the high-end of quality and price you have the rosé wines of Champagne and Franciacorta. Champagne rosé producers I favor include Bollinger, Taittinger and Gosset while my favorite rosé Franciacorta producer is Bellavista. But affordable options also exist with good value rosé sparklers from Spain, Chile and French regions not called Champagne.
In the world of still rosé wines there’s also much to choose from the very dry and elegant wines of Provence and Tavel in the Southern Rhone to the lively Sangiovese Rosatos of Italy and hearty Rosados of Spain. The New World also offers many pink options and this week I’ll take a closer look at beating the heat with some excellent value rosé wines from Chile.
Latin budget beaters
The Central Valley is Chile’s biggest wine region stretching from the Maipo Valley (just south of Santiago) to the southern end of the Maule Valley, a distance of approximately 400km.
A wide variety of wine styles and quality can be found in this large area, from many different terroirs. They range from the fashionable and increasingly costly Bordeaux-style wines produced in northern Maipo, to the older, more-established vineyards of Maule. In addition to the traditional regions of the Central Valley, newer cool-climate areas are also receiving attention for their stylish rosé and white wines.
The most popular varieties used to make rosé wines in this region are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Carmenere. Increasingly Petit Verdot is being blended in to give more color and structure to the wines.
One of my favorite Central Valley roses is made by Chocolan, a premium producer in Maipo Valley.
This 80 percent Syrah and 20 percent Petit Verdot is quite a macho style of rosé that’s full of strawberry and other red fruit flavors with a clean and respectably long finish. Other quality producers of rose from this region that I recommend are Miguel Torres and Baron Philippe de Rothschild.
Buying and serving
With precious few exceptions, rosé wines should be consumed young. Pick the latest vintage as it is most likely to retain the exuberance and subtitles that make rose wines so appealing. Especially here in China it’s a good idea to bypass any rose wine with a vintage older than three years.
Dry rose wines should be served well chilled in a white or even red wine glass. Depending on the style and varieties used the ideal serving temperatures range from 6-8 degrees Celsius.
Where to buy in Shanghai
Varieties:
The most important varieties used to make rose wines in the Central Valley are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Camenere.
Key term:
Skin contact occurs during the maceration process when the skins of the grape provide the color and tannins of a wine.
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