Welcome to the Weekly Wine Quiz!
Based on feedback from ever-so-vocal-and-intelligent peeps like you, I do not supply the quiz answer directly in the post – you will need to tune back in later in the comments section for the answer. Blah, blah, blah – you know all this already…
Continuing our current theme of quizzing you about winemaking comes this week question, which has nothing whatsoever to do with Friday the 13th, unless you suffer from triskaidekaphobia and feel that you will answer unluckily, I mean:
A Rosé Is A Rose Is A What?
How are rosé wines made?
- A. Red wine grapes are pressed directly, and the juice is fermented without any contact with the grape skins (as in white wine).
- B. Exactly the same way as red wine, only for a shorter, abbreviated period of maceration.
- C. “Free run” juice from maceration of red wine grapes is “bled” from the grapes, and then continues fermentation without skin contact.
- D. Red and white wines are blended together.
- E. All of the above
Cheers – and good luck!
That would be E.
Thanks, Jeff – great avatar pic, by the way!
E. all of the above.
Love the Rose's, tried a Piattelli Rose of Malbec last night
Thanks, Jim!
I will say B.
Thanks, Jeff!
With regard to A, whats the difference between using this practice to produce Rose and using it to produce white wine from red grapes?
Dan – there is none, apart from using red wine grapes instead of white, creating what is commonly called a Vin Gris.
I will go with E Alex.
Joel – I'll take "Obscure Sangiovese Roses for $800, please"…
C & D.
My $.02 with regard to Champagne is that I used to think the "saignee" method (C), was superior to the blending method (D). But after tasting hundreds of Rosé Champagnes made in both methods, I have concluded that there is no one method that stands above the other, just individual Champagnes that stand above others!
Cheers, Bryan
Thanks Bryan!
Alllllrighty then… here is your Wine Quiz Answer:
E. All of the above
Rosé wine is made in many forms. It can be made exactly as a white wine but using red wine grapes ("vin gris"), as a result of an "abbreviated" red wine vinification with skin contact, or (more commonly in fine wine, and usually with superior results) using the "saignée" method of bleeding off red wine juice to finish a normal fermentation period without further skin contact. Red and white wine can also be blended together to make rosé, though the results are often poor (that last method is actually forbidden in many EU wine producing regions).
we killed our rose this year. too much toast on one of the barrels. if we had caught it early, we might have saved the rest of the barrels. instead, we've got three barrels of topping wine. :-(
Gabe – ouch!!
Joe – I guess that is the price you pay for experimenting. Sometimes the results are fantatsic – other times, it turns into topping wine :-/
gabe – that is also the fun of it. I really believe that. It is just the same as every time that Is screw up when playing my bass – a learning opportunity. People tend to forget the power of those negative experiences as potentially being formative, I think – a chance to learn more about the WHYs of what it is about something that you do not like. Cheers!
well said. cheers
gabe – I am just trying to live up to the high standards that folks like you set around here! :)
So everybody inFrance got this wrong….blending strictly lllegal here.
traductionvin – Indeed! I think it is that way for much of Western Europe, actually?