-
- Rosé remains Rosé (at least in Europe)
Just read the following news in a German newspaper:
After heavy protests of French winegrowers the European Union withdraw a proposal to change European wine law regarding Rosé wines. The change of law would have allowed to just mix red and white wine to achieve Rosé (as common in Southafrica and Australia), instead of the original method to produce Rosé from red grapes only.
Anybody knows about the production of Rosé wines in the US? And how are the mixed Rosés imported into Europe, can they be called Rosé?
-
3027 - Reply by Philip, Jun 12.
Rose Champagne is often created by blending (white wine, with a splash of pinot noir), how can they get away with this, if the law doesnt allow it?
Not sure about the US laws, but most Rose's in stores that comes in glass bottles is produced by skin contact. Some may be produced by white wine from a red grape, with some red wine from a red grape added in. I've never seen a rose thats made by dripping some merlot into Chardonnay, for example.
-
82
- Reply by Degrandcru, Jun 12.
The blending is allowed for champagne and other sparkling wines, not for table wine rosés.
http://www.curiouswines.ie/blog/tag/european-union/
-
0390 - Reply by GregT, Jun 17.
Isn't that whole thing a load of crap? We can mix red and white grapes in Chianti or Cote Rotie and we can call it red. We get red grapes and make "blanc de noir" in Champagne. We can have rosé that ranges from the palest white-salmon to a a deep pink-red. And we can bleed off some juice and call it rosado or rosé or we can simply leave the skins for a short time that we determine to be correct and we can call it rosé. So why not mix the red and white grapes? Is that somehow wrong, whereas the other methods are correct?
-
82
- Reply by Degrandcru, Jun 17.
Greg, its not about mixing red and white grapes, its literally about blending red and white wine (of low quality) together to be able to sell cheap in the growing market of Rosé wines. As the market is very price oriented it would force traditional wine makers to give up the original process in order to compete. I am in favour of maintaining most of the european wine laws just to protect the traditional production method and give the consumer the choice to decide. Because you still are able to sell your blend, you just cannot call it Rosé. Similar to the Methode Champenoise. You can get the bubbles in the bottle in whichever way you want, you just can´t call it Methode Champenoise. So the informed consumer has a choice.
