Note: I am no longer referring to pink wines as "rose" wines, since this is a French word and not all wines are French. So these types of wines will from now on be labeled "pink."
During my travels in Argentina and Chile I learned about how some pink wines are made. To further concentrate red wines, some of the free run juice is bled off the skins after a short amount of contact, resulting in a pink by-product wine that is usually vinified dry. The remaining red wine has a higher ratio of skins to juice, resulting in more concentrated flavor, color and structural components.
This method is not new. In fact, when Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home Winery in California released the first White Zinfandel in 1973, he had made it for the same reason. It was a by-product of his red Zin that he wanted to get more concentrated. He fermented the pink stuff dry and sold it as White Zinfandel. A few years later, while making this wine, the fermentation got stuck and not all of the sugar was converted to alcohol. Bob tried it, liked it, and decided to bottle it that way. The sweet White Zin was a hit with Americans who thought they didn't like wine. And now you know the rest of the story.
Like it or not, and even though my mom prefers Beringer to Sutter Home, we still owe thanks to Sutter Home for starting the White Zin craze and getting more Americans to drink wine. I am happy to report that my mom's evolving palate now enjoys many Rieslings and sometimes a Gewurztraminer :) Happy Birthday, Mom!
Actually rose means pink but rose with the accent on the "e" (which I can't seem to access here) means "pinkish." So maybe we should call it pinkish wine ;)
ReplyDeleteIt should have had the accent but I don't know how to do that when I type.
ReplyDeletePinkish works too though ;)