Rosé Wines

Summertime: picnics in the park with friends and loved ones; long, sun-baked days at the beach; the scent of meats grilling over hot coals; and, of course, rosé.  For most wine drinkers, it just wouldn’t feel like summer without a little rosé.

You may initially think of red wines when it comes to Bordeaux wines, but what about trying something a little different this summer?  You might not know it, but Bordeaux produces delicious, fruity, dry rosé wines and they’re easy on the pocket, too.

Bordeaux is producing more rosé every year (last year, rosé accounted for 7.0% of the total wine production of the Bordeaux region or 12 million bottles!) so we recommend getting in on this new trend now while these delicious wines are still under the radar and super affordable. Below, we provide a few suggestions to whet your appetite for the last summer months to come.

Bordeaux rosés are produced from a combination of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot grapes and then vinified at a low temperature (the process is the same for Bordeaux white wines). Different grape varieties are blended before bottling, an essential step in allowing the true style and personality of each winemaker to shine through in their respective wines. This process, called assemblage, is a vital and unique characteristic of the entire Bordeaux winemaking region.

You might wonder how rosé wines get their colour? Red wine gets its colour from the red grape skin. The grape juice itself is colourless. Therefore, a winemaker can control the red colour depth of wine by controlling the time the skin stays in contact with the grape juice. To produce rosé wine, the grape juice is allowed to be in contact with the skin for a short period of time – much shorter than when producing a red wine – giving the wine the delicate pink colour.