Pink wine is on a roll. Supermarket sales of rosé have risen by over 100% over the past five years. And they’re still growing rapidly. The same stands true for rosé sold in traditional specialist wine stores, from winery cellar doors and online.
The great thing about pink wine is not only that it looks attractive but it can be made from any red grape in the world.
Most pinkies are produced by lightly pressing red grapes and soaking the grape skins with the juice to extract colour. Unsurprisingly, this is called skin contact.
A short period of skin contact makes pale pink wines while longer periods give deeply coloured pink or pale ruby wines.
The style of a wine – dry, off dry or sweet – has nothing to do with colour. It has everything to do with fermenting natural sugars in grapes into alcohol to make wine. Like all dry wines, dry rosés are made by fermenting all the grape sugars into wine while sweet wines have their fermentation stopped part way through.
The results vary wildly in style. And as this week’s tasty selection shows, there’s a pink wine for every taste.
Star wine of the week - 2015 Viento Aliseo Rosado
17/20, 4 stars
La Mancha is Spain’s biggest wine region and home to the organic grapes that went into this dry pink Rosado – the Spanish name for rosé. It has a bold pink colour, is totally dry and has flavours of red fruit and a hint of spice with a vibrant, long finish, thanks to being made from grapes that were harvested in sip. This wine is certified organic and biodynamic (with Demeter). View here.
2017 Mademoiselle Comedie Bordeaux AOC Rosé
16.5/20, 3.5 stars
Bordeaux is the biggest fine wine region in France and also home to this pale pink, fresh and dry rosé. It’s light bodied, crisp and has light flavours of red plums. It is sealed with a screwcap, suggesting it’s made by forward thinking French winemakers.
2018 Plaisir’ Osé Var Rosé
16.5/20, 3.5 stars
Rosé is on a roll and the paler it is, the more favour it finds with wine drinkers, who tend to associate light coloured pink wines with dry flavours. This French rosé is on trend with its pale pink colour, dry style and red fruit flavours, all of which combine in a lovely fresh wine with a long finish. View here.
2017 Rio Anejo Bobal Espana Rosé
16.5/20, 3.5 stars
This pale pink Spanish rosé is made from the Bobal grape, a deeply coloured red grape native to south east Spain where it is named after the word bovale, which means bull (its large bunches are said to resemble the shape of a bull’s head). This wine is light bodied, creamy and soft. A crowd pleasing style with red fruit flavours and an off dry finish.
BelColle Le Rosé Brut
16.5/20, 3.5 stars
Italian vino spumante covers a wide range of wine styles, including this lively fresh pink bubbles made from grapes grown in a range of Italian wine regions. It’s light bodied, crisp and zingy. A fun, delicious light, dry bubbly, which is super affordable. View here.
2017 Lawson’s Dry Hills Marlborough Pinot Rosé
17/20, 4 stars
This lively dry pinkie comes from the country’s biggest wine region, Marlborough, where Pinot Noir rules the red roost and not only makes excellent reds but also lively dry rosés, such as this. It is medium bodied with a long fruity finish balanced by refreshing zesty acidity.
Joelle Thomson is a wine writer, journalist and author. She’s an avid lover of wine and currently writes for Capital magazine, Good magazine, NZ Winegrower, Drinksbiz, and her own site, www.joellethomson.com.
She also teaches, works in radio, and more, so we've enlisted her help to sniff out our amazing value wines!
