Summer is there and I decided to share with you our favourites met during the spring. But first let's make a small technical reminder of what rosé wine is.

Rosed the shades of summer

By Caroline Maurin, summer season 2022

Summer is there and I decided to share with you our favourites met during the spring. But first let's make a small technical reminder of what rosé wine is.

Is that wine?

I have often had clients who told me that rosé is false wine or rosé is mediocre wine. To all the comments received against rosé I answer: yes rosé is wine and you know why? By the simple definition of the word "wine":

• after Larousse
  Wine
• male name
  (latin vinum)

..Fermented drink prepared from grapes or fresh grape juice..
To love or not to love is the question!

How do we make rosé?

First of all, the production consists of vinifying red grapes using two techniques: direct pressing or bleeding method.

Chais techniques

Direct pressing: To make it simple, it consists of harvesting the red grapes (or black grapes, it will depend on the grape variety chosen), making and cutting (or not) and putting it in the press. The grapes are slowly pressed, causing the berries to burst. The juice will fall into a tray at the bottom of the press and then be put in the tank to continue the alcoholic fermentation. Then the wine is clarified, filtered (or not) and bottled and/or raised (in tanks, barrels, concrete...).

Bleeding: the method is even easier to understand. In reality, it's like red wines, but maceration lasts a short period of time: more or less 20 hours. The clusters are harvested and directly put into vats. The pressure of the grapes will burst the berries, a fermentation will begin. After a few hours, part of the wine will be placed in a vat apart from the skin of the grape in order to no longer colour the wine, it will finish its fermentation in a vat. Subsequently, either it will be farmed and then bottled or bottled directly after the end of the fermentation in the tank.

La Rosé has its place in the map of France

Since 1990 the French have reserved a place on their tables for rosé wine. Speaking of rosé, the nuances are multiple. Passing through the very clear rosé almost transparent to the more intense rosés with colors that vary from the skin of onion to the very colorful rosé poppy.

The provence

The region of Provence is the first one we think about when it comes to Rosé. It covers three departments – from Nice to Eygalières – with an area of over 20,000 hectares of vines planted, of which just over 20% are organic. The production of rosé wine amounts to more than 90% of the wine production in the region.

The Côtes de Provence appellation was first recognized in 1977. They are three main appellations and five complementary appellations:
The main: Côtes de Provence – Coteaux Varois en Provence – Coteaux d'Aix en Provence
Complementary: Côtes de Provence Sainte Victoire - Côtes de Provence Fréjus - Côtes de Provence La Londe - Côtes de Provence Pierrefeu - Côtes de Provence Notre Dame des Anges.

The rosé, is it guarding?
I heard a lot about the rosé being good if it was bottled the same year. Simply put, you have to drink from 2021 to summer 2022. So that means that 2019 rosé doesn't drink it anymore in 2022?

In reality, history is very close to that of red wine. If the year is good and the grape has developed in its entirety the quality of the wine will be suitable for aging, keeping it will allow it time to place its tannins, develop the intensity of its color and allow it to better express its aromas.

If the rosé was produced to be tasted within one year of bottling, it is better to open it in the year to enjoy its freshness and aromatic power.

Be careful! Here we do not put into discussion the production rules of each name.

Some rosés are produced to be kept very long before being opened and it deserves this patience because the evolution of bottled wine to the son of years will give the wine a different aromatic amplitude and sometimes more intense. The aromas evolve the wine changes color and comes to express the identity of grapes and terroirs as it should be.

What about tonight?

• Chateau La Mascaronne
  Luc in Provence
• Cuvée La Mascaronne Rosé 2021
• Organic farming
• Grenache, Cinsault
• Syrah, Rolle
• 2 to 5 years

Perfect on a seasonal salad!

Looking for a constant freshness with crunchy red fruit aromas and a pale pink dress?

More minerality and a lively structure for a whole meal?

• Domaine Torpez
  Saint Tropez
• Cuvée Bravade Rosé 2021
• Conventional Agriculture
• Grenache, Cinsault, Tibouren,
  Syrah, Mourvèdre, Rolle
• 2 to 3 years

Perfect on crustaceans!

Or a rose of dress with shades of pastel rose with intense aromas of seasonal fruits?