Worldwide, summer months are when rosé wines thrive, so since Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean have almost permanent summer, maybe we should be considering drinking more of this misunderstood and little respected style of wine.

Challenge

My experience from selling wines on shop floors is that there is great misunderstanding between American-style ‘blush’ wines and European-style rosé wines. There is an assumption by new wine drinkers that all pink wines are sweet, so this leads to great disappointment after customers make a selection and you see a big smile turn into a frown upon tasting a rosé. Not to worry, rosé has its fans; a new study by the Nielsen Company shows a 28 per cent jump in sales of imported rosé in the United States in the past year – a category led by France (with 28 per cent of the world’s rosé production) and specifically, Provence. The growth in imported rosé sales is nearly eight times steeper than the overall growth of wine sales in the US, and according to Nielsen, it’s part of a trend that’s been accelerating for the five years the company has measured rosé consumption.

Rosé is an easy-drinking wine, with the chillability of a white, the bright fruit flavours of a red, and soft tannins that make it as refreshing as a glass of lemonade on even the hottest day.

Rosé wines are made using two methods. The first method, maceration, is where the red grapes are crushed and the juice sits in contact with the skins, as in red wine production, for a short period. Before fermentation, the winemaker will remove the juice, transfer it to a new container then ferment the juice without the skins. In the past, for some vintners, rosé was simply a by-product of their red wine production, with the excess juice that’s bled off to concentrate the red wine fermented separately as rosé. The French call this bleeeding technique saignée (a term derived from saigner, “to bleed”). The juice that was bled off would then be bottled as a rosé. The second method is to make red wine and white wine separately and then simply blend them. This method is banned in most European wine regions with the exception of Champagne.

Recently I asked one of the local importers, 1876 Wines, who has perhaps the largest selection of rosé wines, to host a tasting. Just about 50 wine lovers turned out to experiment with six very interesting rosé wines from all over the world. The wines we tasted were as follows: Blue Moon “Pink Umbrella”, Pinot Grigio from California; Pascual Toso, Malbec from Argentina; Delheim, Pinotage from South Africa; Chinon, Domaine de Beausejour, Cabernet Franc from France; Cycles Gladiator, Zinfandel Rosé from California; and the most flavourful, explosive Navajas, Garnacha / Tempranillo, Crianza from Spain. They were all very different wines, evoking very different emotions and commentary from all who participated in the tasting.

Cheers! Rosé winemakers are making better wines, and looking for respect; try a rosé today.

Chris Reckord – Entrepreneur & Wine Enthusiast. He and his wife Kerri-Anne are part-owners of Jamaica’s only Wine Bar – Bin26 Wine Bar in Devon House, Kingston. Send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com . Follow us on twitter.com/DeVineWines

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