Rosé Wine Vinification

Harvesting

The first step to produce a rosé, is to harvest black grapes (Rosé wines are made from black grapes).

Some winemakers have separate vineyards for red and rosé wines, but red and rosé wines can also be produced from the same vinyard and the same harvest.

The best quality rosé wines are produced from hand-picked grapes.

---

Sorting

After carefull harvesting, the grape clusters are sorted for quality.

Unripe, diseased, and damaged grapes, bugs and leaves are removed.

---

Crushing

After sorting, the grapes are crushed to crack the skins and release the must.

Must is the crushed grape juice that contains flesh, skins, seeds, and stems.

Modern crushing machines are calibrated not to crush the seeds full of bitter tannins.

---

Short Maceration

Maceration is the process where the rosé wine receives its color.

The color comes from this skin contact with the juice.

A short skin contact (1 to 6 hours) creates a pink rosé.

A longer skin contact (1 to 2 days) creates a darker rosé.

Maceration less than 48 hours is called rosé vinification

Maceration more than 48 hours is called red vinification.

---

Pressing

Pressing separates the pink juice from the skin, seeds, and stems.

---

Alcoholic Fermentation

Alcoholic fermentation transforms grape juice into wine.

Yeasts transform the sugar in the juice into alcohol (and CO²).

The pink juice is fermented in steel or fiberglass tanks. Rosé wines are very rarely fermented in wood.

---

Fermetation Temperature

Rosé wines (and white wines) are fermented at low temperatures (12-22°C, 54-72°F) to maximize the fresh fruit aromas.

Red wines are fermented at high temperatures (20-32°C, 68-90°F) to extract more color and tannins.

---

Differences Between White and Rosé

White wines are made from white grapes. Rosé wines are made from black grapes.

White grapes are pressed immediately after crunching, to avoid any skin contact. Rosé grapes are macerated with the skins after crunching, to absorbe taste and color from the skins.

Some white wines are maturating both in oak and bottles after fermentation (like some Chardonnays). Rosé wines are only stabilizing a short time in steel tanks after fermentation.

---

Rosé Wine Vinification

---

White Wine Vinification

Rosé Wine Vinification Metods

There are two common methods used for making rosé wines:

• Short Maceration
• Direct Pressing
• Saignée (Bleeding)

---

Short Maceration (Described Above)

Limited skin maceration is the most popular method. The color is in the grape skins. The grapes are crushed and the juice is left in contact with the skins, just like making red wine. But, the skin contact is for a limited amount of time (from 6 to 48 hours). The longer the maceration, the darker and more richly flavored the rosé. The juice is then racked, or drawn off of the skins, and the rose-tinted wine are fermentated. This method can make many styles of rosé depending on grape variety and length of maceration.

---

Direct Pressing

In this method, red grapes are crushed and the juice is immediately pressed off the skins, resulting in a lighter-colored rosé wine.

Direct pressing typically produces rosé wines with a lighter color and more delicate, fresh fruit flavors.

---

Saignée (Bleeding)

This method involves "bleeding" off a portion of the juice from red wine fermentation after it has had some contact with the grape skins. The Saignée juice is fermented separately to produce rosé wine. The rest of the juice is fermented to produce red wine.

Rosé wines made using the saignée method often have a deeper color and more robust flavors due to the extended skin contact.

The Saignée method is called Salasso in Italy, Sangrado in Spain, Weisserbst in Germany, Gleichgepresster in Austria and Süssdruck in Switzerland.