GLENGARRY FEBRUARY WINELETTER 2019 | ROSE

The stack of rosé wines on our shop floor just keeps on growing, as does our intrigue with the skills involved in its creation. Given its rapidly growing popularity and the somewhat mind-numbing range of choices now available to your discerning palate, we thought we’d pitch in with some thoughts on how to navigate your way through this vinous treasure chest.

The production method has a lot to do with the resulting colour. There are three main ways to produce rosé wines: 1. Through skin contact, where the red-skinned grapes are picked, crushed and left together for a period of time. 2. The saignée method, where a portion of the pink juice from the grape is removed at an early stage in the production of red wine (intensifying the colour of the red wine) and fermented separately to produce a rosé. 3. Blending red wine into white wine.

What makes a great rosé? Certainly, a pale hue in and of itself does not necessarily confer brilliance. The best are those made with the full intent of making a rosé wine, the fruit selected with care, as opposed to a by-product created using grapes that didn’t make the red wine cut. Rosé sales are booming, and it’s no surprise that there are many good expressions being made within our shores, to accompany the horde of options imported from other parts of the globe. To ensure that we carry only the best, we taste and select rigorously, our range instore one you can have a high level of confidence in.

So, what are you looking for? Perhaps the following: a seductive aromatic nose with attractive florals and a touch of herbal spice; fresh fruit flavours, a lively acidity and a full mid-palate with plenty of texture and interest; a finish that tends towards dry and is very refreshing. Good hunting.

Waiana Estate is a boutique family-owned rosé specialist situated adjacent to the Tukituki river in the beautiful Tukituki Valley in Hawkes Bay. They have released three distinct rosé blends from 2018 under their Indian Summer label. All of their rosés are made from sustainably grown grapes and take their inspiration from the dry, elegant Provencal style. In addition to the original Indian Summer rosé, Waiana have released Summer Sault, a unique blend incorporating the Provencal grape Cinsault, the first time this variety has been blended in a New Zealand rosé. The other offering is their Private Blend, an excellent limited release, barrel-aged rosé.

With the exception of Champagne, in France rosé can only be made by contact with the skins; one is not permitted to add red wine to white wine. Provence is a very large area, broken into many classifications, and not all of its rosés come from Côtes de Provence. Within the Côtes de Provence appellation itself, you can encounter some pretty average rosés – beware the wash of cheaper Provençal offerings; it’s a very large area, and they are a minefield of inconsistency. The overall quality has increased of late, in part thanks to a new wave of producers, and the best of the Côtes de Provence rosés are some of the world’s finest expressions, displaying delicate hues, stunning aromatics and sublime textures. At their best, these wines set the rosé bar.

Our rosés are the most confusing of all; being the innovative, pushing-the-boundaries types we are, Kiwi winemakers tend to dabble in a wide variety of styles. Hence, a little experimentation is going to be your best option when buying local. Do note, though, that colour does not necessarily equate with style. In terms of New Zealand production, anything goes, and you can make your rosé using whatever method appeals.

In Spain, they call it rosado. The colour tends to be a deeper, more vivid red than that of the Provence styles, courtesy of the dark, thick-skinned Tempranillo’s inclusion in the blend, and thanks to extended skin contact with the red grapes. Lees contact in stainless is usual, with some aging in oak as well. As a rule, Spanish rosado is bright-fruited, spicy, full-bodied and dry.

In South America, rosé tends to sit in two stylistic camps: Provençal or Italian rosato. The two below demonstrate this well, their respective ownerships influencing their approach. The difference from the original being, of course, that these are made with varieties that suit the warmth in South America and come with that distinctive, full-throttle fruity style. Well worth checking out.

No run-down on rosé would be complete without a tip of the hat to the iconic Mateus. Its origins date back to 1942, when Fernando Guedes set out to put Portugal on the vinous map from his small family winery, Sogrape Vinhos. The centrepiece of his agenda was the ubiquitous Mateus, the first wine to attain true global notoriety, today boasting a presence in more than 125 countries.