Rosé is not just a summer wine

Rosé earned a reputation as a summer novelty because of one style that dominated shelves decades ago. Dry rosé is something else entirely.

How rosé is made

Rosé is red grapes handled gently. The juice of almost every red grape is clear; colour lives in the skins. Leave the juice in contact with the skins for a few hours instead of a few weeks and you get pink wine with the aromatics of red fruit and the structure of white.

Three methods matter. Direct press, where grapes are pressed immediately, gives the palest and most delicate wines. Short maceration gives more colour and fruit. Saignée bleeds off juice from a red wine fermentation, giving a darker, fuller rosé. Blending red into white is allowed for most sparkling rosé and largely not for still wine in Europe.

Colour does not mean sweetness

A pale salmon rosé and a deep pink one can both be bone dry. Colour tells you about grape and method, not sugar. The sweet pink wines many people remember are labelled white zinfandel or blush, and they are a distinct style made deliberately sweet.

If you want dry, look for Provence, the southern Rhône, Spain, Italy or a dry-labelled domestic bottle, and check the alcohol: sweeter rosé tends to sit lower.

What the grape does

Grenache gives strawberry and melon with a warm, round finish. Cinsault gives delicate red berry and florals. Syrah gives more colour, plum and a peppery edge. Pinot noir gives cherry, high acidity and precision. Tempranillo and sangiovese give firmer, more savoury rosé with a bitter-orange snap.

Why it works all year

Dry rosé has the acidity of a white wine and the fruit of a red, which makes it the most flexible bottle on a mixed table. In summer that means the porch. In autumn it means pork, squash and roasted vegetables. At Thanksgiving it handles a plate with six different things on it better than most reds. In winter, a fuller Spanish or Italian rosé stands up to charcuterie, paprika and grilled meat.

Food

Rosé is the practical answer when half the table wants red and half wants white. It works with fried chicken, salade niçoise, shrimp, ham, pizza, tacos, hummus and mezze, goat cheese, watermelon and salty snacks. It is one of the few wines that handles a salad with vinegar in the dressing.

Sparkling rosé

Made in every method, from tank-fermented Italian styles to bottle-fermented Champagne and cava. Sparkling rosé is a good everyday bottle and an unusually good gift, because it looks celebratory and drinks with food.

Age it or not

Most dry rosé is made to drink young, within a year or two of the vintage. Look for the most recent year on the shelf. A handful of serious rosés from Provence and Spain age well for several years and develop a savoury, nutty character, but they are the exception.

Serving

Chill to about 45 to 50 degrees, but not colder. Very cold rosé loses its aromatics. Use a regular wine glass, not a flute. An opened bottle keeps two or three days in the fridge.

Selection changes week to week, so call to confirm a specific bottle.