After draining the juice from the skins it is treated like a white wine with fermentation taking it to complete dryness or some degree of sweetness by stopping fermentation at predetermined residual sugar level.
The wine is then marketed as a Rose' table wine or used as a base for making pink sparkling wines.
On our trip to Rutherglen last year, we came across a few unusual Rose's.
Rutherglen is well known for its fortified wines eg. Muscat, Topaque (formerly known as Tokay) and Vintage and Tawnies (formerly known as two Port styles).
As a consequence of this, they grow a lot of grape varieties of Portuguese and Spanish origin.
These are not generally used for table wines but there has been a trend to experiment with them for that purpose.
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| Rose's of Various Hues |
So it was nice to find an example at the Stanton and Killeen winery. We bought their Rose' which was made from a blend of Tinta Barroca, Touriga Nacional, Tinto Cão and Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo)
Some wines obtained during an intensive wine tasting trip can be disappointing many months later when opened at home, particularly those bought late in the day when judgment might be slightly impaired (wink, wink).
But this one did not disappoint. Sure, it was quite different from other Rose's we were used to but on a hot 35°C summer's evening with an antipasto plate loaded with goodies, this cold wine went down a treat.
We had also bought a red table wine made with a similar blend of 39% Tinto Cão, 26% Touriga Nacional, 17% Tinta Barroca, 14% Tinta Roriz and 4% Souzão which we have already tried and found to be excellent.
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