How is rosé wine made? Let’s find out!

About 830,000 bottles sold in one year for Gotto d’oro. To be an “enigma”, the rosé is sufficiently solved. Destined to continue his path as a successful mestizo or, better to say, as pure in character as he is proud of his mixed origins.

But it’s worth learning more about how it is produce and which wines are as much discussed as they are appreciated by the public, how they are born and where best to place them at the table.

No mixing wines

Having established, therefore, that unlike what happened in the past, rosé wine is no longer born (because it is prohibited by law almost throughout Europe) from the mix between white and red wines, it is curious as well as particularly useful to go and understand what are the grapes thanks to which a wine capable of surprising is obtained also for the different shades of pink color it can acquire.

According to the regulations currently in force, rosé wine can be produced using red berried grapes, gray berried grapes, blends and assembly of musts. This essentially means that rosé wine can be obtained either by using only red grapes or by mixing the vinification, i.e. by working together white and red grapes (not wines), simultaneously using processing practices which, otherwise, would be used separately and distinctly . This is the procedure that is called blending. Another practice that can be used is the assembly of musts from white and red grapes together.

A look in the cellar

Let’s take a few examples by exploring the variety of Gotto d’oro rosé wines. All the rosés from the cellar in via del Divino Amore, with the exception of Luccicore (we will see why later) are produced from the blend of processing during the vinification phase. That is, by vinifying red grapes in white which in the specific cases of the Rosato Igt del Lazio Linea Classica, as well as the Castelli Romani Doc Rosato in the two different versions (Line75 and Linea Classica) mainly involve the use of Sangiovese grapes together with other grapes foreseen by the disciplinary.
This means that the processing temperature will remain low, never exceeding 20°C.

The vinification of red grapes… in white

The vinification in white, however, does not provide for the maceration of the skins which are already separated through the crushing-destemming process, while to obtain the rosé, although the processing of the red grapes changes the one used to obtain a white wine, it really differs from the fact that the skins, also called pomace, are instead left to macerate for a short time ranging from 2 to 36 hours. This peculiarity during the vinification is the one that gives the rosé wine back its particular and increasingly sought-after colouring.

Everything, of course, depends on the types of grapes that are going to be selected based on the final result that one intends to obtain. Thus it will be quite frequent to be faced with rosé wines defined as vin gris and especially widespread beyond the Alps. These wines will have the characteristic pale pink colour. A color that derives from the use of grapes with low chromatic capacity but above all, in processing, from practically zero maceration with the final light color that will derive from pressing alone.

The splendid of Syrah Rosato

The rosé obtained from Syrah differs from all this which, in the specific case of Gotto d’oro, shines in the bottles of Luccicore of the Vinea Domini line and is obtained from pure Syrah grapes, vinified in rosé, or through pressing of whole grapes.

The Syrah bunches remain protected from the sun throughout the ripening period thanks to the surrounding leaves, so as to slow down their phenolic ripening. Once harvested, the grapes are immediately pressed, taking care to select only the first pressing. The contact time with the skins is limited to a couple of hours to obtain the right desired unique shade of rosé. The malolactic fermentation is prevented with the help of cold, so as to keep the aromas coming from the grapes and from the alcoholic fermentation unaltered. Bottling is carried out in the first months of the year following the harvest. The refinement lasts two months in steel containers on fine lees.

Pairings

Rosé in general, is considered the best accomplice of the tastiest and most chic aperitifs. And if the rosés of Lazio and Castelli Romani can be accompanied with appetizers based on ham, delicate but also more full-bodied first courses, such as spaghetti all’amatriciana, both with fish such as monkfish with tomato and capers and with white meats.

Luccicore of Vinea Domini, in particular, with its soft pink colour, dry, moderately acidic and extremely elegant taste, can be found in excellent company even with cheeses with particular flavours, blue or spicy. Confirming that a good rosé can be everyone’s friend, without ever giving up an elegance and a particularity that is anything but secondary.