Pretty in Pink: Make a Rosé This Harvest

By kourofskywine on August 4, 2025

By Kevin Kourofsky

Rosé has become extremely popular these past few years. Haunted by a history of White Zinfandel and wine coolers, Americans avoided Rosé wines with a passion in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Then something happened. Perhaps we collectively forgot our love of sweet “blush wines,” or maybe a glut of red grapes in 2005 allowed wineries to see if their excess red grapes could be sold as dry “pink” wine. Whatever the cause, the trend gained traction and grew and grew and grew.

Usually such trends, like Beanie Babies, simply collapse. Not so with Rosé. There is a reason for that. Rosé wines fill a gap between red wine, with its big tannins and alcohol, and white wine with its gentle aromas and light palate. It works wonderfully with just about any food. And it satisfies in very hot climates, where a red wine seems overbearing and a white just not satisfying enough. Which is why Rosé wines are so popular in the torrid south of France.

But I find Rosé wines great at any time of the year and in any climate. That’s why I always try to make a Rosé wine in every vintage. It’s also smart winemaking. This article will discuss how to craft a good Rosé and why it’s so smart to do so.

What is a Rosé?

Throughout Europe Rosés must be exclusively made with red grapes. There is an exception for Champagne, where Rosés can be legally made by blending a white and red wine. But even in the Champagne region that is rarely, if ever, done. Red grapes for Rosé are harvested earlier than their fully-red siblings, to preserve the grapes acid, and then given a very short soaking time on the skins followed by a light press. The result is pink juice, light in tannins and potential alcohol and with a good acid balance. The wine is then made like one would make an aromatic white wine, including a slow, cool fermentation to preserve the acid structure and the aromas. Often, the result is magical.

Provence, in the south of France, is the ancestral home of pink wine. It’s a wine so special that they created a variant on the French word for pink, adding an accent denoting a pink wine. The major grapes of the south of France include Syrah, Grenache (Noir) and Carignan. But one of the greatest region for Rosé, which makes only Rosé: Tavel. The Rosé of the Tavel region, near Avignon, is made mostly with the Mourvedre grape. It’s dark and lush.

But Rosé can be made anywhere and with any red grape varietal. In the Loire Valley of France, you’ll find their Rosé is made with Cabernet Franc. In South Africa many fine Rosés are made with Cabernet Sauvignon. In New York’s Finger Lakes, various different hybrid grapes find themselves in Rosés, along with Pinot Noir and Merlot. In California, where so many different varietals are grown, types of Rosés seem unlimited!

How Much Pink is True Pink?

There is no written rule I know of that mandates a shade of pink for Rosé. However that doesn’t stop people from arguing their truth about the proper shade of pink. Popular now, is the belief that true Rosé must have a salmon hue or lighter. So, some wineries will filter out some of the color to achieve this affect. It’s true there is no disputing taste.

I like Rosé in all its shades. I might like a deeper hued Rosé with foods that have more umami flavors in them. A hotter day may find me reaching for a very light Rosé. Within the Rosé category there are some that are more like white wine and some closer to red. There is no disputing your own taste.

Rosé It: Saignée It

Pinot Noir is a favored varietal in our household. So, I make a lot of it. One downside of Pinot is that it is difficult to obtain and keep a true ruby color. Pinot has a thin skin and thus fewer of the color compounds that produce the red color in red wines. Contrast this with Cabernet Sauvignon which has a very thick skin with a surfeit of these molecules. One way to solve the Pinot color problem, and make a Rosé at the same time, is the Saignée method. This French word refers to bleeding and is used to describe a method where grapes are crushed and some of the juice “bled” off their skins. The juice becomes a Rosé wine and the extra skin-to-juice ratio in the mother tank allows for more color compounds in the fully red Pinot, thus a deeper more stable color. Everybody wins!

This can be done with any varietal of grape. With a thicker skinned grape, one must bleed it off earlier. Of course, some adjustments to the juice are needed, but you can achieve excellent results and be economical at the same time. Waste not want not.

Rosé By the Numbers

However you come by your juice, some time on the skins is necessary to extract the desired color of your wine. For thinner skinned varietals perhaps 12 to 24 hours of maceration is in order. Remember, you will lose some color in the fermentation and with any sulfite additions. But you will gain some color with pressing off the skins.

The thicker the skins, the lesser the time to achieve your desired pink tinge.

Sugar levels should be modest as well, with from 19 to 22 brix as a guide. This gets you to a lower, less alcoholic 12.5 % alcohol. With a darker skinned, thus usually a darker colored and more tannic wine, 23 brix might be acceptable resulting in a 13 to 13.5% alcohol. This could be a “red meat” Rosé.

A Rosé should be refreshing, so a higher acid level is recommended compared to a fully red wine. A TA (titratable acid) in the range of 6-8 is usual with a final PH in the range of 3.1 to 3.3, subject to personal taste. If yours is a bigger style of Rosé, then a PH of 3.4 might be considered, as there would be more tannin in the darker Rosé, so higher acid might clash with the tannin on the palate. That higher PH might give you a better balance on the tongue.

Yeast and Fermentation

A choice of yeast is always a personal choice. The choice for a Rosé largely depends on what yeast you like with that varietal. For instance, with Pinot, I like RC-212, for both the fully red style and for a Rosé. I believe it brings out the cherry aromas that are a hallmark of a good Pinot.

Having said that, one consideration is that a Rosé style wine needs a good, clean aroma. So, yeasts that enhance aroma should be considered. One candidate, among many, is W-15. I like the way it preserves the aroma of Riesling and thus also is a good choice for a Rosé.

To preserve the enhanced aromas, a Rosé should be fermented at a low temperature, to keep those aromas from escaping. Usually that also means a slow fermentation, as a fast fermentation creates heat.

Like aromatic white wines, aromas are central to a Rosé. A clean fermentation is crucial! Be sure to stir the juice often to incorporate oxygen into the juice. Remember your nutrient management program, as hungry yeasts are stinky yeasts. And also remember to keep smelling your fermentation daily to catch any fermentation problems, such as Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) or volatile acid (VA).

To Malic or Not to Malic?

This is also a matter of taste. I do not like the way malic acid and tannins combine, even in the low-tannic environment of a Rosé. I prefer the dominate acid in a Rosé to be tannic acid, not malic. So, I will introduce a malic acid bacteria and put the Rosé through a malic acid fermentation. A very light Rosé may not need this fermentation. It depends on the winemaker’s personal approach to Rosé.

La Vie en Rose

This phrase from Édith Piaf’s beautiful song can be mechanically translated to “life in the pink.” But it is really a French poetic rendering of our similar phrase “looking at the world through rose colored glasses.” I find that any day is a better day when accompanied by friends, family and Rosé. Perhaps it may be a better world we see from the bottom of a Rosé filled wine glass. So, this year make some Rosé and learn to enjoy La Vie en Rose.