I'm starting off this episode with a shout out to one of our listeners, Mitchell! Thank you for supporting the podcast, Mitchell and for buying me a glass of...you guessed it… Rosé! (Actually, it’s probably a bottle...)

If you'd like to be like Mitchell and Support the Podcast, I’ll give you a shout out too!

This week we are making sense of Rosé:

• Why you should be drinking it
• How it’s made and why that matters to you
• How to pick the right one

Nikki's recommended rosés:

Gerard Bertrand Cote des Roses (France)

Feudo Montoni Rose of Nerello Mascalese (Sicily)

And a special SIP SPOTLIGHT:

Tres Sabores Ingrid and Julia Rosé (Rutherford California)

Other Resources and Ways to stay connected!

• Check out Nikki's boutique wine brand Sollevato!
• Please consider Rating, Reviewing and Following Us on Apple Podcasts! Click Here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with Stars and select "write a review" and let us know what you loved most about this episode! And If you haven't already, Be Sure to Follow  the podcast!
• Looking to better at understanding wine? Download my Free Wine Tips Cheat Sheet here
• Follow Nikki on Instagram
• Questions, suggestions and guest requests? nikki@sipwithnikki.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Olive Oil Farmer

Check out americanolivefarmer.com and use code SipWithNikki for $10 off your order!

And in front of my eyes, he made his own schmose.

You know what?

No shade, no judgment.

Oh, New Jersey friend, you do you.

Drink what you like and like what you drink, but that was a first.

And that is not typically how rosé is made.

I have to kick off today's episode with a shout out for one of our listeners.

Thank you, Mitchell, for supporting the podcast and buying me a glass of wine.

I absolutely appreciate it.

And I will toast you when I do.

If you want to be like Mitchell and support the podcast, there is

a link in the show notes to do so.

Thank you, Mitchell.

Just be like Mitchell.

So this week we're getting back to basics.

It is me sitting here with a microphone.

Giving you some rosé wisdom and helping you make sense of something that has

become really popular and at the time of recording this it is still summertime here

in Northern California and we have been enjoying our fair share of rosé all day

and I get a lot of questions about rosé and I think people like the idea of it

because it's easy to find it's generally inexpensive They're pretty to look at

in the glass, but gosh, there's such a spectrum of what can be in the bottle.

So much variation.

So today we're just going to keep it simple and break it down and

talk about, first of all, how rosé is made because that helps you to

understand then what's going on What are the different flavor profiles?

So you can figure out what you like.

I'm going to give you some tips on, you know, when you're shopping

for Rose, what to look for and answer some listener questions.

And then I'm going to give you a real insider tip on how I navigate a wine

store and, and make decisions on.

What I know my palate likes, you know, how do I buy the things that I think

are going to sit in that pocket for me?

So here we go with rosé all day.

So if you see a bottle of pink wine and you think, Oh, I'm

going to steer away from that.

I don't like sweet wine.

The first thing that we need to talk about is that not all rosé is sweet.

Now, back in the day, white Zinfandel was very in fashion, and there's

still some well known producers that are making it in the same way,

and yes, that does have sweetness.

But more recently, and rosé has really had like a surge in popularity, the majority

of the ones that you'll find in your local wine shop are actually not sweet.

They're most likely completely dry, or just have a tiny hint of

residual sugar remaining in there.

And they are delicious!

And the fun thing about rosé is that they can have so many different expressions of

flavors, from very fruity, like cherry, watermelon, Jolly Rancher, to almost

earthy and spicy and fresh on the palate.

And there's really a A huge variety of them, which makes it

so interesting and fun to try.

So here's what you need to know about rosé.

It is made from red wine grapes.

There are not different types of, quote, rosé grapes for

rosé wine, for the most part.

It's made from the same grapes that you'll recognize from the red wines that you

drink, whether it's things like Cabernet, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Grenache.

So we're starting with red grapes, but the reason that rosé can be anywhere on the

spectrum from slightly salmon colored pink to ruby pink and everything in between

is that the type of grape and the amount of time that the juice was allowed to be

in contact with those red grape skins.

That's going to determine the color and also some flavor profile as well.

So to make sense of that, let's back up for a moment.

So the way that we make red wine is when we pick the grapes, we lightly crush the

grapes, and they go into whatever vessel we might be using for fermentation.

Most often it's a stainless steel tank.

And the skins and the seeds are all in there with the grape

juice during that fermentation.

Fermentation is yeast, whether native.

yeast that's already present or yeast that a winemaker has

selected and added to the wine.

The yeast eat the sugar and turn it into alcohol.

Hooray!

We love the yeast.

Thank you, yeast.

But during that time, if it's red wine, the skins are in there the whole time.

And that could take two to three weeks for the fermentation to be complete.

So that whole time, all of the color that makes red wine red

is extracted out of those skins.

And then when it's time to age the red wine in a barrel, which is most

common, you press away the skins and just put the liquid wine in the barrel.

So if you're setting out to make what we call a intentional rosé.

Grapes that you picked specifically for the process of making a pink rosé wine.

It just means that you crush the grapes and you put them in that vessel for

fermentation, but after maybe just a couple hours or maybe a day or two

max, you're pulling those skins away.

So guess what?

Since the skin is what gives red wine its color, if you're only leaving that

juice touching the skins for a couple hours to a day or two, that's why

it only has the chance to get pink.

So that's called intentional rosé.

That's rosé wine that's being made from the beginning to be rosé.

And the time on the skins also called maceration or skin contact

time, that's going to determine how pale to how bold it is.

Now, the type of grape that you're doing this with is also going

to make a difference, right?

So Cabernet Sauvignon, smaller grape, thicker skin.

generally has a darker color.

So rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon could potentially have more color,

unless you really only left it on the skins for a couple of hours.

So those are the two main things that, that determine it.

And this method of pulling the skins away from red wine grapes to make rosé

is probably the most common method.

So If you're scratching your head and you're like, Oh, I, I thought

there were different rosé pink grapes or a common misconception.

Oh, I thought people were just blending red wine and white

wine together to make it pink.

That is not a thing except sparkling wine.

Whether it's champagne from Champagne region in France, or sparkling wine

from anywhere else in the world, there's sometimes this blending of

red grapes and white grapes like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but that's

really the only time in sparkling wine when you're going to see that.

Now, one exception would be the gentleman that was at the next table over from us

when I was recently home at a fantastic Italian restaurant in New Jersey with my

parents, He had a glass of wine in front of him and the color was almost like.

light brown.

And I was like, gosh, I'm nosy.

I'm always looking at what people are drinking.

I'm like, what is this guy drinking?

Until I saw him, cause this was a BYOB, bring your own bottle, to the

restaurant, reached down to his Trader Joe's cooler that was on the floor

next to him and pour himself a half a glass of shall not be named white wine.

And then poured it.

A red wine that shall not be named into that same glass, and in front

of my eyes, he made his own schmose.

And you know what?

No shade, no judgment.

Oh, New Jersey friend, you do you.

Drink what you like and like what you drink, but That was a first and that

is not typically how rosé is made.

For our purposes today, we're not talking about bubbles.

That's gonna be a whole nother episode coming soon.

We're talking about still wine, bubble free wine, and it is

generally made from red grapes.

Now, The second way to do this from red grapes is called Sagné, which is

the French word for blood or bleeding.

And so sometimes you'll have producers, and this happens a lot

where I live and make wine here in Napa and Sonoma in California.

When you are in an area that's really celebrated for red wine

production, you can start the process.

with the intention of making a red wine, but you can soigne or bleed off a little

bit of that juice in the beginning stages to make rosé as well, simultaneously.

Now the benefit of that is if you're pulling off some of the juice from

your red wine that's going through fermentation, It's going to leave

behind a red wine that's even more concentrated, because there's more

skins and less liquid, less juice.

And this is why a lot of winemakers will do this saunier.

And then it's kind of like, well, I pulled some of this liquid off,

so I might as well make a rosé.

So that's a different method of making rosé.

And, and that has its benefits as well.

What I love so much about rosé is how varied it is, but how versatile it

is, especially from a food and wine pairing perspective, because most rosés

are going to have that sort of fresh, bright, crisp, lip smacking acidity.

Which I've talked about, and you can go back to the episode on food and wine

pairing, how that is such a nice balance, especially when you have rich food.

But rosé, even any one single rosé in the glass can be a chameleon as far as,

you know, if you are having a charcuterie board, or if you are grilling and having

mash burgers or tacos, because many of them are more subtle in their flavor.

flavor profile, it makes them more pairable with more

things, if that makes sense.

And generally it's inexpensive.

Why?

Well, if you go back to earlier episodes where I talked about wine economics and

why wines cost what they do, the time from the pick to the bottling, right,

really drives the cost of production.

So generally the timetable to make rosé.

It's shorter, doesn't take as long.

So very often it's going to be reflected in the price, which is why you can get

some killer rosés for under 20 bucks.

And that's pretty much coming from any wine region around the world, whether

it's France, Italy, Spain, California, South Africa, wherever it may be.

You really can find some steals.

And for this reason, I'm going to encourage you to try

many different roses, right?

Because again, we're going through some general tips on how to pick one

that you think you're going to like, but they really, really do vary.

And I wish it was so simple where I could say, Oh, well, if it's a lighter salmon

pink color, then it's going to be, you know, lighter concentration of flavor.

drier, not sweet and more acidic.

But here's the thing with wine.

It's not always linear or predictable like that.

So my recommendation, and this is easy to do when we're talking about, you know,

15, 18, 22 bottles of wine is try many go into your local wine store like I did

the other day and pull three different ones that are completely different.

Whether they're made from different grapes or different regions, or just use the

color spectrum as a deciding factor and try them and you'll see the difference.

You know, generally in a well stocked wine store, and especially because

rosé has been so popular, I'd say, especially in the recent decade or

so, just super popular where you'll see shelves and shelves of it.

A lot of it's going to be from Provence, from France.

They are just a very well stocked wine.

Respected, well known producer of rosé, and oftentimes it's

made from the Grenache grape.

Sometimes it might be Morved, or Cinco, or Syrah, but a lot

of it's going to be Grenache.

And generally, rosé from Provence is going to be that very pale color, but

surprisingly can have some boldness and some robustness to the flavor,

but oftentimes they're going to be on the drier side and not sweet.

In Italy, they call it Rosato, in Spain, they call it Rosado, with a D, just a

slight variation, but, you know, the Italians will make beautiful Rosato of

Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, and even Norello Mascalesi, which if you've listened to

the last couple episodes, is one of my new favorite Italian grapes from Sicily.

Norello Muscalese.

In fact, I am going to put the link in the show notes for a beautiful Rosetto

of Norello Muscalese from Sicily.

that is, uh, very reasonably priced.

It's a 24 bottle of rosé that won 92 point rating from the wine enthusiast.

The other nice thing about rosés is that they're usually lower in alcohol.

And so what we define as lower in alcohol by today's standards

is generally 11 to 13 percent.

That's considered lower alcohol by volume.

So it just makes them more approachable and usually, speaking

for myself, but I think this is probably popular belief here.

You know, usually we're drinking rosé outside at the barbecue,

by the pool, on the boat.

So if you really are going for a rosé all day, 14 and 15 percent alcohol by

volume will sneak up on you, where 11, 12, and 13 percent is just gonna let you

enjoy the lovely, delicate crispness.

and just be sort of low and slow all day as far as your alcohol content.

That's, and that's important.

There is really a big difference, you know, extrapolated over

multiple glasses or a bottle and 12 percent alcohol versus 14.

It does make a difference.

So that's one of the lovely things about it.

If you listen to Uh, the episode where I just interviewed my friend Tony from

Covelo Wines in Portugal, he uses the term cheap and cheerful, which I love.

And I think that can apply to rosés as well.

They usually are cheap and cheerful, inexpensive, and

just fun and easy to drink.

And that's what we love about it.

So we have a listener question.

Listener questions.

And this is coming from Morgan.

And Morgan said, I love rosé, but only some.

I like crisp, sometimes a little bit drier and bright.

So what regions or words should I be looking for to be sure I'm choosing

the one with those characteristics?

Well, Morgan, it's an awesome question.

And thank you for submitting that.

And I wish I just had a very simple answer to give you, but like I said, it

really is going to vary by the type of grape, the place where it was grown, and

the amount of skin contact time, right?

So if you like crisp and drier and bright, again, this is not a rule, but

generally speaking, some of those lighter color roses are generally going to be.

probably more in your wheelhouse because they're probably made from lighter

grapes like Pinot Noir, Grenache, versus Syrah or Cabernet Sauvignon, which

would be a little bit deeper in color.

But here is really the, the best way that I can recommend.

So even as someone who drinks wine regularly, makes wine, is

certified and studied this stuff, and even studied in preparation of

recording this podcast episode today.

Best way that I have found to really hone in on, okay, is this going to

appeal to me and my personal taste is I use the app Vivino, V I V I N O.

It is a free app.

You guys have heard me talk about it before.

I wish that I had developed and created this app.

I did not.

I have no affiliation with them, maybe one day, but I am just an avid Vivino user.

So even the other day when I was in my local wine shop, you see me pull out

my phone and I'm scanning the labels.

And what I think, especially for Morgan's question, what's going

to guide you is when you pull up.

In this app, the description of a wine, there is a super helpful section in the

description called taste characteristics.

And it's like sliding bars, a sliding scale about a wine.

It's going to tell you from light to bold.

And then the second one is from dry to sweet, and the third

one is from soft to acidic.

So Morgan, obviously you're going to be looking for that slider bar to

be more towards the left of dryness, not sweet, and more towards the

right of acidic because you like that brightness and that crispness,

which are the words that you used.

So I find that really helpful because those sliding scales have been

developed by regular People, wine drinkers like you and me, who have

rated these wines within the app.

And that's how they sort of amalgamate all of that data.

And I just think it gives a very simple, very easy visual.

And you could see, Oh, nope, that one, the sliding scale is more on the sweet side.

That's probably not what I'm going to like, or, Oh, I'm the soft to acidic.

The slider bar is kind of leaning towards the soft side.

So that's probably not what I'm going to like.

So.

My real world answer is once you're aware how rosé is made and the fact

that the type of grape, the skin contact, and where the grape is coming

from, those will have influences.

The other thing of course is to use the Vivino app and see

what other people are saying.

I find it really, really helpful.

The last tip too is, you know, we talked about the different regions.

Generally speaking, hotter climate regions, Napa, Sonoma, where I'm

sitting, are going to yield bolder, richer characters of flavor, not

only in the red wines, but also in the rosés that come from them.

Whereas cooler climate regions like Provence Because temperature is

driving ripeness in the grapes and development of flavors and tannins.

The climate of the place and I've talked about this in past episodes

of New World wine regions like the U.

S., Australia, South Africa, South America versus Old World.

Italy, Spain, France, Germany.

While it's changing with climate change, there are still some good guidelines

that wines from a cooler climate will generally be a little bit higher in

acidity, which gives us that crispness and brightness that we like in wine versus

wines from a hotter place like Australia.

that is going to have more ripe, more bold flavor, generally a little bit

higher alcohol as well because of that.

I hope this is helpful.

Again, my advice for you is just have fun with it.

And because these wines are inexpensive, you can play and try

different ones, but keep track.

You know, that's the other nice thing about Vivino is when you scan a wine,

you can rate it just for yourself.

And then you can remember, Oh yeah, this was the one I really liked.

And, you know, keep track and that'll help you hone in on

what some of the favorites are.

Another listener question, listener questions,

came from Alyssa who said, I love Rosé.

I especially like light and crisp, but not too sweet.

Oh, you and Morgan should get together.

She said, I would love to hear your favorites that we can

find in local wine stores.

So, yes, Alyssa, I'm gonna share a couple of my favorites, and again, I

will put the links in the show notes.

If you can't find them in your local wine shop, and most of

these are fairly widespread, Wine.

com, which is my partner website, will ship to most states, and they

have some great specials right now.

So, check those out in the show notes.

A couple of my favorites that you may or may not have heard of.

One of them is Girard Bertrand.

That is a French rosé.

And I think years ago, when I first found it, I'm not going to lie.

The bottle intrigued me.

It had just a really pretty bottle shape and closure.

And it's a blend of Grenache, Ciron, Cinsault for most vintages,

right about 13 percent alcohol.

on the drier side with nice crisp acid and usually right around

the 20 mark or sometimes less depending on where you find it.

I'll put the link for the Sicilian rosé of Norella Mascalese in there as well.

And then I would be remiss if I didn't shout out one of my favorite local

rosés here from Tres Sabores in St.

Helena in the Napa Valley.

Julie Johnson, who is the owner and winemaker and a mentor of mine, she

makes her Ingrid and Julia Rosé, which is a blend of Zinfandel and Petit Syrup.

And one of the wonderful things about all of Julie's wines at Tres Sabores

is that They are a certified organic grower, and they use very sustainable

practices in making their wine.

And this one is interesting because the color is very pale, but because

the grapes that are in there, Zinfandel and Petite Syrah, it is a little bit

more concentrated in flavor than you're expecting when you go for that flavor.

first taste.

And I love to be surprised by wines, right?

I love to think it's going in one direction and then have

it take me somewhere else.

A lot of times that's part of the exciting thing about trying different wines.

So this one's a little bit more in the style of Provence, but it is

from California and Trace de Boris winery is where Michael and I actually

make our Solovato, our Sangiovese.

They're kind enough to let us Custom crush or use space there.

So we're there regularly.

We're big fans.

It's the first wine club I ever joined about 15 years ago.

And one day when she stops running in a million different directions,

the amazing Julie Johnson's going to be a guest on the podcast.

So.

Tune in for that one.

I hope this was helpful and I'm excited for you to start your own

rosé journey and see what you love and do me a favor when you do send me

a note, let me know, and I'll try it.

So I can't wait to hear about all of the cheap and cheerful rosés

that you are about to discover.

And I really do want to hear, so send me an email.

Nikki, N I K K I, Nikki, at.

SipWithNikki.

com.

Let me know what you find.

How did you like it?

And also generally just any questions that you have, topics that you'd

like to hear on the podcast.

I love hearing from listeners.

I can't get enough of it.

It keeps me going.

So send me an email.

So we talked about how Rosé is made, the tips and the things that you can use on

the bottle to help guide you towards what should be a good fit for your palette.

And of course, download that free app Vovino right now and start using it.

Scan, keep track.

It's super helpful.

Links are in the show notes for the Rosés that I mentioned, and I encourage you to

Go out there and try as many as you can and whatever's in your glass, whether it's

pink, white, or red, as always, sip well.

Pinkie Pie being cutesy.

Um,

Um, Uh, Uh, Wawawa La la la la la La la la la la La la la la la

I don't know why I'm doing this.