Origin and names of French and Italian rose wines
Tonight you would really like a bottle of rose wine but don’t know which one to choose? We help you, with our natural orange and rose wines catalogue and a list of origins and names of rose wines not to be missed!
Rose wine: an introduction
Known as rosé in France and rosati in Italy, rose wines are a type of wine that stays between red and white, both in terms of colour and taste. In terms of production, the rose ones might be the oldest among wines, as they are the most easily obtainable. Their colour varies from intense pink to very pale rose, depending on the quantity of red grape contained in the mixture of varieties: rose wines, in fact, are obtained from a mix of red and white grapes, wisely combined to obtain wines with a balanced taste and different characteristics depending on the recipe.
Rose wines can be still, sparkling or champagne and are generally lighter than reds for their composition and production methods. On the nose, they are often intense and recognizable, with fruity and floral, herbaceous and complex notes, obviously also based on the grape variety from which they come.
Due to their intermediate nature between red and white wines, roses can accompany a wide variety of food, from a fresh aperitif to fish and shellfish dishes, to meats and cold cuts, as long as they are delicate.
Names and origins of the most famous rose wines
After this brief introduction, we can go ahead and list some of the names of the most famous rose wines and where they are produced, to deepen our knowledge of these peculiar and interesting wines.
France
Rose wines find their most widespread area in France: here, many of the most famous regions for wine production have a solid tradition of producing rose wines.
Among these, the most famous is undoubtedly Provence, where the vast majority (even half to 2/3) of wines produced is roses: here, also the culinary culture has a long history of pairings with these wines. The region that produces the greatest quantity of rose wines, however, is Languedoc-Roussillon: here, under the PGI Appellation System, countless roses are bottled (An example? Try this Biodynamite 2014 by Domaine des Mathouans from Syrah grapes).
Furthermore, we should remember the rose wines produced in Tavel AOC, which are so important to have the area nicknamed the “southern France’s self-styled capital of rosé” by wine expert Karen MacNeil. Remaining in the Rhone area, the original productions of the Lirac AOC and Gigondas AOC are also important.
The production of rose wines in the Loire is also fundamental: here we find in particular the two denominations Rosé d’Anjou AOC and Cabernet d’Anjou AOC, the latter made from Cabernet Franc (like our Fabrice Gasnier Le Rosé 2013, for example).
Even the world-famous Champagne region boasts its rose production: as previously mentioned rose wines can be champagne and include 3/5% of the entire production. These champagne roses are either produced using a very brief contact with the skin of black grapes or by adding a pinot noir to the classic champagne to give a touch of colour (and, according to some, more richness).
Other French regions also produce rose wines, albeit in smaller quantities: these include the Arbois AOC in the Jura wine region, the Beaujolais roses and the Bordeaux region.
Italy
In Italy the production of “rosati”, as rose wines are called in Italian, is allowed in many of the Denominations of Controlled Origin, that is the system of denominations that protects the typical products coming from the Italian territory: this means that every region can produce its rose wines from the varieties used for white and red DOC wines. Among these, we recall the delicate-coloured rose wines of Veneto, where they are obtained from a majority of Pinot Grigio grapes, and the “cerasuolo” tint ones from Abruzzo, where the colour is an intense pink / almost red due to the intensity of the red grapes used.