All about [Iowa] Rosé
Rosé wines. They’re nothing new to the wine world, however their popularity really took hold in the U.S. market in the past decade. Rosé wines have come a LONG way from the early days of the boxed “white zin” you may have found in your frig as a kid (aka “mom’s Kool-Aid”), in fact, rosé sales grew exponentially in the past few years, and was recently deemed the fastest growing segment of wine. But what exactly constitutes a “rosé” wine, you may ask? Let’s dive in, shall we?
While some may assume that rosé wines received their name because they’re made from actual roses, and you may have heard the aroma characteristic “floral notes” being thrown around, rosé wines are not, in fact, made from roses. Already knew that? Phew, glad we got that first part over with. You’ll be classified as rosé wine expert status in no time!
So, there’s white grapes and there’s red grapes, which in turn make white wine and red wine, respectively. But do vineyards grow pink grapes to make rosé wines? Umm, not really. All grapes, regardless of their skin color have clear juice inside. The skin of the grape is what provides the color to wine. After harvesting and crushing the grapes, vintners allow the skins and juice to soak together while the color develops over the amount of time they spend just hanging out this way. For those looking for technical terms, this process is called maceration.
Rosé wines can sometimes be made by blending red and white wine together, however most winemakers create rosé wines by allowing crushed red grapes (skins and juice combined) to soak for a shorter amount of time than a typical red wine, usually only a couple of days. As soon as the juice reaches the desired pink color the winemaker is looking for, they remove the skins and let the juice continue to ferment into what is known as rosé wine.
OK, but you might ask is there a difference in the terms “rosé”, “blush” or “pink” wine? No way, rosé (see what we did there?!). All three refer to pink colored wine, not quite classifying as red, but definitely not a white wine either. Rosé became a more popular term as of late, so if you’re looking to be trendy, you’d use that. We say call it what you want as long as you enjoy it!
Some people tend to think that all rosé wines are the sweet, low alcohol “boxed wine” of the past. That’s simply not the case nowadays. Winemakers are crafting rosé wines ranging from bone dry to super sweet with equal popularity, though one thing they have in common is they’re almost always served slightly chilled, light bodied, fruitier and quite easy to sip in the summertime.
We hope you’ve learned something about rosé wines today, but, if you already knew all these things about rosé wines, we’ll leave you with this - we bet you don’t know how to get that fancy mark above the “e” (specifically called an ‘acute’ accent) , differentiating it between a floral symbol of love and a tasty chilled glass of deliciousness! Here are some quick instructions on how to properly type Rosé!
iPhones, iPads or Android Phones – To make the acute accent above the “e” in rosé, hold down the letter E as you type it. This will pull up a special character menu from which you will choose the É.
Apple Computers – Either hold down OPTION as you type the letter E (then type the E again to place it under the accent) or hold down the letter E and a special character menu will appear.
Windows Computers – Type the letters R, O, S, and then hold down the ALT key as you type the numbers 0233. This will create and place the accented character of É.
The grape varietals growing here in Iowa tend to make exceptional rose´wines! In fact, nearly all Iowa wineries offer a rosé in their standard lineup and they’re some of our personal faves. You don’t have to take our word for it though, GO! Experience Iowa wine as we invite you to …
