First, I uncovered a website devoted entirely to rosé wine, www.RAP.com (Rosé Avengers and Producers). The site is composed of an international group of rosé vintners and enthusiasts determined to “right the wrongs done to dry rosé”. There are many injustices relating to wine, such as the misconception that all Sherry is sweet and syrupy for one; another is the practice of labeling sparkling wine as “Champagne” when it is not from the Champagne region in France. Curiously, neither one of these more eminent wines has a website devoted entirely to “righting their wrongs”; but simple rosé has one. 
Adding to this internet discovery, a fellow wine buff, Leonard Eaton brought to my attention new European Union regulations on rosé wine labels that I will comment on later. There are also other classifications for rosé wine, here-to-fore unknown to this writer, such as Oeil de Perdix, an old French name for a pale rosé, Retsina, a unique Greek rosé that has been made for 2,000 years and Schilcher, rosé wine made only in Austria. All this intriguing and little known data about such a likeable and easy to drink wine as rosé!
In the United States, Blush Wines and White Zinfandels are pseudonyms for rosé wines. These pseudonyms are the creation of very same Madison Avenue image-makers who once extolled the merits of boring wines, such as Mateus and Lancers. As a result of their successful advertising campaign for Mateus and Lancers, many Americans do not usually hold rosé wine in very high esteem, hence the need for pseudonyms for rosé. For those of us who have enjoyed “other” rosé wines from around the world, there is no need to hide the name rosé underneath a pseudonym to differentiate it from Mateus and Lancers.
My introduction to the pleasures of this wine was “Brilliante Rosado” from Spain. A wine-savvy friend brought it to my attention about the same time “Mateus” and Lancers became popular in New York City, during the late nineteen-sixties. When everyone else’s palate was mislead into thinking the sweet, bubbly “Mateus” or the cherry-soda like “Lancers” was “rosé”, I was quaffing the light and dry, pale garnet hued Brilliante Rosado almost nightly with different foods. I have been an advocate of rosé wine ever since. 
Rosé wine has a distinctive easy style of its own that is not similar to red or white wines, yet is still relevant on the palate. This gentle pink creation of the vintner is at its best young; revealing a delicate and refreshing texture on the palate. It is almost “bashful” with food, preferring to coalesce with other flavors rather than stand apart. Generally, good rosé wines are somewhat dry but not tart, with enough flavor to imply a fruit’s sweet presence but still not sweet. The color of the wine can vary greatly, from nearly lucid pink to shades as dark as strawberry-pink. Almost independent of its country-of-origin or maker, rosé transcends the concept of red wine with red meat and white wine for chicken and fish. Therein lays its transcendental appeal to wine-lovers.
Rosé wines are white wines tinted by the color of red grape skins or occasionally white wines blended with red wines to create lush pink wines. They are easy on the palate with scarcely noticeable hints of tannin from the red grape skin or the red wine that created its pale rose-petal color. The scintilla of tannin in the wine will remind your taste buds of its presence with beef, veal and pork and evanesce with chicken or fish.
This would be a good time to comment on the previously mentioned new European Union regulations pertaining to rosé wine. There is presently much ado over these soon to be adopted wine label requirements. The new law requires rosé wine labels to indicate whether they are “Traditional Rosé”, made by fermenting white wine with red grape skins or “Blended Rosé”, which is made from combining both red and white wine. Why this matters escapes this wine-lover. How the color comes about is irrelevant compared to the taste. This added classification will just confuse the issue for most consumers when the important information is already on the label.
Winemakers in Bordeaux, France have been combining different red grapes for decades to create some of the finest and most expensive wines in the world. The opulent red wine from the Rhone Valley in France, Chateauneuf du Pape can have as many a thirteen different grapes, red or white. Neither one of these wines are required to have differentiating labels from those with different blending recipes. The accepted practice of combining different grapes is no different from combining different colored wines for harmony and balance. Spain, which is one of the few countries to allow this blending of red and white wines for rosé produces some of the most enjoyable, easy drinking rosés available. In light of all this, the new label regulation seems theatrically staged for some unknown political benefit or “Much Ado About Nothing”.
While teaching a wine tasting class in Green Valley this year I sampled a delicious Spanish rosé, from Tarragona, Spain called Nostrada. This wine is refreshingly dry and fruity and costs only seven dollars a bottle! California is also not without it’s rosé wine values. This past summer I tasted the Lunar Rosé, from Midnight Cellars in Paso Robles, California that I recommended in my November article titled “A Thanksgiving Symphony for Food and Wine”. The Lunar Rosé is a fruity wine that leaves feint hints of sweetness on the palate with each delightful sip. It sells for about ten dollars a bottle. They are both good examples of inexpensive and good tasting rosé wines to enjoy with or without food.
All the factoids, different terms and pseudonyms for rosé along with a new set of laws adopted by an austere government body will not change the essence of rosé, which is a simple, easy to drink, versatile wine. Enjoy it with all types of food, whether they are red meats or white chicken. Drink it chilled, but not ice cold and take pleasure from the many different styles of rosé—blushingly exposed.
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