Rosé wine, a typical wine from the south of France

Production of rosé wine: how is it made?

Fruity, light, tangy or floral, rosé wine is a wine with multiple flavors that is increasingly popular in France, especially during the summer season.

Easy to taste and particularly refreshing , it is therefore not surprising to see it so often served on a terrace, on the edge of the beach, a swimming pool or during a barbecue with friends.

Find a selection of rosé wines from the south of France produced by Gérard Bertrand

How to serve rosé?

Perhaps you sometimes, or even often, enjoy a glass of rosé, this refreshing wine that regularly accompanies our outings on terraces and in the sun!

But do you know how rosé wine is made?

First of all, you should know that rosé wine is produced like a classic wine, and that contrary to popular belief, rosé wine is not the result of a mixture between a red wine and a white wine. We can also go further and say that rosé wine is at the very origin of wine making. Indeed, produced since antiquity, rosé wine is surely the oldest type of wine .

Discover the rosé wine collections from the Gérard Bertrand estates and châteaux

But then, how is rosé wine made?

The production of rosé wine

The production process of rosé wine is very similar to that of red wine, only the maceration time, shorter for rosé, allows to obtain a pale pink/salmon color. Rosé wine is thus produced from black grapes with white pulp, such as Pinot Noir, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Carignan, Cinsault or Malbec.

This is particularly the case for the Or & Azur rosé wine collection , an AOP Languedoc vintage designed by Gérard Bertrand, labeled AB (organic wine) and Bee Friendly (preservation of pollinating insects) produced from Grenache and Cinsault grape varieties. If you didn't know, very few black grapes have colored pulp. The latter are part of the category of so-called "teinturier" grape varieties.

The pale pink color of rosé wine is thus obtained thanks to the skin of the grapes, and not thanks to the flesh. It is during pressing and maceration, when the grape juice is in contact with the skins, that it changes color. Thus, the longer the maceration, the more intense the color will be and the closer it will be to the red color.

Once the coloring and maceration phase is complete, the fermentation phase begins. Fermentation allows the sugars to transform into alcohol through the action of yeasts present naturally, or added by man. Finally, before bottling, the wine goes through the aging phase, in oak barrels for high-end rosés or in stainless steel vats.

Aging is a very important phase in the process of making rosé wine . Indeed, it is during aging that the aromas and structure of the wine will be worked on. After devatting, comes the final stage of bottling, which is, as its name suggests, the bottling of the wine, and will be closed with a cork stopper or a screw cap.

There you have it, now you know how rosé wine is produced!

All you need to know now is which are the best rosé wines to make the right choice!