Aging rose wine

[ChrisTaylor]

I was at the bottle-o today perusing the rose section. I like rose. At least, when I've had it at restaurants, I've liked rose. Never bought a bottle, though. What struck me was that most of the stuff was 1-2 years old. And that the labelling suggested you drink it within 1-2 years. The implication was that I really shouldn't be buying rose with a view to aging it (even for, say, 5 years). Simple question: why not?

[ianinfrance]

Simple answer, because it's not made to be aged.

Fuller answer. There's no point in aging a wine if it's got nowhere to go. Ie if the fruit won't develop into something more complex and if there aren't enough tannins and acidity to warrant diminishing them, and/or if there's not enough to make the wine live longer.

Rosé is deliberately made light in tannins and acidity to make it an agreeable quaffing drink pretty well from the day it's bottled. I know of a very few exceptions and for some of these, they can and do improve for a couple of years, but not much more.

I can give an even more complete answer, but will that do for the moment?

[ChrisTaylor]

That works. Thanks.

[nickrey]

When visiting Woodstock winery once, they let us taste some Rose slushie that they had made. It works a dream and is very refreshing.

[haresfur]

When visiting Woodstock winery once, they let us taste some Rose slushie that they had made. It works a dream and is very refreshing.

Did they add crushed ice to the rose or did they partially freeze it?

[nickrey]

They partially froze it.

[Alcuin]

I remember reading somewhere (can't find it now) around the internet an account of a trip to Domaine Tempier in which the winemaker there talks about drinking very old rose (like 20 years old). He says that the wine can stand up to it, but of course it becomes something different than the original intention of the rose.

This is probably true for the winemaker at Domaine Tempier, with access to some of the best rose in the world and lots of it from many different ages. But as others have said, rose's not made to be aged. Drinking 20 year old rose is like exploring the boundaries of what's possible, but it's not like drinking rose.

I've drunk 5-6 year old Alsatian pinot blanc that was drinkable, with fruit still intact and even some acidity. I've also had similarly aged wines that shouldn't see that kind of age and they have nothing to them, no fruit and no acidity. The wine had completely fallen apart.

White wines that stand up to age have very high acidity and sweetness, like rieslings or champagne or Sauternes. More delicate whites (i.e. most whites) can't stand up to age and/or don't need it. Most wines, red or white, are made to be drunk young and the benefit of aging more than a few years would likely not be worth it. There are some that really need it (e.g., Barolo, Burgundy, Cahors) because these wines need to mellow out a bit so that they aren't all acidity/tannins all the time getting in the way of appreciating the subtlety and complexity of their flavors. You can speed up the process by decanting and so oxygenating the wine, but that only takes you so far. You want to age them (then when they are old, you protect them from oxygenation because they become more delicate, it's a balance that way). But this doesn't go for every wine. Your average $10-15 everyday drinker is very likely made to be taken home and enjoyed that night, and something like rose is made to be enjoyed effortlessly on a hot day by the grill. (Though they are great year round too of course and can be very complex--I think they can be great bang for the buck).

[lstrelau]

Another rose made for aging is from Lopez de Heredia, Rioja, Spain. They make a Vina Tondonia Gran Reserva Rose that is not even released til it is several years old. The current vintage is 2000 and I just gifted my last bottle of 1993 to a friend's daughter on her 18th birthday. As noted above, these are special case rose wines, pale salmon in colour with a distinctive nose and palate - not the fresh fruity young wines that are refreshing patio drinks but much more complicated and fascinating.

It has been gratifiying to see, at least in our local market here in Calgary, Canada, that rose wines have 'arrived'. When I organized a summer garden party rose wine tasting about 6 years ago nearly all the rose wines available in the local shops were 2-3 years old (and most of them showing their age). When I did another one a couple of years ago there were a plethora of young, fresh, vital roses out there from pretty every wine producing area/country. They are a very versatile food wine - from delicate sparklers like pink prosecco to full bodied cabernet sauvignon or syrah based wines with enough body to go with a BBQ steak.

But, in general, as already noted, younger is better.

[budrichard]

We drink a lot of Rose both still and sparkling.

There are two ways to make a Rose, one is to let the skins stay with the wine until a hue is developed and the other is to mix red with white. My understanding that today most is made by mixing. I prefer a slightly sweet Rose but there are French producers and others making a dry austere form of the wine. I keep Domaine Chandon and Freixenet Rose sparklers on hand and they are very good as a first wine for any type of gathering, there is something about the red hue that is festive. There are many Champagne producers getting into Rose wines and they come at a steep premium! B&G makes a very consistent slightly sweet Rose over the decades but none of it is made to be aged.-Dick

[Nayan Gowda]

There are two ways to make a Rose, one is to let the skins stay with the wine until a hue is developed and the other is to mix red with white. My understanding that today most is made by mixing.

In Europe, at least, it is illegal to make Rosé blending; the one exception being Champagne.