Among all wine styles, the ones which have always been considered as lesser children of Bacchus probably are rose wines. It would be interesting to ask Bacchus himself what he thinks about these wines and maybe, because of the typical wisdom recognized to all gods, he would probably answer that in his eyes every wine is a loved one, just like every child is equally loved by every mother. Nevertheless we humans, mortals by definitions and so distant from divine wisdom, and neither excluding the most passionate wine lovers, seem to think differently and in case we are asked to pick a category of lesser wines, the choice is most of the cases about rose wines. In case rose wines were not chosen as lesser, it simply is because they were not even considered. Most of the times, rose wines are not even considered as wines, for some strange and unjust prejudice, they are not even granted the dignity of wine.

 The problem of rose wines has frequently been a subject for the users of our EnoForum, and it seems they are pretty disappointed by the situation and - by reading what they write in their comments - they would like to see this wine deserving a better fortune and not to see it as a member of the not very noble family of non wines. The users of our forum believe rose wines have a very good versatility especially with the enogastronomical matching and - in particular - with fish, a kind of pairing usually considered an exclusive prerogative of white wines. Indeed, it is pretty hard to think differently from their opinions and thoughts because - we are convinced about this - rose wines should be revaluated and they do not certainly deserve the condition which they practically face since ever. Rose wines suffer from the fact of being - enologically speaking - between whites and reds, and therefore not clearly being neither one nor the other, that is not belonging to none of the two major categories of recognized wines, they simply are excluded.

 Rose wines are not mentioned, or they certainly are mentioned not that much, rarely are found producers who believe in these wines and their efforts are not encouraged by the market, that kind of market which is not demanding - at least not in this moment - rose wines. We heard some producers have decided to drop the production of rose wines simply because it is not convenient anymore, despite their passion for making this style of wine. The sad news is always the same: making wine means investing capitals of money and therefore it is appropriate to expect as a natural consequence - at least desirable - to make profits. What it is not sold, it is not produced. A harsh law of market, however understandable. To contribute to the bad fame of rose wines - it should be remembered - also contributed the many and certainly too much productions of the past characterized by a very low quality which did not certainly help to make a good image for these wines. Despite this trend is currently declining, it is however undeniable not all rose wines are of good quality, and the same can be said for any other type of wine as well.

 For many - including many wine lovers as well - rose wines simply are a waste of grapes. They believe that during their production, many of the qualities contained in skins are lost because of a limited period of maceration in the juice. According to their opinion, roses are wasted wines and subtracted to the production of the more noble reds. It should be remembered that rose wines are frequently produced with the bleeding technique, also used for the production of many and renowned red wines. In these cases part of the must macerating with skins is drawn off in order to increase the ratio of extracts in the finished products, in other words, it is used to make full bodied wines. If we consider things according to this point of view, rose wines made this way should have an excellent quality, as they are produced with high quality grapes capable of surprising tasters as soon as they are transformed into thick red wines.

 Nevertheless rose wines are victims of a sort of paradox and it is enough to add bubbles - hopefully by using the technique of classic method - to make them noble, looked for, appreciated and accepted. In fact, rose classic method sparkling wines live in truly different and enviable conditions, as they meet the high appreciation of bubbles lovers. Of course, we completely agree on this, because rose classic method sparkling wines - such as Champagne and Franciacorta - are capable of giving absolutely unique emotions in an explosion of wonderful aromas and tastes. Nevertheless they too are rose wines and they are not considered because of this as lesser in the bubbles' world, as it happens for rose table wines instead. Maybe rose sparkling wines producers pay more care and attention to quality? Certainly yes. However it is curious to see that whether in rose sparkling wines the rose color is recognized as noble and excellent, in table wines the same color does not have the same fortune, indeed, most of the times it is not even considered, if not denigrated.

 We should however admit the bad fame rose wines gained in the past is very hard to change, and despite the remarkable efforts of many producers, prejudices are always hard to change. It certainly is required a better and profitable revaluation of these wines, so versatile and pleasing to drink, very good allies of good table. Whether it is true that in white wines it is freshness of aromas to be one of the most appreciated qualities, it should not be hard to accept rose wines as organoleptic freshness is one of their main characteristics. Even the choice is pretty wide and of good quality. If we consider, for example, Italy, the selection of rose wines is pretty good and vast, certainly interesting. Let's rediscover the pleasure of rose wines: springtime is coming and with it also the new production of 2004. We just have to take our corkscrew, a glass and drink pink!

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