Rose wine

"James Silverton" skrev i meddelandet news:gqntj2$r60$ snipped-for-privacy@news.motzarella.org...

Er, yeah ... but it works rather well with Champagne ... and while there is a lot of crap wine produced, the relative percentage of rosé crap to other kinds of c-p is ... well, there is made a lot of bad rosé, is what I am trying to say, and if bad winemakers get a new device for making bad wine, well, I shall learn to live with it, and to avoid it.

Pink blush, well YES, but "taste of fresh flowers"? Not very often, in my experience ...

Still, interesting in its way, don't you think? And I wonder what the winemakers in Provence are saying ...

Cheers

Nils

Again a directive is quickly misread by the press...

Mixing red and white wine has always been forbidden for table wine, but has ALWAYS been ALLOWED for VQPRDs (AOC in France, DOC in Italy, etc.), unless local rules were more stringent (I can quote you the relevant EU regulations if needed).

Thus Champagne and I believe Cremant de Bourgogne allow rosé made from red and white. Some such rosés in Champ are magnificent, as Nils pointed out.

So why would anyone making AOC wine be worried?

I'll tell you why, because MAYBE mixing a good red and a good white can give excellent results (the proof, Champagne). Maybe these wines are better than the lake of AOC crap coming out of my area, Provence... yessir, Auchan here sells "L'Esquinade Cotes de Provence AOC rosé" for

OK, there are some rare good rosés, but those producers are certainly not worried. Their rosés are complementary to their red production, in fact the two go together...

The most farcical aspect of this silly mess was that it was fuelled by our demagogical minister of agriculture, who signed in favour of the proposal on January 27, and then realizing he risked losing some votes he started pointing the finger at "Brussels" getting the producers of cheap crappy rosé all riled up.

Snort...

Here's the press release, it is quite accurate in the details :

Please. I think you got it the wrong way round. My understanding is that it currently allowed for table wine - I personally know an English producer that does it. But, with one exception - Champage - it is illegal for quality wines. Or maybe there a couple more exceptions.

Either way, I'd like to see the current regs - I have tried googling for them recently with no success and all I have is second hand information.

Hmm... just read the page you linked to in your other post. Seems you are right. I am now trying to find the (seemingly dodgy) source of my information. Maybe it was "personal communication". And it looks like my English producer of table wine was behaving illegally.

The rule is defined in regulation 1493/1999 OENOLOGICAL PRACTICES AND PROCESSES:

Article 42 par. 6 states:

"Coupage of a wine suitable for yielding a white table wine or of a white table wine with a wine suitable for yielding a red table wine or with a red table wine may not yield a table wine."

Many thanks

Mike wrote on Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:58:57 +0200:

Just to help me, please expand! I can't tell if that means you can or cannot legally mix colors since it sounds more like a prediction.

You cannot. But it refers only to table wines lower then AOC.

"May not" = forbidden.

Steve wrote on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:58:24 +0100:

The bureaucracy should hire some better translators!

Next time you pass through Chateauneuf-du-Papes, step in at the small restaurant with a terrace at the town square, and admire their menu ... that is one funny translation ...

Cheers

Nils

No, no, the translators are excellent. It's a special European English designed to confuse the rest of the world ;)

It was the word "coupage" that I had problems with, but the web provided an answer.

Well, they might be pardoned for not putting a bigger budget into translating viticulture legislation for all those english winemakers... or swedish for that matter :-)