Blush wine vs. Rosé

"Dena Jo"

I believe 'rose' is the old term.When wine drinking (and making) became more popular, they changed the term to 'blush'. Why? I dunno. Maybe all those girls drinking their white zinfandel got rosy cheeks and looked like they were blushing? In another 10 or 20 years, 'blush' will sound old, and the new generation will come up with some new term. I wonder what it would be?

"Dena Jo"

Oops, I meant to say, "they are different terms for the same types of wine".

There are various techniques for creating a blush (or rose), but both terms seem to be used for _all_ pinkish-coloured wines, still and carbonated, fermented on the skins and blended from white and red wines, etc.

On 23 Oct 2003, Dan posted thus:

Certainly I did.

blush wine

pinkish table wine from red grapes whose skins were removed after fermentation began.

Rose wine.

pinkish table wine from White grape concentrate and rose petals.

Stephen

I believe 'rose' is the old term.When wine drinking (and making) became more popular, they changed the term to 'blush'. Why? I dunno. Maybe all those girls drinking their white zinfandel got rosy cheeks and looked like they were blushing? In another 10 or 20 years, 'blush' will sound old, and the new generation will come up with some new term. I wonder what it would be?

"Dena Jo"

"Dena Jo"

How do they get their pink colour then? Most red grapes (I understand bacos are an exception) will yield a white wine if there is not some period of skin contact.

"Dena Jo"

Even with low Brix grapes, an hour or so of skin contact time after crushing is enough to produce the pink color. With ripe grapes, wineries often have problems with too much color because they cant press fast enough to keep up with the crusher..

Just wanted to thank everyone who answered my question!

We're talking about _wine_ grapes here; not table grapes. IOW, I'm drawing a comparison between Bordeaux (e.g.) and Napa - not Fresno.

Not to mention lack of fruit/varietal character.

That's all well and good in a year with clement weather. Unfortunately, as the Bordelais well know, early rains can wreak havoc with that scenario. It happens here in California too (1982 e.g.), but it's a _lot_ less frequent than in Europe.

Exactly. That's basically what I implied, but I stand by my opinion that it's preferable to have to tweak the pH down a little in a must that has normal Brix, to having to chaptalize low Brix must/juice.

Tom S

There is one other possible source for rose type wines. Second run. Use the pressed skins after making red wine, add some sugar and a little water and referment to get a second batch of wine. It turns out a wine that tastes and looks like a cheap rose wine. I am not sure but what some commercial rose is exactly this.

Ray

I use a freebie program called "AllChars". A Google search should turn it up.

Tom S

Called by many names "pink wine" can be made from a number of methods

1. A very short skin contact when fermenting red skinned grapes
2. Blending a red and white wine together, eg. adding 9% Merlot to say Riesling.
3. Even certain white grapes when given an extra skin contact e.g. Pinot Gris will cause a blush wine. However in the wine kits its probably a small amount of red base concentrate added to a white base concentrate, than ran through the pasteurizor prior to packaging.