Re: White Wine from Traditional Reds

Well, I suppose there's one way to find out!! :) I don't recall if any of the "white whatever" wines I've tried have ever been all the way dry. I do remember a nice dry italian rose I had one time, but I have no details about it in my head anymore. I think if you have a nice crisp wine, it would be good, but I suspect you will want to decide if the grapes will have enough body and taste without a pulp/skin fermentation. I would taste some of the free run juice and try to decide from that.

There's a local grower who (besides producing excellent fruit in a very attractive vineyard) makes a dry, white Merlot of equally excellent quality. I'm sure he would be happy to discuss his procedures with you, as he loves "talking shop". If you email me, I'll send you his contact details. [I'm not comfortable "publishing" them on the newsgroup. ]

There's no reason why not - dry rosés are making a bit of a comeback here in California and have been made out of just about every red variety you can imagine. Some are not the primary goal - the juice often comes via saigneé (bleeding off some juice) from a red wine to be in an effort to increase concentration of the red. I've seen, for examples, rosés of Grenache, Sangiovese and even Pinot Noir made this way. If you do it, you might consider leaving the must on the skins overnight before pressing off rather than doing it immediately as for a white wine - you can get a nice shot of color that way.