Salut/Hi Vino,

le/on Mon, 26 Jul 2004 17:48:49 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

>On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 00:41:41 GMT, "jeffc" > wrote:

>On the one hand, the bad reputation is deserved, since so much lousy
>rosé wine is produced.

How I agree with you. At this time of year the shops in France are awash
with rosé wines designed to be glugged down with "le barbecue" or grill. The
food is unbelievably bad, "hamburgers", marinated chicken legs "a la
mexicaine" nasty sausages, worse merguez (lamb sausages in the North African
style), stale shrimps marinated in something pretty nondescript and "kebabs"
of all flavours, layered up in alternate layers with peppers, onion, and
pork fat in great sheets and then cut down into 2 cms square columns which
are transpierced with a bamboo skewer. To accompany these delights, mounds
of boring composed salads are produced, so that with very little effort, the
holiday makers can kid themselves they've eaten a nice meal. And the wine
chosen to wash down this swill is a Rosé from Provence, North Africa or God
knows where, which is no better than the food.

Mike Tommasi will perhaps tell me I'm being a little harsh. I'm not. It's
the epitome of bad taste, sold expensively and destined to debase the french
palate.

And, just as you are about to say (;-)) it's particularly sad, because one
can eat some wonderful charcoal grilled food, and accompany with (if you
like the combination) some wonderful characterful rosés, for very little
extra effort, price or trouble.

>there are some very good rosé wines produced. I've had some of each,

>the production of "regular" versions of their namesakes. Early in the
[good description of the saignée process snipped]
>Not that anyone should make any great effort to obtain them. Since the
>winery's primary objective is to make a good "regular" cabernet
>sauvignon (or merlot,etc.) and everything is done with this objective
>in mind, one should not expect much (nor is likely to get much) from
>the by-product.

I can't speak for saignée rosés in the States, but I can't agree for France.
The primary objective in many cases, as you say, is to allow a lesser volume
of grape juice to be in contact with the skins, to give more body etc for
the red wine being produced. But think about this carefully. What SORT of
wines is the winemaker going to want to concentrate in this way? His better
wines, obviously, as s/he may well leave his/her lower end wines to find
their own equilibrium. So the fermenting must that is drawn off (saignée =
bled off, literally) will be from the better grapes and or parcels, and the
harvest might well have been treated with greater care, and cropped at lower
yields. So the basic juice may be better than one might expect! Furthermore,
although as you said, the mst common reason for the saignée is to improve a
red wine, it can also be carried out for its own sake.

As it happens, the Revue des Vins de France July/August issue has a special
feature on Rosés, and I'd guess that of the wines chosen as being amongst
the best in France, a good third are made by the saignée method.

But obviously, I am restricting my remarks to French wines. When it comes to
wines from other countries, other criteria may well apply.
--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
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