French Rose wine details 2

Driving the fermentation
La Provence has the largest AOC rose vineyard and this situation is not southern, but a neutral point of view of the composition of musts. The ripening conditions of the region allow winemakers to easily juice grapes rich in sugar and low in available nitrogen, which is a double difficulty for yeast.
The objective of obtaining a fruity wine also requires fermentation at a controlled temperature (between 14 to 20°C depending on the style desired) on clarified juice, which creates additional difficulties. The winemaker of roses must be a good technician to conduct the alcoholic fermentation to an end.
At this stage, collages (PVPP / Bentonite in particular) can be made to reduce the color while still unstable in the juice and get the protein stability in wine. After the completion of sugars, the wine is gradually clarified by simple static decantation (withdrawal) or by centrifugation. The malolactic fermentation is often locked to keep the style of the aroma (fresh fruits) and avoid premature yellowing of the color.

Conserver style rose wine

The qualities of freshness and youth that contribute to the current success of rose wine are difficult to maintain over time. Thus wine is gradually taking on notes such as “honey”, “beeswax”, “quince jelly,” and “plum” that characterize the normal evolution of aromatic style. Meanwhile, the color changes to shades of orange, and this more easily maintained than when the starting color is light.
The first rule is to set up the working procedures of the wine in the cellar.  The procedures need to minimize the dissolved oxygen (inerting circuits, working away from the air, etc.). The breeding of fine lees also slightly improves custody. Finally, the controlled conservation temperature (below 18°C) can lead to quality being acquired over a longer period of time.

The top pink wine history

The history of the vine is intertwined with the Mediterranean area. More than one million years ago, the vine was already pushing as labrusca, wild vines that have a very distant resemblance to our modern varieties. Although traces of viticulture dating from the sixth millennium BC can be found, in Mesopotamia and Spain for example, it was in ancient times of the third millennium BC that the earliest techniques of winemaking and the culture of wine were born in Mesopotamia.

Harvest Scene, Rome, and fourth century BC, AD
Egyptian paintings already demonstrated the importance of the vine at this time. But it is the Greek civilization that brings the best light on the practices of antiquity. The Greeks tended to use a series of vases which corresponded to various forms used for mixing wine and water; these vessels were decorated with paintings that most often depicted satyrs responsible for the wine, but also depicting consumption, and sometimes Dionysus himself.
The study of the oldest representations shows that the wine made then was bound to be colored because the grape that was brought to the place of wine production was either trampled or pressed directly, the winemaker immediately collecting the juice to ferment “in the clear.”  Without maceration, it would be quite impossible to get a strong red color. Thus many ancient representations (vases, mosaics, bas-reliefs, etc.,) clearly demonstrate the practice of pink wine, whether in Egypt, Greece or Rome.
A broadcast due to trade and invasions; the “vinum clarum”

Throughout antiquity, because of trade and sometimes invasions, knowledge of wine spread throughout the Mediterranean basin. Thus, when in the 600 years BC the Phoenicians landed on the coast of Marseille in Provence, and gradually swarmed the region, they brought together in the holds of their ships their wine culture and clear colored wine. The extension of the Roman Empire brought the wine culture into the early Christian era; the vine spread to Spain and Gaul, until reaching the very northern regions.
Throughout this period, the wine that was made was mostly based on black grapes, remaining free of maceration. Thus, as from ancient times, the wines were also “colored”. The juice was usually obtained after simple crushing and pressing, and was immediately used. The press was known long ago, but it was heavy machinery, very expensive and little caves couldn’t accommodate it. The richer, better equipped, could push the demand for smaller, but with a payment most often considered too expensive.
In the fall of the Roman Empire, the Church maintained in its diocese the viticulture and wine, and spread its marketing. The vineyard then regularly extended throughout Europe, aided by the expansion of monastic orders. Partial to this clear wine, they called it “vinum clarum,” which then simply became “claret.” Other types of wines of the time, however, consisted of a range of white, gilt and black; red wine is obtained by longer maceration. Note that it seems that, apart from Italy, the grapes have for centuries been, overwhelmingly black.