Summertime's a bed of rosés

NATIONAL Rosé day - typically the second Saturday in June is fast approaching, but it's never too early (or too late) to enjoy a glass of the pink drink. Rosé is one of those wines that tends to divide drinkers. They either can't get enough of it or, frankly, think it's a bit naff. But either way, it's serious business and not just in the summer when, let's face it, rosé is the ideal outdoors picnic drink.

- by Matt Nixson

Look no further than the rosé "research centre" which has just been announced for Provence, south-eastern France, the spiritual home of French rosé, with more than £4.5million invested in an experimental winery and vineyard.

But what is rosé? It's not red and white wines mixed, as some might think.

One method of production involves black-skinned grapes being crushed and their skins left to sit in the juice for a short period, sometimes as little as two hours. The skins are then discarded, rather than allowed to remain in the juice during fermentation, as in red wine making.

Another process, known as saigneé, is where juice from red wine is bled off in an early stage to concentrate it, then fermented separately to produce rosé. Either way, the resulting wines are delightful - and, in my view at least, it's pretty hard to go wrong with a decent rosé.