Manic Mondays with The Chucker! A Guide to drinking The Pink.
The always lovely and oh so generous, Chuck Kanski of Solo Vino Wine Shop in St Paul, is back to share his monthly #ManicMondays post with Amusée! This month chatting to one of my favorite wine topics…PINK!!
Get the 4-1-1 on this delightful sipper with Chuck’s ‘Guide to Why You Like Pink Wine!’
So here’s the deal…the white wine drinker and the red wine drinker will ALWAYS meet at rosé. Rosé wine is the most misunderstood wine regarding perception. There is a portion of the wine drinking community that believes that all rosé wines are sweet. Some think of Lancers, Mateus or maybe White Zinfandel, but what I will reference is considered a Mediterranean style dry, rosé.
Wine is really about the expectation of flavor! Why do I drink coffee and not much tea? Why does someone prefer Bordeaux to Burgundy or drink wine from California and not Spain? The reason is that we develop a preference to a specific flavor.
White wine drinkers like white because of its flavor. These ‘expected’ flavors are mostly acid & ester. (Ester’s are when an open acid hooks up with an alcohol molecule during the fermentation process.)
The red wine drinker likes red because they enjoy the phenols. The phenolic flavors are reaped along with many other goodies from the skin particles of the grape. This is also how red wine receives its red color, from skin contact.
Now here’s where it gets fun…
A white wine drinker looking for their favorite flavor profile tries a glass of red wine. The heavy phenol flavors are so strong that they cannot drink through them to find the acid/ester flavors that they like. They become disappointed so they go back to white wine.
White Drinker -goes to- Try Red Wine Likes Acid/Ester Flavors -goes to- Find Phenols -leading to- Sad Wine Drinker
A red wine drinker seeking phenol flavors tries a glass of white wine. This drinker is instantly disappointed since no substantial amount of skin/tannin particles exists in this style of wine. White wine production methods typically separate the juice from the skins as soon as possible. They become bummed so they grab a glass of red.
Red Drinker -goes to-Try White Wine -goes to- Likes Phenols -goes to- Find Acid/Ester Flavor -leading to- Sad Wine Drinker
Now…how can we get these two people to enjoy the same bottle?
We can blend red and white wine! We can take red skinned grapes and produce it in a white wine style (this is often called a dedicated rosé). Finally, we can take a break during the process of making our big, bold reds and bleed some of the juice off, also called saignée!
Wine Drinker -goes to- Try Rosé Wine -goes to- Find Acid/Ester/Phenols -leading to- Very Happy Wine Drinker!
This is just a very brief over-view of the difference between the enjoyments of drinking red/white wine vs. rosé. There is much more to this topic but I felt the basic information about WHY we like the white or red wines is important.
One final note…wine reflects the people! So if you like Shiraz, drink rosé from Australia. If you like Bordeaux, drink Bordeaux rosé. If it’s Pinot Noir that you enjoy…a wonderful vin gris or Pinot Noir rosé is the wine for you. Follow the grape, region or country of the red wines that you like. If you like the reds, I guarantee you’ll enjoy the rosés!
The 6th Annual Rosé Wine Tent Tasting is coming up soon!
Sunday, May 18th from 2 to 5pm at Solo Vino in Saint Paul.
Click and follow the link below for more information & sign up.
Buy your tickets here!
Peace, Chuck