Love rosé? Then try a Spanish rosado (with buying tip)
As soon as the sun starts shining, we open a bottle of rosé. Because no wine cries out to be enjoyed in beautiful weather quite like rosé. Provence rosé in particular is incredibly popular. But rosé is also made in other parts of the world. Spain is a rosé country par excellence. Try a Spanish rosé, delicious with tapas!
From deep pink to ultra-light
Years ago, in the height of summer, we all became enamored with rosé. In every color and aroma. Rosé gets its color from steeping the skins, just as with red wine, of blue grapes in their own juice. The only difference is that the skin maceration is much shorter than with red wine. The length varies by producer—and it results in a wide range of pink hues. The longer the skin maceration, the more color, and eventually there comes a point when the wine moves beyond the rosé stage and becomes a red wine.
But in recent years, it seems as though we only want to drink the lightly tinted rosé from Provence. Because of the popularity of Provence wines (more than 170 million bottles cross the globe every year!), you could almost forget it, but delicious rosé is also made in well-known wine countries such as Italy (where it is called rosato) and Spain (rosado)—and has been for centuries.
Rosé from Spain
Rosé can be made from various grapes, including grenache, cinsault, mourvèdre, syrah and cabernet sauvignon. In Provence, grenache almost always takes center stage, and this grape also plays the leading role in Spain. It is simply called ‘garnacha’ here. Navarra, just northeast of Rioja, is Spain’s most important rosé producer. And it won’t surprise you that these deep-pink beauties are delicious with food!
Rosé at the table
Spanish rosé is full of flavor and an ideal BBQ wine. It goes well with meat (meatballs in tomato sauce), fish (deep-fried Zeeland mussels!, octopus salad) and vegetables (padron peppers, ooh la la!) from the grill and is heavenly with pinchos and tapas—from bread with spicy aioli (how to make the best aioli at home) to Ferran Adrià’s tortilla: with chips. Delicious!
Buying tip
Torres De Casta Rosado is a juicy, fruity wine with aromas of a crate full of summer fruit (strawberries, raspberries, cherries). And although it smells of ripe red fruit, it is still pleasantly dry. A real crowd-pleaser for drinks or dinner. And at under seven euros, it’s a bargain!
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