Italian food is great.  Italian wine is great.  Put the two together and you have great meals.  But summer days and full, tannic reds when it is 95 degrees outside aren’t the perfect combination for a lot of people.

Maybe you have been drinking a lot of white wines lately and you are looking for something just a little different.  You want cool and refreshing because, well, it’s hot.  And you want food friendly because, well, you like food.  Try an Italian rosé wine.

Rosé has become increasingly popular in the US over the last 10 years and is now the number one growth category for wine sales.  These wines are definitely not the super sweet wines that many people unfortunately associate with the term rosé.  Real rosés are dry or semi-dry, but with fruit notes.  And the EU decision in June to maintain the standards for appellations in regards to blending was heartily welcomed by Italian rosé producers who wish to maintain the integrity of their product.

Rosés are made by three methods, maceration being the most common.  The juice of the grapes is left in contact with the red skin just long enough to give it the desired color.  Colors range from soft pink to deep salmon depending on the amount of time the skins are left with the juice.  The second most used is saignée, or bleeding the vats.  This technique is used when rosé is a secondary production.  In order to produce extremely intense reds a portion of the pink juice in the must it removed.  The producer gets two extremely different wines from the same grapes, a super intense red and summer perfect rosé.

Blending is only permissable in EU recognized appellations in Champagne.  You will not find blended DOC or DOCG rosés, but there are available blended rosés from IGT producers.  I have done some “testing” on these and found them delightfully yummy.

What foods do they work with?  Almost everything light.  Anything with fresh tomatoes, seafood dishes, egg dishes, fresh fruits and vegetables.  Or for just sipping nice and chilled on a hot summer day.