BUSINESS & TECH | F E AT URE
Sinoviniculture By Joshua Cawthorpe
Rosé season, also known as summer, is the time of year when the sweltering heat beckons us to start imbibing in the middle of the day. This month we decided to try out some taohong, peach-red or, colloquially, pink wine. First of all, what is rosé? There are four ways to make rosé but, since the differences are very technical, let’s first talk about the difference between white and red wine. Although the obvious answer is that green grapes make white wine and purple grapes make red wine, this isn’t always the case. A number of champagnes, in fact, use purple grapes in a style dubbed ‘blanc de noir’ or ‘white of the black.’ As though an allegory for humanity, grapes all look the same on the inside. While both methods of winemaking require the pale nectar to be massaged from within the grapes, white wine allows only the transparent juice to ferment. Red wine gets its color from macerating the skins and seeds throughout the fermentation process. Only in China have we seen adults meticulously peeling their own grapes before eating them. Grape skins, in addition to being extremely high in antioxidants, Vitamin C and resverotrol, also contain tannins. This is what gives them their bitter, acrid taste. However, tannins are the backbone of red wine’s flavor profile; tannins give it the ability to harmonize with the umami of grilled animal flesh and also preserve it while it ages in the bottle. Back to rosé. The most common process to make rosé is called maceration. Use red grapes to make white wine but allow the skins to briefly stew as fermentation begins, then remove them before they influence the color (and flavor) too heavily. Provence is known for very faintly hued rosé
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made by macerating skins for just long enough to ‘stain’ the wine and achieve a pale pink color. One common misconception is that darker rosé wines are sweeter. If the color comes from the bitter, tannin- and vitamin-rich skins then color is not a measure of sugar content. The direct press method is similar to maceration as it uses red grapes to make a white wine but depends on just enough color being released into the wine during the pressing stage. Winemakers who use this method are known to then add a dash of mature red wine in the end to achieve their desired shade of pink. When committed to this approach, it is called ‘blending’ and shouldn’t be scoffed at. The simplicity of the process evokes images of frat house jungle juice in 68-liter Rubbermaid storage tubs. However, it is a careful art undertaken with utmost care and precision. A small amount of red wine, selected for its desirable qualities, is mixed with a white wine so that the two may fester blissfully until their day of absolution. The fourth method, unsurprisingly, bears a French name. The saignée method involves ‘bleeding’ juice from a vat of red wine that has only just begun its journey to the promised land. This month we randomly selected two rosé wines from JD.com. One from Ningxia and another from Xinjiang, both winemaking regions that we have previously investigated. The Ningxia rosé is from Jia Bei Lan winery in the Yinchuan winemaking area at the foot of the Helan Mountain Range. The wine itself is made from 100% cabernet sauvignon, a red wine grape, and employs the short-term maceration method.
The Xinjiang rosé is from Tiansai vineyards near the Tianshan mountains. This grape varietal is cabernet franc, another red wine grape, this time using the direct press method where color is imbued in the pressing process and then the skins are removed prior to fermentation. The Xinjiang rosé is, predictably, a lighter shade of pink. When searching for suitable wines for a certain meal, white wine is generally recommended when pairing with most Asian cuisines. This is a sweeping generalization which fails to recognize the vast diversity of the Asian continent and all the wonder it has to offer. However, seafood and spicy dishes generally don’t agree with heavy, tannic red wines. If we were going out for Hunan food it would be an easy choice. When scooping the fatty cheeks from above the sullen eyes of a butterflied carp face, piled high with sautéed red chilies and garlic, then one should seek the sharp refreshment of a Mosel riesling. However, our goal is to truly learn these two rosé wines and understand the lingering odor of the original sin with the original skin. If there is but one Chinese cuisine best suited for rosé, we think it’s Hakka.
