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Written by Jennifer Macey
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Friday, 12 June 2009 00:00 |
PETER CAVE: When is a rose a rose? Well not when it's made from a blend of red and white wine according to the European Union.
The EU has upheld a ban on European wine makers making rose from mixing the two types of wine and labelling it rose.
The commission had wanted to lift the ban to help European producers compete with cheaper imports from Australia and South Africa.
But Australian wine experts say the everyday quaffer wouldn't notice the difference between a blended rose and the traditional variety.
Jennifer Macey reports.
JENNIFER MACEY: Rose wines are traditionally made by pressing red grapes such as shiraz and leaving the juice in contact with the skins just long enough for the wine to turn a pink hue.
One of Australia's biggest rose producers is the Orlando wine group which includes the Jacob's Creek label.
The group winemaker Rebekah Richardson says they produce four-million litres of rose a year.
REBEKAH RICHARDSON: So one of the things that is really important with rose handling is making sure that it's picked in the cool of the night and that the grapes are processed reasonably quickly so that we maintain the fresh aromatics of the varieties.
Some of them will have a bit of extended skin contact to pick up the colour a little bit. The free run juice is bought off and then basically that juice is pink so our processing steps are very much rose from the start of the process all the way through.
JENNIFER MACEY: Much of the Jacob's Creek rose is destined for the European and British markets.
But the success of these so-called new world wines has left European producers struggling and so the European Union wanted to ease the restrictions on what constitutes rose.
Rose can also be made by adding about 5 per cent of red wine to a white wine base.
But French, Italian and Spanish wine-makers lobbied the EU for months to keep the ban on blended varieties.
The EU has now bowed to the pressure and the ban remains for its own producers but not for wine exported to Europe.
The wine writer for the Sydney Morning Herald Huon Hooke says he understands that French producers are trying to protect their cultural heritage but he's still surprised by the European Union's decision.
HUON HOOKE: They're shooting themselves in the foot yet again by making laws that disadvantage their wine producers.
The French of course have this huge and convoluted appellation controlee system which governs the way they can produce wine and while it has some very good points, it restricts them terribly in what they can do as far as planting grape varieties in different regions and so on and how they make their wine and this is another example of that. It astonishes me that they are still legislating themselves into a corner in the 21st century.
JENNIFER MACEY: The CEO of De Bortoli Wines, Darren De Bortoli says the French winemakers are simply trying to protect their own turf.
He says Australian producers used to make rose by blending but the better wine qualities are now made in the traditional way.
DARREN DE BORTOLI: Our rose is made from red grapes so obviously the new blending rules do not impact on us but certainly in the past we used to blend to make rose.
JENNIFER MACEY: And so why have you moved to the more traditional method?
DARREN DE BORTOLI: Better quality is the main reason.
JENNIFER MACEY: Australian producers say the ruling won't affect wine exports as most of the rose is produced in the traditional style.
Steven Strachan is the CEO of the Australian Winemakers Federation.
STEVEN STRACHAN: And anything that is a premium product is certainly made using that traditional method so it really just makes no difference to the Australian category at all.
JENNIFER MACEY: But wine writer Huon Hooke disagrees. He says even the higher end market includes roses that have been made by mixing red and white and he says the everyday wine drinker wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
HUON HOOKE: Rose is a quaffing wine. It's not generally thought of as being a collectable wine or a fine wine, so it's a bit odd to see this kind of argument happening over a small wine as they call it in France such as the rose.
JENNIFER MACEY: But as the everyday wine consumer heads to the bottle shop this weekend it's unlikely that many will examine the labels closely to check whether they're buying a blended rose or a traditional one.
PETER CAVE: Jennifer Macey reporting.
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