Since Mother Nature continues to be oh so fickle with the forecast, it's a great time to drink a rosé wine. If the weather is warm, you serve it cold. If there is a chill in the air, drink at room temp. Rosé is a style of wine, which means it can created to be dry or sweet. The French have been making it for centuries but its a relatively new discovery for American winemakers. And the story behind it is worth telling again.

In the 1970's the California wine industry was just beginning to grow as was a red grape called Zinfandel. Zinfandel thrived in the wine country soil and was made into a bold, dry red wine. However, the 70's wine drinking public wanted WHITE wine. So what could a California winemaker do with this fruity, spicy red grape to make it more palatable and profitable?

The Gallo Brothers put it in a jug renamed it "Hearty Burgundy" and made a fortune. But the thirst for white wine was yet to be quenched. So at Sutter Home Winery, Winemaker Bob Trinchero turned a mistake into a milestone. He had a barrel of Zinfandel that experienced stuck fermentation which means the yeast died off before turning all of the sugar in the juice into alcohol. This left Bob with a batch of pink, sweet wine. What could have been a brush with disaster became the blush of success. Pink was closer to white than red and America's natural proclivity to all things sweet made this combination a winner which we all now know as "White Zinfandel".

The French had been making rosé style wines for years with great success. But the crafty Americans decided to call it "blush" which to this day can still be a tip-off. When the label on a bottle of pink wine says "blush" more often than not it will lean to the sweeter style. Wine labeled "rosé" usually means the pink wine inside is a bit more dry.

Most winemakers take one of two options when creating a barrel of pink wine: the rosé/blush method (like Trinchero) or the French style of rosé wine making called "saignee" (SAHN- YEE).

Blush/Rosé style means the winemaker puts the crushed red grapes with skins and juice in a barrel, adds yeast that eats away the sugar in the juice upping the alcohol and lowering the sweetness. The winemaker decides how far to let that fermentation go and thus creates either a dry or sweet style of rosé/blush wine.

The Saignee process has the winemaker putting full clusters of grapes into a barrel. No crushing. Just grapes. Yeast is added which starts the fermentation and the whole grapes naturally release juice. Sometimes this juice is also called "Free Run". Winemakers consider this to be the best or freshest juice of the batch which makes it perfect for rosé wine. The winemaker wants the color and flavor of the red wine but not the bitterness or astringency which comes from longer contact of juice/grape skins.

French rosés can be pricier than the Americans but two widely available labels are both affordable and tasty. The Prophecy Rosé offers up dry, crisp aromas and flavors of wild strawberry, nectarine, current and white peach. The Fleur de Mer is a bit more full bodied, with a floral nose, and flavors of red current and raspberry.