Finally, a switch has been flicked and there are some classic, crisp, dry elegant rose wines on the market.
This follows years of mostly being able to find only sweetish, flabby and commercial pinkies on the shop shelves.
But now more winemakers are making rose on purpose - and, as a bonus,
as a general rule they're really well priced.
There are different methods of making rose.
In one of them, red grapes are crushed and transferred to a tank where the red colour from the skins is allowed to seep into the white juice - the juice from red grapes is white and gets its colour only once it's mixed with the skins - until the juice becomes pink.
The skins are then separated and the pink juice processed in the same way as a white wine.
In the saignee process, part of the red wine is bled from the tank before it becomes too red and astringent. This process can also be used to improve the quality of red wines as it increases the ratio of skins to juice in the vat, so a more deeply coloured red wine can be made.
Another way is to make a "blush by blending some red wine into a white.
This method is not used frequently, except in the Champagne region of France.
