The Three Main Styles of Rosé Wine Explained

As soon as the sun comes out and temperatures start to rise, the bottles of rosé follow. Typically pale, fruity, and light, it’s the go-to wine of the summer. One common myth is that the lighter the rosé, the better the quality but that’s completely false. Rosés come in many shades and offer a wide range of textures, aromas, and flavours depending on the winemaking method. Curious? Let’s explore the three main styles of rosé!

The Three Main Styles of Rosé 1. Rosé Made by Direct Pressing

Rosé made by direct pressing, known in French as rosé de pressée, is probably the style you picture when someone mentions rosé, especially from Provence. This is the classic pale pink rosé most associated with the region. In fact, 85% of all wines produced in Provence are rosé, representing a whopping 4.2% of global rosé production!

This style is made from red grapes but produced in a similar way to white wines. Immediately after harvest, the grapes are de-stemmed, gently crushed to release the juice, and then directly pressed. The juice is quickly separated from the skins and other solids, resulting in a light colour and delicate profile, typical of the AOP Côtes de Provence for example.

The term gris, which you’ll sometimes see on rosé labels, refers to a type of direct press rosé. Gris means "grey" in French, and in this context, it indicates an extremely pale rosé with sometimes silver hues. These wines tend to have a very light colour, subtle aromas, and are typically easy-drinking and refreshing.

If you want to try a true gris, look for AOP Sable de Camargue. It's a young appellation, only officially recognised in 2023, from the sandy coastal plains near the Mediterranean, where Grenache Gris thrives. It's not my favourite but it produces some of the palest, most saline rosés you'll find.

2. Maceration Rosé

Now, you’ve probably noticed bottles on the rosé shelf that are slightly deeper in colour. These are what we call maceration rosé, or rosé de macération in French (not to be confused with rosé de saignée, which we’ll get to next!).

Maceration rosé is made a bit differently from direct press rosé, and it’s actually the most common method used to craft our favourite pink drink. It involves a short period of skin contact. When the grapes arrive at the winery, they’re de-stemmed, gently crushed (foulage), and left to macerate in a vat for anywhere between 2 and 20 hours, depending on the desired colour and structure.

After this short soak, the juice is drained off (before fermentation) and transferred to another tank, where it ferments at a cool temperature, just like a white wine. This process helps preserve the wine’s freshness and fruity character while adding a bit more colour, texture, and sometimes subtle tannins. For a great example of this style you can look for AOP Languedoc or AOP Bandol which typycally produce more concentrated macération rosés.

3. Rosé de saignée

Some call this the "Queen of Rosés" for its complexity and gastronomic appeal. Saignée rosés are deeper in colour, with more complexity, structure, and even ageing potential. This method is a bit different, as it involves grapes that are originally intended to make red wine!

After a short maceration (often just a few hours because these grapes are more concentrated than those used to produce rosé exclusively), a portion of the juice is extracted and transferred to another tank to ferment into rosé. This extraction is where the term "saignée" comes from, which literally means "to bleed" in French. The rest of the juice in the first tank continues its journey to become red wine.

A great example of this style is Tavel AOP in the Rhône Valley. In fact, it’s the only appellation in France where they are only allowed to produce rosé! So if you come across a bottle in your local shop, grab it and give it a try, it goes beautifully with tajine!

A Word on Colour (if you didn't know)

Remember the myth we debunked at the start? Here's where it gets interesting. Not every pale rosé got that way naturally. Some producers use activated carbon, or charbon actif, a legal fining agent, to strip excess colour from a wine that came out of the tank darker than the market wants. It's a completely approved technique, and it doesn't make the wine "fake" or lesser. But it does mean that pale, silvery pink in your glass isn't always a direct read on how the wine was made, sometimes it's simply been corrected to fit what we've all been trained to expect. So next time you're tempted to judge a rosé by how see-through it is, remember, colour tells you a lot less than you think.