Winemakers in France are fuming over EU plans to allow producers to make rosé wine by mixing red and white together.
Producers say it is sacrilege to simply blend the two together rather than using the specialist technique of leaving the crushed red grapes to soak with macerating white grapes.
But the European Commission believes that the method is holding back French, Spanish and Italian producers in new markets such as China.
A draft EU plan, that will be put to a final vote on 27 April, would allow wine makers to blend red with a splash of white to create rosé.
French winegrowers now fear the market will be flooded with poor quality rosé.
Rosé has been accepted for several years as an equal to red and white wines. In 2007 decanter.com asked 'Can rosé ever be a serious wine? Over 80% of respondents answered with an unequivocal 'yes'.
Xavier de Volontat, president of the AGPV union, which represents the majority of France's wine producers, told Telegraph.co.uk: 'The battle for rosé's nobility risks being lost with a wave of Europe's magic wand.
'When you go home tonight, try mixing white wine with a few drops of red wine. It comes out orange and doesn't taste good. It's nothing like rosé.'
A spokesman for the European Commission said they were 'aware of the concerns of some producer regions, such as Provence,' and were looking at ways to respond to them.
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The European Union (Brussels!) has dropped a real clanger! They have come out and decreed that rosé wines can be made by mixing red wines with white..!
This is so totally wrong that I fail to see how this idea ever came about in the first place. I can only assume that Brussels! have no idea whatsoever about anything to do with winemaking and that the wine lobbies never took them seriously on this subject.
It is amazing to most of us that what took nearly 2000 years to set up in winegrowing is being dessimated by Brussels! in less than a decade!
Amanda
But blending red and white to make rosé has been authorised for decades in Champagne! And can the French prove in a blind tasting that their way of making rosé is always the best? Why do they produce so much bad rosés, with such a light colour?
The funniest thing is that their man in Brussels actually voted in favour of the new winemaking metjhods, including the red & white blending. Does the French ministry of Agriculture talk with its own winemakers before it sends someone to brussels to vote on a project? This looks like amateurism to me, or worst, a shambles. It reminds me that the Minister of agriculture was mute while his colleague of the Health department was trying to get prohibition laws passed in France, and clearly said that alcohol (including wine, at whichever dose, was causing cancer. And these guys want foreigners to import their wines! What are they taking their customers for?
Hervé Lalau, Brussels
It is interesting to hear that mixing red and white wine is sacrilege and doesn't taste good, because this is how almost all rosé champagne is made, by adding 10-15% of a red wine.
Tomas Eriksson, Brussels
I can see how this issue will turn into one almighty headache for consumers. Perhaps these wine should also be accompanied by a label reading, "Most likely to result in a stinking hangover!" Which bright spark in the EU came up with this?
Nick Breeze
My comments to the EU: let the producer decide who he or she is to make a rose wine. BUT information if not produced as a TRUE rose must have this in writing and on the label.
M Kadin
What's so bad in the current rose making technique that's 'holding back the new markets such as china'? Is price the only factor? And for those who don't think there's a difference in taste between the different methods of pink champagnes, try Pommery (blending) Vs Billecart (maceration).
M.Cesareo
M.Cesareo might like to check the production of Billecart Rose - yes it is a delicious, superior rose champagne - but I was under the impression that this wine is made by the addition of red wine rather than maceration. This belief is supported by Tom Stevenson in his 'World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine' published in 1998. I wondered if perhaps things had changed at Billecart in the meantime, but according to the House's website, the only thing that has changed is the label design (what were they thinking? But I digress). The website clearly states that both the NV Rose and the Cuvee Elizabeth Salmon Rose have a percentage of 'pinot noir vinified as red wine' added. Perhaps the marketing team have it wrong too? Quality rose in champagne can be made using both methods - why not with table wine too? There's some pretty awful 'saignee' rose out there too!
Kate
I think it's about time the EU Counsel in Brussels got out of the wine and food business. They are about to destroy years of hard work and quality assurances. Telling wine producers what they can or cannot do, should not be up to politicians. Politicians don't care about the wine only the money they can make out of it. I can pour a red and white together at home if that's what I wanted, it's called a Poor man's Rose. Is that what the EU thinks we all are.
Daniel Dyer, Senior Executive Wine Consultant WIV, Australia
Surely theres plenty of rosé for everyone?
Mark Rothwell
On behalf of the Dutch Sommelier Guild I would like to give a reaction at this theme.
We think that the people who make the decisions in this case try to find the best balance between quality and economic profits. All wine producers in Europe who make rosé wine were fighting a big battle the last years to upgrade the position of rosé wine in the wine market. They invest a lot of time, work and money to achieve this. That is also the reason that rosé is more and more popular the last few years.
In our opinion it is not a good case to make rosé wine in this new way because it can not reach the same quality when it is made in the regular ways. There is a big danger that producers grave their own vault by downgrade the quality. It can be that the popularity of rosé will reduce in Europe in a fast way so that also the economic profits in Europe will reduce. And secondly the wine producers will be incredible because they lack the originality of the rosé wine by making it in the new way. No doubt about it.
Nowadays people like more and more wines with origin, characteristics and purity, which can only be achieved by guarding the quality!!
Bob Jurjens, Public Relations Officer of the Dutch Sommeliers Guild
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The European Union (Brussels!) has dropped a real clanger! They have come out and decreed that rosé wines can be made by mixing red wines with white..!
