A Brief Summary on Decanting Rosé Wine
- Decanting is a great technique to improve the flavor of many styles of wine.
- For rosé, decanting can help open up its soft fruit aromas and secondary aromas.
- Unlike red wine, rosé wines are delicate.
- Too much time in your decanter can make your refreshing rosé taste less invigorating.
- Your rosé can also become too warm if you decant it for too long.
- However, if you decant your rosé correctly, it can become the best version of itself.
Continue reading to learn about the reasons you should decant some rosé wines. You’ll learn how to decant your favorite rosé like a sommelier and enjoy the best tasting rosé possible.
In This Article
Why you Should Decant Your Rosé
Although most people think of red wine when it comes to decanting, you can decant your favorite rosés too. Sometimes decanting your rosé can boost its pleasant aromas and make it taste even better.
Rosé wines benefit from decanting for several reasons. First, decanting lets some wines open up. Like other wines, rosé wines have secondary aromas that may be hidden behind other aromas, such as alcohol.
With some rosés, you may find that, after decanting for a short time, you’ll be able to enjoy even more of their refreshing yet subtle fruit aromas. Some rosés have creamy secondary aromas that will become more full and expressive after decanting.
Another reason to decant your rosé is to remove any unpleasant aromas if your wine is reduced. You can tell if your wine is reduced if you smell a faint eggshell or burnt matchstick smell.
Reduction happens during the winemaking process when the wine doesn’t have enough oxygen. This is a natural phenomenon and doesn’t mean the wine has gone bad.
With just a short time in your decanter, your reduced rosé will lose its sulfur smell. Its beautiful fruit and creamy secondary aromas will once again take over.
How to Decant Your Rosé Wine
The first step to decanting a rosé wine is to see if it even needs decanting in the first place. First, pour a small amount into your glass and give it a good swirl. If your wine smells delicious already, don’t worry about decanting it.
However, you may smell something off or maybe your rosé isn’t expressing itself as well as you would like. If you’ve decided that your wine needs to be decanted, follow the easy steps below so you get the perfect decant every time.
Choose a Clean Decanter
A clean decanter is very important for preserving your rosé wine’s flavors and aromas. Residues or stains from previous decants can damage the delicate flavors and aromas of your rosé wine.
Make Sure Your Decanter is Nice and Cold
Rosé wines should be enjoyed cold, similar to white wines. When you decant wine, it will naturally warm your wine to room temperature, which is not a good thing for rosé.
To prevent this, leave your decanter in the refrigerator or fill it with ice for a few minutes ahead of time. Chilling your decanter will preserve your chilled rosé’s temperature so you can enjoy it right out of the decanter.
Pour with Care
Pour your rosé into your decanter slowly and steadily to prevent splashing. This gentle approach also helps aerate your wine properly, which is crucial for preserving the delicate characteristics of rosé wines.
Check for Sediment
While rosé wines don’t have the chalky and bitter sediment found in aged reds, you should still look for any particles at the bottom of the bottle. Some organic or unfiltered rosé wines may contain residual particles and tartrate crystals. Decanting helps remove these harmless particles before they go into your glass.
Double Decant for Parties
If you’re having guests, why not double decant so you can enjoy a rosé from its original bottle? Wines will quickly warm up to room temperature in a decanter, and keeping a decanter cold is not an easy feat.
By double decanting, you can speed up the aeration process and pour your rosé into its original bottle. This will make it easier to keep cold by simply storing it in a bucket of ice water and serving it to your guests nice and cold.
Best Decanting Time for Rosé Wine
Rosé wine has delicate aromas and flavors that can sometimes taste amazing when you enjoy it freshly poured from the bottle. However, sometimes rosé wines have tightly wound aromas or, at worse, faint sulfur aromas that need to be released over time.
Unlike many red wines that sometimes need an hour or more, rosé wines can be decanted in 30 minutes or less. With this time, any unpleasant reduced smells will quickly evaporate away, leaving behind the fruity and delicious aromas that make rosé wine so special.
If you decant a rosé for longer than 30 minutes, it may start to taste dull and lose some of its pleasant aromas. After a few hours, your rosé wine will probably be better used for making sangria or for cooking.
It will also be hard to maintain its cool temperature. Decanting rosé wine for too long will warm your wine to room temperature after about an hour.
Why Rosé is so Delicate
Rosé wines are made from red grapes. Winemakers can use anything from pinot noir to cabernet sauvignon. Each wine-growing region has its own specialty.
To get the beautiful pink color in the wine, winemakers let the freshly pressed grape juice sit with the dark red skins for anywhere from a few hours to a few days. The longer the skins sit with the juice, the darker the wine becomes.
This is because of the natural tannins or pigments in the skins of grapes. These pigments give the grape its color and also dye a rosé pink.
Some winemakers like to make rosé wines that are faintly pink. Others prefer to produce darker colored wines with fuller tannins. This makes rosé wines so diverse and easy for anyone to enjoy.
The small amount of tannin in rosés means they get to keep the natural fresh fruit aromas and more subtle secondary aromas. The tannins in some red wines sometimes over power these aromas, creating a different wine drinking experience.
You can choose to Decant Your Rosé
Ultimately, it’s your choice whether or not to decant your rosé. The most important thing is if you like it.
Decanting will help some wines taste better and open up to reveal its hidden aromas. Sometimes a wine is just right immediately after opening.
You should always decant your rosé if you smell the unpleasant egg shell aromas in a reduced wine. However, other than that, your decision depends on what you prefer.
