Wine Q&A: What is the correct temperature to serve rosé wine?
Rosé wine is best drunk cool. But how cool depends on both the temperature outside and how flavourful you like your rosé.
Rosé drunk on a hot summer’s day can be refreshing. And so opened and poured straight from the fridge will ensure a serving temperature of about 5 degrees Centigrade. But this temperature will soon rise if the air surrounding the bottle is warm – which may be over 25 degrees Centigrade on a sunny garden terrace. A gel-filled cool jacket placed on the bottle will ensure the rosé stays cold as you drink it. These can be bought cheaply and kept in the freezer for their instant cooling properties – they can also cool down a room temperature bottle in about 15 minutes.
But some rosé wines are best enjoyed at a slightly warmer temperature – at about 8 degrees Centigrade. A bottle will reach this temperature after about 45 minutes once taken out of the fridge. The slightly more complex flavour of darker coloured rosés taste more enjoyable when drunk at this just cool temperature – served too cold and their bramble and raspberry fruitiness disappears into tasteless wateriness.
Fashionable lighter coloured Provence rosés, on the other hand, are best drunk super cool.
Paler colours in rosés mean lighter flavours, so expect lemon with a hint of strawberry ice cream. Rosé wines that are light red or pale orange in colour often have darker flavours – so plum, redcurrant and raspberry.
Some rosé wines even taste pleasantly sweet. Californian blush style rosés, or those labelled White Grenache (even though they are pink – a quirk of marketing), are semi-sweet and so best served extra cold – even with ice cubes. Allowed to warm up and drunk then, you’ll find the sweetness dominates making the wine less refreshing.
So the answer to what is the correct temperature to serve rosé is there isn’t one specific temperature. Cool yes, possibly very cool or even slightly warm, the choice is yours based on the colour of the wine and how warm the day is.
Wineuncorked.co.uk recommends rosés to drink straight from the fridge
Kylie Minogue Cotes de Provence Rosé 2020
£15 Morrisons
4* rating
Floral and fruity with a light meringue sweetness all wrapped up in the expected pretty pale pink colouring of a Cotes de Provence.
Le Grand Cros rosé 2019 L’esprit de Provence
£15.93 Asset Wines
4* rating
This delicate pink rose has attractive aromas of flowers and frangipane. Subtle flavours of creamy lemon are nicely balanced.
Chateau la Coste rosé 2019
£20.50 Quercus Wines
3* rating
This Provence rose is a lovely deep pink colour with aromas of strawberry (rather like the sweets known as Opal Fruits or Starbursts in non-UK countries). The flavour is of apple macaroons.
Peyrassol Cotes de Provence rosé 2019
£13.99 Majestic Wine
3* rating
The flavours of lemon and lime sherbet have some honey thrown in – then add the strawberry, redcurrant and the almond essence and aspirin edge. That’s a whole gang of stuff going on.
Jansz Premium Rosé Brut NVosé Brut NV
£19.50 Ocado
5* rating
A sparkling wine with very light levels of fizziness and a wonderful pretty golden pink colour. Aromas of creamy melon and ice cream are followed by flavours of bread and runny honey. An interesting wine.
The wineuncorked.co.uk wine rating system uses a maximum of 5 stars:
5* outstanding – the top rating given by wineuncorked.co.uk
4* very good wine
3* good wine but over priced
2* a disappointing wine
1* little to offer
0* avoid – pour down the drain
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