These Canadian Rosés Are Anything But Basic
Illustration by Yesenia Reyes.
As sure as the sun rises, the people demand rosé when it gets warm out. Despite its popularity, pink wine has a bit of a basic reputation among aficionados; it’s often considered an unserious drink you can throw an ice cube into without remorse. As such, many large-scale wineries treat it as exactly that: an inexpensive, easy-to-produce product that doesn’t require much sophistication to sell well. But a new cohort of winemakers are taking rosé seriously, using different techniques to make deeper, darker and weirder pinks.
Rosés get their signature hue from the juice of red grapes that are macerated on their skins for a short time—just enough to gain some colour and texture before turning the wine into a full-blown red. Typically, that looks like a breezy pale pink, often referred to as a Provence style of rosé, similar to the ever-popular Miraval: bone dry, high acid, mineral-driven and just barely fruity.
A newer crop of darker rosés are macerated for longer, extracting more flavour from the skins. This results in medium- and full-bodied wines with more depth and complexity. Some can be served like a light red, and pair wonderfully with food.
Then there are rosé blends, which use red and white grapes to balance fruit, sugar, acid and tannins. Made from a wider breadth of grapes than traditional rosés, these wines highlight what’s growing locally.
Feeling extra-freaky? Dive into the weird world of co-ferments, which run the gamut from wines that embrace ingredients such as herbs, spices and additional fruits—pushing the boundaries of what wine can be—to wines where different grapes are farmed and fermented together.
Co-ferments can be darker and cloudier—and might even border on orange wine in texture and taste. Varieties like pinot gris, gewurztraminer and vidal—the star of Canadian ice wine—can ripen unevenly, producing wines that defy categorization when fermented together. They could have a slight bit of spritz, smell funky or capture an entirely un-wine-like flavour.
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Famously, Austria’s Gut Oggau does not list what’s in the blend, instead capturing the personalities of their co-ferments with a hand-drawn face on the label. Others, like Ontario’s Revel Cider, use grapes and other local fruits, herbs and spices to bring sustainability and an experimental spirit to the forefront.
Three Anything-But-Basic Rosés to Try
Series’ Cabernet Franc Rosé 2023
This robust Niagara rosé punches above its weight with summery flashes of watermelon rind, rhubarb, honeycrisp apple and raspberry. $18, lcbo.com
Glooscap First Nation x Benjamin Bridge Rosé 2022
Half the profits from this Nova Scotia blend—with notes of blood orange and lemon Starburst—go to the local Mi’ikmaq community. $27, lcbo.com
Maenad Wine Co. Vidal Pet-Nat 2022
Concord grapes, native to Ontario, feature in this floral and slightly freaky pet-nat. It’s also made without added sulphur—rare in Canadian wine-making. $29, drinkcollab.ca
