Domaine Claude Riffault Sancerre ‘La Noue’ Rosé

This Domaine Claude Riffault Sancerre ‘La Noue’ Rosé is a 100% organic and biodynamic wine made from Pinot Noir. Sancerre, in the Loire Valley, is mainly known for its steely whites but the rosé it produces are just as tasty. Made by a combination of the Saignée and skin contact method (explainer below) this rosé is light in colour but heavy on flavour, some delightful raspberry and strawberry notes with a touch of cranberry. A long fruity, stoney finish rounds off this intense rose.

Food Pairing – perfect served ice-cold on a hot summer’s day. With a creamy goats cheese salad it’s brilliant too!

How is rosé made?

There are three different ways a rosé can be made; skin contact, saignée or by blending.

The skin contact method is the most common globally. To make a skin contact rosé you start in the same way you would if you wanted to make a red wine. You harvest the grapes, bring them to the winery and pop them in the pressing machine. Gently press them so the grapes burst, and the juice is released. To make a rosé you leave the skins in contact (hence the name) with the juice for up to 24 hours, depending on how dark you want the rosé to be, then remove the skins to stop anymore colour seeping into the wine. If was going to be red wine you’d leave the juice in contact with the skins for up to 2 weeks.

The Saignée method or ‘bleeding’ is when you make a red wine but remove or ‘bleed’ off a portion of the juice after only a few hours and ferment it separately.

Finally, we have blending, which is exactly what you’d think it is. First, you make a white wine and then add up to 5% of red wine. This isn’t very common for still rosé wine but standard practise in sparkling wine regions like champagne.