Rosé ‘Hampton Water’, Gérard Bertrand, Languedoc

This collaboration between Jon and Jesse Bon Jovi and Gérard Bertrand is all about enjoying life and having a good bottle of wine to share with friends. Made in the Languedoc, it is a reflection of the Southern French attitude and Gérard Bertrand’s wine-making expertise, while paying tribute to the glamorous Hamptons lifestyle. A skin contact,  pale pink wine with fresh zesty citrus notes and a touch of red berry and spice.

Food Pairing – a stunning aperitif or perfect with salads, sushi or grilled fish.

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.