You Don't Have to Drink Pink on Valentine's Day

At Rebelle in New York City, head sommelier Kimberly Prokoshyn is stocking more rosé Champagne and sparkling wine in anticipation of the Valentine's Day rush. "People seem to be into the 'pink' drink for the holiday," she says. Twenty blocks uptown, Maialino wine director Jenni Guizio admits she's had to "dangle the carrot of rosé Champagne on Valentine's Day" in the past, hoping people would drink Champagne at all. "I haven't finalized the wine pairings for this year, but I can assure you it will not be all pink and red!" she says.

Prokoshyn and Guizio aren't the only ones who have noticed an increased thirst for pink bubbly this time of year. The Champagne Bureau—the U.S. arm of the wine trade organization known in France as Le Comité Champagne—reports exceptional growth in sales for the rosé category over the last decade. In 2015, American consumers enjoyed over 2.9 million bottles of rosé Champagne, with a spike in interest around the Valentine's Day season. Whether it's certain brands nailing their marketing formula or the subliminal leftovers of lifetimes-worth of color association with the holiday, that seed is firmly planted in the American drinker's psyche.And there's nothing wrong with that.

Bar Boulud和Boulud Sud的Amanda Smeltz说：“没有伤害，如果这意味着要让人们喝一种通常会拒绝的葡萄酒亚搏电竞，例如大瓶红色的葡萄酒。”但这引出了一个问题：是否存在与玫瑰香槟有关的非罗斯语对方的误解？布里·罗兰（Brie Roland）（他撰写了一份葡萄酒名亚搏电竞单，在明尼阿波利斯的圣吉纳维芙（St. Genevieve）在香槟上持续很长时间。她说：“人们认为由于其颜色而有一些特别之处。”“尽管许多桃红色的香槟都带有更高的价格，但它被拟人化，有趣和浪漫，甚至更容易获得。”

So, let's review the basics. To make Champagne or sparkling wine pink, there are two methods. The first is calledSaignée(the French term for "bled"). In this scenario, the base wine soaks up pigment from the grape skins in the tank just after harvest and is then drained (or bled) off those skins before turning into a fully red wine. The second and more common method is blending, in which a little red wine is added to the white base wine before theprise de mousse(the in-bottle fermentation that gives Champagne its sparkle). The more red is added, the darker the resulting rosé will be. Note, however, that blending is common for white, or布朗克, cuvées as well. Most non-vintage Champagnes are blends of wines from different years, different vineyard parcels, and different grape varieties. Some of those wines are even whites made from red grapes, likePinot Noirand Pinot Meunier.

玫瑰香槟eit产生的her method can be delicious, minerally, mouthwatering, and festive-looking when poured into a glass, but they aren't more luxurious or more romantic than non-rosé. Nor are they necessarily sweeter or in any way more "feminine" than布朗克de blancs或者布朗克de noirs. Master of Wine Jancis Robinson once surmised that most people couldn't tell a rosé Champagne from a white one if they were wearing a blindfold.

与香槟的颜色相比，对香槟的风味更为重要的是成熟，橡木衰老和剂量。罗兰德指出：“我认为我们（作为葡亚搏电竞萄酒专业人士）在将玫瑰作为'整天，每天'葡萄酒中的葡萄酒中做得很好，而不是夏天适当的葡萄酒。”“但是我们也将香槟作为一种具有复杂性，性格和细微差别的葡萄酒，而不仅仅是亚搏电竞泡沫。我有兴趣看到客人的好奇心和与香槟的各种形式如何影响今年的情人节葡萄酒的选择。”