HOW I MAKE LA ROSITA

Like La Pamelita, La Rosita is a quality sparkling wine (VINO ESPUMOSO DE CALIDAD ) to use the spanish term made using the traditional method or, as it used to be, called the champagne method where the process of making the wine fizzy (SECONDARY FERMENTATION) takes place in the very same bottle that you buy in the shop. I have explained the process with photos in La Pamelita Winemaking section so here I will explain the different initial winemaking practices.

Red wines come from red grapes but more specifically red wine colour comes from red grape skins since the actual pulp of red grapes is clear or translucent in almost all varieties except for the small group of staining or tinting grapes with red pulp such as Tintorera. The traditional way to make a rosé wine is to only allow a relatively short contact time between liquid grape juice and grapeskins after crushing. For La Rosita , as for La Pamelita, I use the variety MONASTRELL as I love the fruit flavours and colour this variety has.

The grapes are picked late September or early October and in the winery they are destemmed, crushed and chilled to 12ºC whilst being pumped to a small stainless steel tank and this mixture is left to infuse. Because the temperature is low, no fermentation by indigenous wild yeasts should occur and the colour from the grape skins leaches out, staining the initially colourless grape juice. After 24hours skin contact , grape juice with a lively dark pink hue is drawn off from the skins to a separate stainless steel tank. This rosé juice is then cleaned up by the addition of minute quanties of pectolytic enzymes and the resultant solids produced are allowed to settle at the bottom of the tank before the bright juice is decanted (racked) to a different tank for fermentation.

This grape juice is inoculated with a selected yeast strain and the fermentation temperature is held at 16ºC so that the rich fruit flavours are not lost. When the base wine is dry ( ie all the sugar in the grape juice has been converted to alcohol) the wine is chilled to 8ºC and then racked to a second tank leaving any heavy yeast sediment behind. Once the wine is made, it is important to protect it from oxidation, the process whereby air can enter a wine and damage its delicate flavours. The wine is protected by the addition of a little sulphur dioxide and it must be stored in full tanks.

The base wine is now ready to be "TIRAGED" to make it sparkling in exactly the same way as detailed in the La Pamelita winemaking process.
Most rosé sparklings are left only the minimum legal time on yeast lees ( 9 months) but with more time (La Rosita 1998 was tiraged in July 1999 so has had a minimum of 50 months on yeast lees) nutty nougatty flavours develop alongside the wild strawberry and other fruit driven flavours notes complexing the wine and softening the slightly acidic palate to something more round and creamy.

When the resultant sparkling wine is ready for disgorging, trials are carried out to see how much sugar should be added back in the form of expedition liqueur. Since the base wine has been fermented without the presence of grape skins, La Rosita is nowhere near as tannic as La Pamelita and therefore less expedition liqueur is needed to balance the wine. The current 1998 vintage has a 12-14g / litre sugar addition which means it is classified as "BRUT".

When a wine has been made, a name has to be found for the wine and its packaging designed. I have named the wine La Rosita in honour of my youngest niece, Rosie whose photos feature here. La Rosita has its own distinctive placa or disc - a stylised pink rose is its logo and this same rose is featured on the label. Again Jordi Benito is thanked for his original drawing.