Rose wine is NOT a blend of white and red wine

There is a lot of fuss currently in the European wineworld for plans that the European Commision has to allow rose wine to be made by blending/mixing white and red wine in stead of the traditional way of making roses that simply uses a short maceration time to achieve the rose result.

There is a petition (that I signed as well) that tries to prevent this from happening. We'll see if it will help, but it is sure worth a try.

It is interesting to look at the background of this proposal. The EC uses the fact that the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (O.I.V) already allows for blending of red and white wines to create rose and that this practice is use alot in newer wine countries.

As the process of blending is easier than making a real rose, the result is a cheaper wine and European roses cannot compete anymore. This in itself would be a more or less noble goal ...

But according to some comments that I heared on the Belgian radio there is in fact a huge overproduction of (low quality) wines in the EC and currently all this overproduction is distilled into industrial alcohol ... subsidized by the EC ...

The reasoning of the reported was that allowing blending on red and white to create cheap rose would lessen the overproduction (as more is sold) and thus cost the EC less in subsidies.

I don't know what to believe in this matter, but as usual there will be some truth in either point of view.