Think pink...... Think Albariño!

Two new products in one week is probably too much for some, but I guess it's just that time of year in our bodega - when we finally start to 'roll out' the wines of the new vintage.

This latest addition is however, quite a revelation..... an Albariño Rosada (rosé). Earlier this year, when we were studying the demonination rules for making our 'sobre lias' wine, we stumbled across some old documents relating to the production of rosé. As you may or may not be aware, there are already a couple of red wines made here in the Rias Baixas area, using grape varieties such as Caiño Tinto and Mencìa. On their own, not always very exciting, and often a little expensive, but they do have much greater potential when it comes to blending - the word 'blending' being very significant here.

Nearly every rosé wine is made by taking red grapes, crushing them, and then leaving the skins in contact with the juice for a short time, to macerate and extract a little colour. (I love the expression that the Americans use for this when they make their Zinfandel, calling it a 'blush' wine). There is however, another method, formerly used in Champagne making I think - simply blending a little red into their white wine to make it pink. This blending is the method that we have adopted for our exciting new Albariño, giving us greater opportunity to control both the exact flavour and hue of the finished wine.

By taking a little Caiño (up to 15%) and blending it with our Albariño wine, we emerge with a rather pleasing rosé wine. The marriage of red and white grapes yields an elegant, yet intensely fruity wine that finishes with just a hint of spice and the flavour of crushed strawberry - a super refreshing summer wine.

For the packaging we have named our new baby Casita Martin, and used a bright, clean, fresh image, in keeping with the wine. As it contains less than 15% of Caiño, we are still allowed to mention Albariño Rosado on the label.

We antcipate that this new product will be a big hit this summer, and will be especially popular for weddings. With my own personal interest in Photoshop I am actually contemplating personalised labels, incorporating a photo of the happy couple..... this might be a bit over ambitious, but we shall see!