Wine Word of the Week: Blush
By Kori ~ November 14th, 2009.
This week’s Wine Word of the Week is blush.
Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine:
Blush wine is a very pale pink popular American specialty made, rather like France’s vin gris, by using black-skinned grapes as if to make white wine. A marketing triumph emanating from California in the late 1980s (the name was originally coined by Mill Creek winery but the style was promulgated by Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home), it differs from rosé mainly in ethos rather than substance, having become fashionable just when and where rosé was losing its market appeal (although a blush wine is likely to be perceptibly paler than a rosé). …. Most are sweet, vaguely aromatic, and faintly fizzy.
Layman’s terms from Kori:
Blush wine is made from red grapes in a white wine style. Most often found in North America, blush wines are generally semi-sweet. While made in a similar style to rosé wines, blush wines are typically lighter in color and sweeter. The most well-known blush wine is White Zinfandel.
Filed under: Wine Word of the Week
😉 not a blush fan, but great to hear the explanation. Thanks for the twitter follow – I added you to my blog roll!
Josh
http://www.drinknectar.com
@nectarwine
Josh,
I’m not a blush fan either but there is definitely a market for it out there. Thanks for adding us to your blogroll. We’ve added you to ours as well. Cheers!