Finally! A Win for Tradition

Over the years we have seen tradition after tradition fall to the false gods of profit and efficiency. While it is not much, the European Union has reversed itself on allowing blends of red and white wines to be labeled rosé. Rosé traditionally is made as wine by itself by leaving the skins of the grapes with the juice for just a short time in order to give the wine its characteristic rose color. I don't drink a lot of rosé but it has its place and is an especially nice wine for summer with all the lighter dishes we normally prepare. Thank goodness the EU has seen the light and will preserve the traditional method. It may look like a rosé. There may be hope after all in Brussels.

The European Union, bowing to an outcry from traditional vintners, has reversed itself and decreed that the cut-rate technique of mixing red wine with white does not make an authentic rosé and thus cannot be used by Europe's winemakers.

The decision, announced Monday at the union's headquarters in Brussels, represented a victory for French winemakers who had risen up against plans by the E.U. agriculture commission to end its ban on mixing as a way to compete with down-market rosés concocted by producers in such countries as Australia and South Africa. More broadly, it was a rare retreat by the forces of globalization and profit margins in the face of resistance from traditional artisans.

"It's important that we listen to our producers when they are concerned about changes to the regulations," the union's agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, said in a communique. "It's become clear over recent weeks that a majority in our wine sector believe that ending the ban on blending could undermine the image of traditional rosé."

h/t to Chris at AmericaBlog