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" Ros\u00E9 champagne \u2014 the drink of kings, lovers, and celebrants \u2014 goes in and out of fashion on a totally unpredictable curve. Beautiful and costly, always special and very rare, ros\u00E9 was loved by the Victorians and the Edwardians. The French boast about it with the pride of parents. The British use it for high flirtation, great celebration, and \u2014 sometimes \u2014 with royal abandon. (One legend has it that ros\u00E9 champagne was first blended for a royal wedding, to match the slippers and gowns of the bridesmaids.) And gastronomic decorators everywhere, charmed by its hue, pair ros\u00E9 champagne with lobster, salmon, shrimp, and strawberries. Far more than something to break over the prow of ships, ros\u00E9 is able to simultaneously cleanse and heighten the palate. More dry than sweet, ranging from delicate and creamy to robust and fruity, ros\u00E9 goes well with many different kinds of food, from smoked salmon to bittersweet chocolate. Sirio Maccioni knew this in 1981 when he served Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Ros\u00E9 1974 and jelly beans to President Reagan at the end of a grand dinner at New York&amp;#039;s Le Cirque. (Ros\u00E9 sales, somewhat sluggish at the time, subsequently experienced a marked rise around the country.) Remi Krug, managing director of the French champagne house (his brother, Henri, is the president and wine-maker), cautions that ros\u00E9 does not go with everything (it should never meet up with pronounced bitterness, strong acidity, alcohol, or liqueurs). He exalts in pairings in which the wine echoes the food (ros\u00E9 with strawberries) or provides a contrast (ros\u00E9 with salty caviar). The bubbles cleanse the mouth, the tannins provide body and balance, and the clarity of the wine allows the flavor of the food to come through. Ros\u00E9 is more expensive than a good comparable champagne \u2014 about 25 to 30 percent more \u2014 due to the extra steps and uncertainties involved in making it. Sparkling ros\u00E9 wines from California, although lacking the great French character, tend to be more reasonable in price. Battling the American idea that &amp;quot;pink champagne&amp;quot; is sickly sweet and d\u00E9class\u00E9, California wineries have forged ahead with production of ros\u00E9. The Schramsberg Cuv\u00E9e de Pinot Brut Ros\u00E9 1988, with bright fresh strawberry and spice aromas and a long and pleasant finish is considered a good buy with a good price. True ros\u00E9 champagne, of course, can only come from Champagne, France, where it is made according the classic m\u00E9thode champenoise. The grapes (a combination of Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay) are pressed for their juice, which is fermented, then blended, then fermented again in the bottle with the addition of liqueur de triage (sugar and yeast). The wine is capped, then aged, riddled (the bottles are turned upside down to work sediment into the neck), disgorged (the sediment is removed by freezing the bottle necks), sweetened with a dosage (wine and sugar) and, finally, corked for shipping. Developed by the monk Dom Perignon in the late 1600s, it is the most elaborate wine-making process in the world and, in the case of ros\u00E9 champagne, one of the most unpredictable. All grape juice is white, regardless of whether it comes from red or white grapes. There are two techniques to give ros\u00E9 its hue (which ranges from golden vermeil to pale peach to salmon pink to deep berry): Still red wine (usually local Pinot Noir from Bouzy) may be added just before the second fermentation. Or, the red/purple grape skins and pulp are left in contact with the must (contents of vat) for a short time. If the wrong amount of red wine is added, the cuv\u00E9e can be full of undrinkable deposits and turn a bizarre color. And if the red grape skins are left to steep too long, the champagne can turn blue or brown or orange. The wine-maker must be part scientist, part artist. Such expertise is rare. Only about three percent of all champagne production is Champagne Ros\u00E9, and the consumer must be prepared to pay accordingly. There are 110 producers of champagne in France and of those, about half ship their wines to the United States \u2014 currently the third largest export market in the world (after Germany and Great Britain). From those producers Americans have a choice of about 35 ros\u00E9 champagnes, ranging from good to extraordinary. At this time of year, with celebrations of all sorts in the offing, some people like to have a bottle of ros\u00E9 chilling in the refrigerator, waiting for a deserving moment. Bring the champagne to exactly the right serving temperature (32\u00B0F) in half an hour by immersing the bottle in a bucket of ice and water. To best enhance the champagne&amp;#039;s bouquet, effervescence and color, fill tulip glasses no more than half-full. Flutes or white wine glasses work well, too. Although one could be blissfully happy with a solo lunch of a glass of ros\u00E9 and a slice of new-wave pizza, ros\u00E9 is flirtatious enough to need people. Just two will do. This article by Suzanne Hamlin, who was inducted in 1981 into the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne at Dom Perignon&amp;#039;s Abbey of Hautvilliers, was originally published in the July 1992 issue of House Beautiful. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.housebeautiful.com/entertaining/holidays-celebrations/advice/a189/champagne-in-the-pink/>