With summer right around the corner, it is time to make sure you have a bottle of rosé chilling in the fridge.  While a rosé is worth drinking anytime of the year, the watermelon hue and fruity aromas are enhanced on a hot, sunny summer day.

It is a delicious wine style. Yes, it is a style, not a grape variety. And there are three main ways to make this wine, the first two being most common.

• Skin Contact – As you know, wine gets its color from the skin of the grape.  So during this process, a batch of red grapes will be crushed and you’ll leave the fruit and juice in the tank for a few days.  After achieving the desired hue and taste, the grapes are pressed and the juice is separated from the skins (which are usually discarded at this time) and will be fermented.
• Saignée or Bleeding –  This is the most common method.  As a winemaker is making a red wine, usually a more concentrated red,  they’ll extract a small amount of pink juice into a separate tank.  They’ll ferment this separately to make the rosé.  In addition, this process will leave them with a concentrated red because of the higher skin-to-juice ratio.
• Blending –  The third, and least traditional method, comes from blending a red and white wine.  This process is most common in Champagne, although even today it is rarely being used there.

After learning about how rosé is made, its time to start drinking.  But first, there are a couple things to know when drinking pink.  Part of its charm is that it is food-friendly.  Whether you are planning a picnic or a gourmet surf-n-turf, a rosé can handle it all.  Also, what makes it the best summertime drink is that it tastes best chilled.  So chill a bottle,  sip back and relax – poolside!

Try the 2012 Canihan Rose! With its beautiful deep pink color and flavors of strawberry, white peach and cherry, you will be going to the ice bucket for more.  Find it 25% off at MyWineDeal.com.