Rosé sparkling wine

Two ways to make it

• Rosé d'assemblage. White and red wine are blended before tirage. See rosé d'assemblage.
• Skin contact. Juice of black grapes takes colour from the skins, by saignée or maceration. The AOC Champagne specification also lists direct pressing.

Champagne permits all of these. Its specification (IX.2.a) allows rosé by direct pressing, maceration or saignée, or "par assemblage, avant tirage, de vins blancs et rouges".¹

The EU rule on blending

Regulation (EU) 2019/934, Article 8(1), says that coupage of a non-PDO/PGI white wine with a non-PDO/PGI red wine cannot produce a rosé wine.² The next subparagraph says the ban does not exclude such coupage when the product is intended for the preparation of a cuvée, as defined in EU law, or for the production of semi-sparkling wine.^2,6 In EU law a cuvée is the must, wine or blend intended for making a specific type of sparkling wine.⁶

This exemption is general. It applies to any cuvée for sparkling wine, not only to Champagne. The ban itself is worded for wines without PDO or PGI; for a PDO wine the permitted methods are set by its own product specification.² Champagne's permission to blend white and red therefore comes from its cahier des charges, not from a special EU exception.¹

Rules in some appellations

Sources: Champagne,¹ Cava,³ Franciacorta,⁴ Crémant.⁵

Champagne itself may be only white or rosé.¹ For red sparkling wine see sparkling red.