Rose, what the French and much of the rest of the world call rose wines are often called 'blush' or, more curiously, 'white' in the United States. The explanation for this is simple. In the late 1970's, once popular semi-sweet Portuguese pink wines such as Mateus and Lancers were going out of fashion. Rose, it seemed, was no longer flavour of the month. Red wines made from the Zinfandel grape had also lost their appeal- so much so that the producers were even uprooting their vines. Fortunately for lovers of the grape and of pink wines, the winemakers at the Sutter Home Winery cleverly created a market for both - simply by making rose Zindandel and renaming it 'white". The way rose is produced is, in fact, very similar to the method for making red wine - except for the fact that the juice is drawn from the vat it is still fermenting and before it has had the chance to draw too much colour from the skins. Winemakers then have a choice. They can either allow it to ferment only a little further before stopping the process and bottling the wine as a semi- sweet pink wine, such as Anjou rose. Or they can let it ferment completely as though it were to become a dry white. Rose made by either method is very unlikely to go into a new oak barrel, and nowadays is almost certainly fermented and stored in stainless steel tanks before being bottled within a few months of the harvest's few, highly exceptional roses improve with age. Most are best drunk as soon as they are brought. But overall Roses are now making a major come back as an easy going drink that can be enjoyed with many meals.