You know you're not a wine snob when your wine comes with instructions. Especially this instruction: Serve over ice.
It may sound like a Borscht Belt punch line, but in England of all places, birthplace of the wine snob, it ironically could serve as a motto for the next big tippling trend.
No fewer than three South African wineries began targeting English cities this year with rosés crafted specifically to taste better as ice melts into the glass. And, hold on to your smoked-salmon blinis, champagne house Piper-Heidsieck has also begun promoting the idea to Britons of serving bubbly on the rocks.
Yes, wine on the rocks.
Though produced in South Africa, the rosé brands were dreamed up by enterprising English distributors seeking to tap young, female pub-goers. Increasingly, British youth have been eschewing the tepid ale kegs of their parents and embracing alternatives that might be described as cooler in more ways than one.
"It's surprising how many people we found since launching this who say they put ice in their wine," said Anthony Fairbank, a partner in Off-Piste Wines in Gloucestershire, England, which makes one of the rosés, called Frozé, launched in May.
While wine drinkers have surreptitiously plopped a cube or two of ice into their pinot grigios and gamays since the invention of patio parties, the main thing that distinguishes the new rosés is the winemaking.
The grapes were crushed and fermented specifically with the intention of mixing with ice. Most notably, the wines are more concentrated and darker, with more of an electric-red colour than a pale-strawberry hue, and slightly sweeter than the typically off-dry rosés popular with wine novices, such as a white zinfandel or rosé d'Anjou.
"It does work if you've got enough residual sugar in it; that's the key," said Paul Letheren, Off-Piste's managing director.
If you're scandalized by the mere idea, think of the new rosés as sangria without the fuss.
Mr. Letheren says he and Mr. Fairbank crafted the final blend for Frozé with the help of second-year design students in Sheffield who worked on the company's labels. The basic rosé style the students preferred was rosé d'Anjou, a relatively sweet wine from France's Loire Valley, which typically carries a residual sugar level of 18 to 20 grams per litre. (A "dry" wine usually contains less than 2 grams per litre, while some dessert wines can contain 250.)
Once he started diluting the rosé d'Anjou with ice, it began to taste not only thinner but significantly drier. The reason: cold enhances the palate's perception of acidity, and acidity counterbalances sweetness.
Mr. Letheren and Mr. Fairbank settled on a final sugar level of 23 grams per litre. "When you put the ice in, it really does genuinely make it drier," Mr. Letheren said.
The other big difference between the new rosés, which sell for the equivalent of about $10 to $12, and wines you may have defiled with ice in the past is the explicit packaging. Frozé's label features shiny snowflakes and the tagline: "The refreshing fruity pink wine that's very nice ON ICE."
Another brand, Couture by Stormhoek, is labelled with a similar tagline, "Magic Over Ice." The words are printed along the bottom of a colourfully striped, fashion-conscious label. The central graphic depicts four glasses - a champagne flute, wine stem, highball tumbler and martini glass - with a cube of ice suspended over each.
"We're trying to get people to think a bit laterally," said Mike Paul, managing director of London-based Orbital wines, which owns the Stormhoek brand. "It's not just about selling this wine at £7 and that wine at £5, but to get people to drink in different ways."
