Rosé wines are not a mixture of white wine and red wine; such a practice would not, in fact, be permitted by law. Rosé wine is, to all intents and purposes, a category of wine, which can be produced in 3 ways. The first method is to start off with black grapes and carry out rosé vinification: with the skins in contact with the liquid part in fermentation for just a few hours. Then, the slightly pink liquid is fermented without the skins, as though it were a white wine. The second method for making a rosé wine is linked to the production of red wine and is also known as "saignée” (from the French “to bleed). After fermentation with the skins of black grapes has started to make a red wine, part of the liquid is “bled off” so that the components derived from the skins and seeds (i.e., colour and tannin) are concentrated in the remaining liquid. The liquid removed is rather pale, so by continuing fermentation in a separate vat it becomes a rosé wine. There is the third method, which involves vinifying black and white grapes together. In this case, the aforementioned grapes are pressed and fermented together. Since the colour of the wine comes from the skins, this is like mixing red and white poster paint on an artist's palette, and produces a shade of orange, the strength of which depends on the proportion of the two colours.

Rosé wine is traditionally a product of different regions of Italy. On the shores of Lake Garda, rosé is called 'Chiaretto' and is produced with Groppello (in Lombardy) or Corvina (in Veneto). In Abruzzo the rosé is called ‘Cerasuolo’ and is made with Montepulciano grapes. In Apulia the famous rosé wines are made in Salento (Salice Salentino DOC) made from the Negroamaro grape variety, but the rosés made with Bombino nero - the grape variety used for Castel del Monte Bombino Nero DOCG - are also excellent.