Saignée, from the French for ‘bled’ (saigner – to bleed) is a wine-making process (usually used in red wine making) where a proportion of the juice is drained (or bled) from a tank of crushed grapes. The juice that is drained off (and hence not in contact with skins for as long) is often then used to make rosé wines. The remaining juice then produces a red wine with concentrated colour and tannin – as the proportion of skins to juice has been increased by the draining off.
