Scratch and sniff rosé launched

Hoping to ride the pink wine wave, a California rosé with a watermelon-scented scratch and sniff label has gone on sale in the US.

Sold by Winc.com for US$15 a bottle, the watermelon dotted label releases the scent of the fruit when scratched, and echoes the aroma of the wine inside.

“The fun starts before you open the bottle. Smelling the fragrant watermelon will make you want to pop it open immediately,” Winc claims.

The 12.5% pink from the 2017 vintage is made from Barbera and has notes of watermelon, honeysuckle, rhubarb, and is described by Winc as a “bright ad juicy” rosé that’s “light-bodied, dry and bursting with watermelon flavour”.

Its name – Cocomero – means watermelon in Italian. The California wine brand has been producing rosé for the last few years, but released its scratch and sniff label with the 2017 vintage.

The grapes are pressed immediately after picking and are then cold fermented in stainless steel. Food pairings include shellfish, sushi, and, of course, watermelon.

Popular in the ‘70s and ‘80s, scratch and sniff technology was created in 1965 by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company using a process called microencapsulation, which was originally developed for carbonless copy paper.

The desired smell is surrounded by microcapsules that break when gently rubbed and release the aroma, which can be preserved for a long time before the surface is scratched.