EU abandons plan to allow blended rose wine

The European Union says it has dropped a plan to allow wine makers mix red and white wines to make rose.

EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said regulators would heed calls from wine producers and would keep the current ban on blending.

Wine makers feared that the new rules would undermine the high-quality image of rose.

Blending is a cheaper way of making rose than the methods most European producers use -- mixing white wine with crushed red grape skins for a short while or adding a red juice that they get from bleeding red wine vats.

The blending ban doesn't apply to Spanish wines or to high-quality champagne producers who mix the two to make pink bubbly. There is no ban on selling blended rose wine from outside Europe.