Rosé wine is no longer only a summer wine to be drunk on a sunny terrace, preferably in Provence. Rosé wine is actually the height of fashion. It is no longer looked down upon. It is trendy and the quality is so much better than it used to be. Of all wine regions in the world, Provence in southern France is probably the pinkest. Here almost 90 % of the wine production is rosé. And as more and more producers start to make ultra-premium rosé wines the crucial question is: Can rosé ever be a great wine?

Trendy or not, it is much easier to like rosé wines nowadays as they are both fresher and drier in style. They are more and more present on the dining table. The producers themselves recommend rosé wines with everything from Asian cuisine to charcuterie, veal and chicken. The aromas of red berries are still prevalent in rosé wines but as the structure is better and the acidity fresher they seem less juicy and more like a “real” wine.

A glass of rosé a hot summer evening (copyright Per Karlsson, BKWine Photography)

Of course, rosé wines are still considered as being quite unpretentious by most consumers. But that doesn’t mean they are easy to produce. It is technically challenging to make rosé, say many producers. You use technology from both white wine and red wine production. And to get the exact colour that you want is not as easy as one may think.

Provence produces a lot of rosé and a big part of it is also consumed there. Tourists love to drink rosé during their holidays. Spain, another sunny destination, also has a long tradition of rosado, a wine popular with tapas both among the locals and the tourists.

As I mentioned earlier,  Provence is 90 % rosé wines. Is that a bad thing?Some people seem to think so. Red and white wine producers down there are frustrated that their wines don’t get the attention they deserve. Certain wine journalists worry that Provence will never be considered a serious wine region again. But rosé wines have brought financial stability to the region. And if people are queueing to buy your rosé wine why stop making it?

Rosé is normally made from red grapes, like these in Provence (copyright Per Karlsson, BKWine Photography)

The colour is a great asset for rosé and probably one reason why people like it so much. So it is important to get the colour right. Pink is not one colour. It is hundreds of colours and shades.

Different countries have different preferences regarding the shade of pink. French consumers want really pale rosés, such as they know how to make them in Provence. Northern Europeans, Japanese and Americans used to prefer stronger colour but there seems to be a general movement in the world towards pale coloured rosés. And here the technology comes into the picture. To get the colour you want you have to know exactly when to remove the skins.