By Gary Parker, Owner
The WineSellar & Brasserie

September 1, 2016

The Rise of Rosé.

If you haven’t tried a good Rosé wine recently, you could be pulling up short on discovering all there is to appreciate and relish in today’s world of wine.

The production of Rosé wine is said to be the oldest style of winemaking in the world. In its truest form, Rosé is made from red wine grapes that do not spend much (if any) time soaking with the skins after crushing the grapes. Soaking the juice with the skins imparts the darker hues red wines achieve.

The reputation of Rosé wine was seriously sullied in the last few decades of the 20 th century. The stigmas attached to drinking Rosé wine in this period was led by the now-maligned White Zinfandel, as well as the sweet, unbalanced gallon jug wines. And don’t forget the old bag-in- the-box wines you purchased from your local supermarket.

Wine drinkers who have associated today’s Rosé wines with these blasts from the past are becoming fewer and fewer. Today, we are trending towards high quality Rosé wines that are dry, light, crisp, refreshing, and some even share the complexities found in fine red wines.

This will mark the tenth year in a row that across the globe, and in our own nation, sales of Rosé wine are blasting off the charts showing a 20% increase in this time. Sales of Rosé have jumped 250% in England, and 750% in Sweden.

There are some very good reasons for this surge in sales:

• First off, prices for really good Rosé, as they are typically under $20 per bottle.
• They’re ideal summer wine for picnics, around the pool, or sneaking to the beach.
• Matching Rosé wines with food is a breeze. They complement all sorts of cheese, appetizers, fruits (apple, pear, watermelon, strawberry, figs with cheese) composed salads, Chinese food, spicy foods, and sushi.

In reinforcing this movement, we see Hollywood celebrities getting into the act. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are producing a beautiful Rosé from Southern France called Miraval. Drew Barrymore is also producing a fine Rosé with her Barrymore Wines label.

Some wine producers have even resorted to making elaborate package designs, to include beautifully shaped bottles and labels, targeted specifically to emphasize reinvigorated quality and prestige of the wine. There are a half-dozen Rosé wines fetching over $100 a bottle!

Riedel, the esteemed crystal stemware producer, now has a wine glass made specifically to enhance the fragrance and tastes of Rosé wine.

Finally, men in the US, Brazil, Russia, and Australia are embracing Rosé in what is being dubbed the “Bro-sé” phenomenon.