Provence or Corsica? Fruity or dry? With or without ice? Rosé wine has earned a place of choice on the French table. It’s eaten more in summer, but also seems to have become a year-round staple. So much so that France remains by far the world’s leading consumer.
Key figures:
- rosé consumption has tripled in 25 years
- Today, 1 in every 3 bottles sold is a bottle of rosé.
- 23.6 million hectolitres were consumed in France in 2019, representing 34% of worldwide consumption!
- In 2022, Provence wines exported 62 million bottles of rosé.
There are several explanations for this phenomenon.
From a global point of view :
- Post COVID, the search for moments of sharing and conviviality has naturally driven consumers towards rosé, traditionally associated with sharing and friendly, family-style communion.
From a structural point of view :
- In some French regions, global warming has brought mild temperatures from March to November.
- Changing consumer habits. We’re looking for light, refreshing, fruity, in short, easy-to-drink wines. In this context, rosé is “a wine of the living, not of the knowing”. You don’t have to be a connoisseur or have a technical vocabulary to appreciate it.
- Changing gastronomic trends have also played a role in the rise of rosé wine. Contemporary cuisine emphasizes fresh, light and flavorful dishes, which go perfectly with the character of rosé wine.
- It’s staged, it’s often advertised as the ideal place to have a drink, it’s associated with festivities and it’s almost become a decorative object on the table. Proof of this are the magnums and jeroboams of some of the top brands that take pride of place in all the “trendy” places you see on social networks.
It has also become a real economic challenge.
Faced with growing demand, many winegrowers have adapted their production to meet the market. They developed new winemaking techniques and planted more grape varieties suited to rosé wine production.
As in the rest of the wine world, to face up to global competition and stand out from the crowd, it has become necessary to move upmarket, starting with the quality of our wines.
Naturally, this has been accompanied by a spectacular rise in prices and a strategic shift on the part of the major brands, turning rosé, in some cases, into a genuine luxury product and even a social marker.
Major food and luxury goods groups, and even celebrities in need of investment ideas, have made no mistake…
… Between Château Minuty, bought by LVMH, Château Miraval, owned by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (estimated at around €200 million), Château d’Estoublon (in which the Bruni-Sarkosy couple have invested) and a host of other examples, celebrity marketing around rosé seems to be a hit.
Will this rosé craze, which in recent years seems to have become something of a fad, last over time, or, like many similar phenomena, fizzle out and fade away?
At present, it’s impossible to answer this question, but what is certain is that rosé is on the way to becoming the king of wines, rather than the wine of kings!
