ROSÉ WINE: NOT A SEASONAL WINE

Summer is the best season to drink rosé.

Really?

Swimming pools, pool parties, rosé, pink flamingos. Rosé is now a life style. When we talk about rosé, the association with summer is immediate.

This is because drinking red wine in summer summer with the hot temperatures is unpleasant (and here we could talk a lot about the serving temperatures) in favor of a fresh rosé. Pink wine is simple to drink, has a relatively lower cost than red wine and for this reason it may be considered more suitable for the summer.

The myth of rosé as a summer wine was born in Provence in the twentieth century with the increase in tourism in the area. The French and tourists spent their summers in Provence whose most famous wine is the rosé. The pairing is done quickly. Rosé is the summer wine. This idea took root in the mind of the consumer who began to see rosé as a summer wine.

We should consider even the fact that  30 years ago rosé was considered a less prestigious wine. The winemaking techniques were not the best. Rosé wine could not last more than 1 year because it was produced with that purpose. The rosé did not have a long life. Bottled in Spring, the time to appreciate it at its best was within autumn, perhaps frozen.

For 20 years the winemaking techniques, the vocation of some territories and the will of the producers to produce great interpretations of rosé wine have made rosé longer-lived. It is not uncommon to find aged rosé wines even 10 years old. There are rosés that have made barriques, mature and are more complex than usual.

Things are changing now. These myths are slowly disappearing in favor of a more conscious and genuine consumption of rosé wine. In America it is also possible to find articles from important newspapers which have the title “Make Rosé your new winter wine”.

Rosé is a wine with its own identity, which spans seasons and vintages. It is good for lunch, dinner and as an aperitif. A wine that can be the basis for cocktails. A wine that can be drunk in front of the fireplace.

In Provence, an excellent job is being done to promote rosé wine. The investments are huge and the results are visible. In Provence, tasting a rosé from a previous vintage has a higher cost than that of the current vintage.

It is not a wine to drink only on Valentine’s Day, a historical period of the year in which rosé wines have a boom.

I invite you to taste wines from previous vintages, to appreciate rosé in winter, drunk not frozen but at a higher temperature. Rosé can also be drunk at 14 C. Try it and run the risk of falling in love by challenging the unfounded prejudices about this wine.