As the earth turns, seasons change. Despite this year’s illusion of endless winter, my daffodil bulbs are showing their heads almost on schedule—as is my mighty, springtime thirst for beautiful, crisp, pale pink rosé wines.
At a recent Wines of Provence media luncheon tasting at Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery in Manhattan, I was reminded of how enticingly quaffable the rosé wines from the south of France have become, as they have grown in quality and popularity over the past two decades.
Ever since the Greeks brought wine grapes there in 600 BC, the hot, windy, dry climate has favored red grape varieties—such as cinsault, syrah, grenache, mourvèdre and carignan, all of which have clear juice that, when picked early enough to retain their acidity under the scorching sun, can be blended into pale pink wines with more stability and finesse than their clumsier white or red counterparts.
Although coarse red wines, often mixed with water, were once the daily beverage in the south of France, developments in the international wine trade have reconfigured Provence’s vineyards and wineries to the point that, today, 88½ percent of wines from Provence are rosé, while only 8 percent are red, and 3½ percent white.
The United States is the biggest export market for Provence’s rosés, with the quantity increasing from 146,000 liters in 2003 to an ocean of nearly 3.7 million liters in 2013. The dollar value of Provençal rosé in America increased 48 percent in 2013 alone, which is probably why the PR reps from Provence treated us humble wine journalists at Lafayette to that absolutely spectacular luncheon, designed to complement an array of three dozen glistening pink wines.
The meal was an ode to springtime, with plump mussels, squid, shrimp, octopus, herbs and chickpeas bathed in olive oil, followed by tiny new artichokes with niçoise olives and arugula, steamed halibut in lemon verbena sauce with pristine baby peas, and a finale (for the one red wine served) of cheeses with dried fruit compote. (I know, artichokes do something to the taste buds that makes them insensible to wine’s finer points. But the chef couldn’t resist serving them and the PR team ran around and poured a lusty white Provençal “rolle,” known here as vermentino, that reset our palates for more delicate rosés.)
Our host at the tasting, Provence Wine Council Director Francois Millo, emphasized the distinctive qualities of rosé wines from the south of France. There, rosé is made “on purpose” using red-skinned grape varieties that are macerated for only a few hours to extract the requisite amount of pale color into the otherwise clear juice. This is in contrast to techniques used in many other regions, either blending white and red wine, or bleeding a fraction of pale wine from a red wine fermentation in order to concentrate the red wine and gain rosé as a side product.
Today, large infusions of capital investment for modern technology—including night-harvested fruit, temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel and use of inert gas to protect the juice from oxidation—have taken the quality of Provence’s wines to another level. Most importantly, these are dry wines, fermented to contain little or no residual sugar. The growing preference for dry rosé is evidenced by the decline in the market for “blush” wines—off nearly 7 percent from 2012 to 2013, while all premium rosés grew more than 70 percent in the same period.
The best of the rosés from Provence balance vivacious acidity with delicate fruit and floral aromas. Of the wines I tasted, I especially enjoyed the energetic Sables d’Azur Rosé, made by Château Gassier right at the foot of Mont Sainte-Victoire, a view made famous by Cézanne; the strangely salty and textured Arbaude Rosé from nearby Mas de Cadenet; and the refined Cuvée Minotaure, with its hints of wild herbs from the Domaine de Grandpré estate at the base of the Massif des Maures.
Long Island has its own “rosé on purpose,” most notably, the all-rosé line of wines made by Croteaux Vineyards in Southold. The Croteaux family has styled its wines for Long Island’s casual seaside lifestyle, using the rosés of Provence as their model but adapting grape varieties—merlot, cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc—most suited to our climate. As they explain, “While the grape varietals we grow may be different, the lifestyle and rhythms of the seasons are undeniably similar. Each year when we release our Rosé, it is permission to start thinking of approaching warmer days and the relaxation that comes with them.”
In case you needed permission to relax, voila and vive rosé!
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