The world drinks more and more rosé wine, a fact that probably hasn’t escaped anyone. The rosé wine market has been revolutionized over the past 20 years. We recently listened to Gilles Masson, CEO of the Centre du Rosé in Provence, the world’s only research institute for rosé wines, at the occasion of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles’ “pairing rosé with food” competition in l’Aquila.
The rosé boom started as a fashion, he says, but is now a well-established wine style. It was consumers who drove demand in the beginning. The rosé wine was easy to drink, easy to like, unpretentious. But it was the winegrowers who ensured that the interest in rosé was kept alive by raising the quality. The work in the vineyard and the cellar changed. The modern, refreshing, pale rosé wine from Provence was created.
Consumption of rosé has increased by 40% world-wide in 15 years. Just over 11% of the consumption of still wines is rosé today.
The Centre de Rosé is now preparing for the future. Gilles says that, among other things, they experiment with grapes from warmer countries, such as the Greek agiorgitiko, moschofilero and xinomavro and the Italian nero d’avola. They do studies on ancient, local grapes and new, resistant crossings that require less spraying. “Developing new crossings takes 15-20 years”, says Gilles. “We do it for it for our children.” Who will then be able to enjoy even better rosés.
More on the Centre du Rosé: centredurose
