Why we should all be drinking darker rosé this summer (and all year round!)

Rosé as a category needs no promotion - bucking a general downward trend in the wine sector, sales of pink wine continue to boom, and not only during the hot summer months that we’re enjoying in the northern hemisphere right now. Rosé has succeeded in becoming a year-round choice.

But let’s add a qualifier here. When we’re talking about rosé taking off in popularity, we’re talking overwhelmingly about pale rosé, whether from Provence, or from other regions seeking to cash in on the demand for the pale Provence style. Most rosé drinkers shun darker rosés – and it’s a shame, because these are some of the most interesting and tastiest rosés around!

Myth busting

World-leading expert on rosé Elizabeth Gabay MW is so passionate about darker rosés that she, and her son Ben Bernheim, are planning to write a book on the subject. ‘We’ve been championing the style for a few years now, and urging people not to judge rosé by its colour,’ she explained. ‘Many wine drinkers seek out pale rosé to the exclusion of all other rosé because they (wrongly) associate darker shades with sweetness, and believe that paler equals drier. But it’s just not true.’

So why the myth that dark rosé equals sweet rosé? Gabay explains that historically, until around 100 years ago, rosé wine was a byproduct of red wine. Juice was bled off to concentrate the red wine, and producers then added sugar to this tannic juice and sold it as rosé.

‘It’s not surprising that many people expect more deeply coloured rosé to be sweeter,’ adds Tom Fahey, owner-restaurateur of The Terrace Rooms & Wine on the Isle of Wight. ‘Think how popular the sweet white Zinfandel style was. Then Provence rosé took the market by storm, and the contrast seemed absolute.’

An education in rosé

Fahey is on the same mission as Gabay, running rosé tastings at his hotel to illustrate that there is no correlation between sweetness and shade of rosé. He encourages guests to explore all styles – pale rosé, darker rosés and extending into light reds – so that they understand the spectrum available.

‘Rosé as a category is still immature, in that drinkers expect it always to taste the same, like a single grape variety. You don’t see that with white or red wine.’ He has found it easier to sell some of his darker rosés – for example, the Señorio de Sarría Cinco recommended below – as a light red. Gabay has found the same, and the rosé that she makes in Slovakia is sold in Germany as a red wine.

Rosé colour spectrum

The shade of rosé colour in the bottle and glass will be shaped by two main factors: winemaking method and grape variety.

The longer the grape juice is in contact (or macerated) with the skins, the more colour, aroma, flavour and tannin will be extracted.

Given how ubiquitous the style is now, it’s hard to remember that pale, Provence-style rosés are a relatively recent phenomenon, dating back to the 1980s – and only made possible by technological advancements in refrigeration, cold stabilisation and sterile filtration. These wines are produced mainly using the direct press method, without extended maceration.

Winemakers in Tavel by contrast typically macerate for up to 48 hours, giving wines that are far more intense and deeper-hued. For context, in red wine production the juice macerates on the grape skins for anything from a week to over a month.

Wine gets its colour from the grape skins. Grapes with thicker skins will produce more colour in the wine than thin-skinned varieties. Hence why a rosé made from Garnacha is generally more intense than one produced from Pinot Noir, if macerated for a similar number of hours.

Beautifully joyous wines

Given the extended period of skin contact that darker rosés undergo, it’s logical to assume that you could sometimes expect to find greater varietal expression in these wines. ‘Darker rosés can be beautifully joyous wines,’ said Gabay. ‘They really bring out the fruit, but also allow some varieties to be better expressed.

‘It’s a shame that consumer demand for pale means that even very good dark rosés from regions such as Rioja, Bandol and Tavel struggle to gain traction in the market,’ she continued. ‘It’s not helped by some wine educators still perpetuating the myth that Provence rosé is always the best in the world. Much of my work involves trying to give producers the confidence to say “darker rosé is ok”, and to help them work out how best to sell it.

One ray of hope she identifies is in the Champagne category. ‘Many houses were using a yeast for their rosé cuvée that was developed to reduce the amount of colour,’ explained Gabay. ‘But in the grower Champagne world, there are lots of darker rosés emerging these days, and the growers identify themselves more with Burgundy than with Provence. Is Champagne a litmus test? Let’s hope so.’

Nine dark rosé wines to seek out:

Wines shown in descending score order

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