Best rosé wines beyond Provence

With so much rosé around the world trying to emulate the Provence-style, by which most producers mean a pale pink dry wine, it can be difficult to evaluate what makes a rosé ‘not from Provence’ a good wine.

Should they be given a pat on the back for achieving a wine which is identical to those of Provence? Or should praise be given to rosés which achieve a sense of individual terroir and varietal identity?

The vast majority of rosés are made in much the same way: harvested a little earlier than the red wines, chilled, gently pressed and steel tank-fermented.

Cooler fermentation temperatures and a particular choice of yeasts determine a fruitier character, while more complexity can arise from warmer fermentation temperatures (18°C and over).

Bottling is often immediate, but a few months on the lees with varying amounts of batonnage will impart a soft roundness to the wine.

Scroll down to see 20 top rosés from around the world

A wealth of choice and style

A rise in quality in rosé production globally has given rise to more confident winemaking and greater exploration of their own individual style.

Cooler sites, higher altitudes (the Tibetan rosé is produced at 2,000m) and old vines (northern Spain in particular) are all important points of difference.

And while Grenache still dominates the statistics, producing rosés across southern France, northern Spain and parts of Italy, many more varieties, with their own taste profile, can be found.

Small-scale producers, their wines often found in smaller independent wine merchants, are liberated from the high volume commercial constraints of producing Provence-style, and are often highly imaginative in their interpretation of pink wine.

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Market demands are still dictating how many rosés are made, resulting in many producers making several, totally different, styles of rosé: one for the local market often made in a more traditional, fuller bodied, darker style; one for export – usually paler Provence-style – fresh, fruity and gastronomic, and some styles often oaked or with some age.

Increasingly, retailers are looking at moving all rosés from one shelf to displaying by region or separating styles.

Elevation and diversity

Raising the glass ceiling as far as pricing goes has certainly benefited the quality and diversity of rosé. With Sacha Lichine at Château d’Esclans in Provence and Gérard Bertrand at Clos du Temple both breaking the price barrier, the race is no longer confined to who can produce the best and cheapest pale pink wine.

Varieties once reserved for premium red wines are now being reconsidered for rosé. This has been helped by the market move towards lighter and fresher reds and darker, more robust rosé, with dark glass bottles increasingly being used as an indicator of serious rosés.

Expect a greater number of diverse and interesting rosés to increasingly appearing on the scene (there are large numbers of small volume experimental wines being produced such as the Agthoto from Kir Yiannis).

New generations of winemakers are also coming on the scene, eager to try out new ideas. Even in the rosé bastion of Provence there are young producers trying out different styles and methods.

Classics still exist. Longer macerated rosés from Tavel with their blend of numerous southern Rhône varieties, Grenache-based Navarre rosés and the Pinot Noir rosés from Rosé de Riceys.

Local varieties with the ability to deal well with hotter, drier summers are becoming increasingly attractive to winemakers. Corsica’s mineral-laden fresh rosés made with Niellucciu (Sangiovese) and Sciaccarellu varieties.

Negroamaro and Gropello in Puglia, Nerello Mascalese in Sicily, Xinomavro and Agiorgitiko in Greece, Tinta Cão and Rufete in the Douro (in fact Portugal has an over-abundance of interesting varieties), Teran in Istria, Wildbacher in Styria…

Rise of the barrel

More oxidative winemaking can make for richer and more complex rosé. Oak-aged rosé is not limited to Provence, although the use of oak does not guarantee a premium wine if it otherwise lacks extraction, ripeness and body.

When done well, oak-aged rosés are worth looking out for (and acacia barrels are also growing in popularity). Famous examples include high-altitude Reserva and Gran Reserva Rioja rosés (perhaps most famously the Viña Tondonia rosé from R López de Heredia), and Gerard Bertrand’s Clos du Temple in the Languedoc.

The use of amphora and cement is also increasing, giving texture without losing the fruit freshness.

The good news is that despite the growth in Provence-style rosés, there is also a growing number of exciting and different approaches to rosé just waiting to be discovered from around the world. The biggest obstacle, however, can be finding these wines…

Top tips for buying rosé

When it comes to drier rosés, be careful of suspiciously low-alcohol levels. This can indicate unripeness. The wines may have crunchy acidity, but the silky ripeness, like that present in Provence rosé, is rarely found under 13% alcohol in warm climates.

Don’t be afraid of dark rosés. They can indicate a wine with great character which can double up as a light summer red.

With so many different styles to choose from, rosé wines can make excellent matches for a range of dishes. For example, the sweet Loire rosés pair well with melon and Parma ham, goat’s cheese salad, and it’s one of the few wines that goes well with tomatoes.

Elizabeth Gabay MW’s 20 top rosés from around the world:

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