Breaking down barriers: The case for rosé as a fine wine

Rosé wine — (Image credit: David Pearce)

Rosé has been the still wine success story of the last 15 years.

From being a drink that barely dared speak its name around the millennium it’s now become a staple of Friday night sofas, garden barbecues and sun-baked terraces the world over.

There are even signs that wine drinkers are beginning to accept that it’s not solely for summer.

Yet for all its progress one door remains stubbornly shut. Pinks can be good, they can be ambitious, they can be expensive.

But this is still a style that is not really considered a ‘fine wine’.

The fine wine question

The question is: Is this thinking justified? Or do we need to knock down the final barrier to entry, and think about top-end rosés the same way we do about the upper tier of reds and whites?

To begin with, it’s probably helpful to consider what actually constitutes a fine wine.

You might think – as some respected tasters do – that depth, concentration, balance and complexity in the liquid are sufficient.

Others, however, are looking for something beyond what’s simply good in the here and now.

Siobhan Turner MW spends a lot of time cataloguing and verifying fine wines in top-end investment cellars.

‘The ability to age is a fundamental characteristic of fine wine,’ she says. ‘Whether people are investing for future profit or pleasure, they need to know it will be as good or better in 10 years’ time.’

It’s a point that’s echoed by Nick Pegna, global head of wine and spirits at auction house Sotheby’s.

Tellingly, outside rosé Champagne he says there are no pink wines attracting big money at auction. Some experts cite Viña Tondonia’s Gran Reserva rosé but largely draw a blank thereafter.

So, if ageability is the key to fine wine and there are essentially few if any still fine wine pinks, does this mean that, ipso facto, rosé is inherently unable to age?

Ageing ambition

There are, perhaps, two separate questions here: firstly, do rosés that are designed to drink young fall over faster than their red or white equivalents; and secondly, what happens when wineries attempt to make more long-lived drinks?

Let’s start with the ‘young wines’ first. This, clearly, is where the vast majority of rosé sits: fresh, bright wines with purity favoured over complexity for speedy consumption.

This description, however, is not unique to rosé. Most red and white wines are also aged for no longer than it takes to drive them back from the supermarket.

The difference is that, while most of us are happy to sit on even fairly cheap red and white wines for a year or two without agonising too much about their drinkability, we tend to be much more wary of cutting pinks the same slack.

So, are we right? Not according to rosé guru Liz Gabay MW. For mid-priced pinks (say, £12+), she says that most tasters: ‘Will not be able to taste the difference between a rosé that is six months old and one that is three years old – and if they do (storage conditions notwithstanding), they will prefer the older one.’

That said, there is a big difference between your typical ‘swimming pool’ rosé which can age, and the small number of more ambitious pinks which are designed to.

Most commercial rosé is made with freshness and aroma in mind: cool fermentation, stainless steel and (often) aromatic yeasts.

Rosé designed for ageing is more about building breadth and texture: warmer fermentations, slightly longer maceration, controlled oxidation and time on lees. Time in oak, though rare, is becoming more common, too.

Château d’Esclans’ Garrus is perhaps the lodestar of the style and has helped make rosé a credible (if pricey) food-match option in top-end restaurants.

Rosé-nomics

The biggest mindset shift, however, when it comes to making top, ageable rosé might need to happen not in the winery, but in the vineyards.

Typically, rosés come from younger vines or less prestigious parcels. In the past, higher yielding vineyards were even seen as beneficial for rosé, since the lower levels of flavour helped to guarantee delicacy in the wine.

However, none of these factors work for creating top-end pinks, which will need fruit with deeper levels of flavour and structure if they are to last more than a few years.

As for reds and whites, top rosés will need top vineyards and, ideally, old vines.

This is where economics comes into play. Since it is picked, vinified, bottled and shipped out in not much more than six months, young rosé is good for wineries’ cash flow.

But reds and whites from top vineyards typically sell for a higher price than their pink equivalent would.

So it’s understandable that wineries are hesitant to use their best sites for making rosé.

Using your top vineyards for a wine that you can’t easily charge extra for is a tough sell to your bank manager.

In Les Riceys, Champagne’s most southerly area, yields for the still Rosé de Riceys wines are far lower than for sparkling rosé, but even very good bottles sell for less than the fizz.

The secret fine wine

And this, perhaps, is the real issue facing rosé when it comes to fine wine status.

A recent tasting in London showcased a range of serious pinks between five and 30 years to some of the wine world’s most prestigious palates.

There was complexity, nuance and evident longevity – the tasters were impressed.

But however wonderful the wines, until they attract the price tags and hype to go with their quality and ambition, numbers are likely to remain low.

Unlike for Bordeaux, Burgundy, Tuscany et al. there are no first growths, no en primeur campaign to help drive cashflow and pique interest, and not enough big names to generate critical mass.

There needs to be the same conversation about top rosé vineyards that there is for reds and whites.

These things may come in time – possibly in the relatively near future.

But until then, top-end rosé is a labour of love for the truly committed producer, and a secret worth exploring for wine drinkers in the know.

Four OLDER rosés for you to try

Garrus 2022, Château d’Esclans, Côtes de Provence, France

Pale it might be, but, coming as it does from a single vineyard of 100-year-old Grenache vines and Vermentino, this is a wine of concentration, breadth and complexity. Oak fermented and aged, it has flavours of creamy white peach and spicy – even slightly salty notes. A versatile food-matching wine for at least the next five years.

14.5% abv

Nuances 2016, Château de Pibarnon, Bandol, France

A wine that pulls you in with its shimmering coppery colour, and then beguiles with layers and nuance. Rich, powerful and spicy, with flavours of dried red fruit, warm stones, ginger, bayleaf and old furniture. Despite its evident development, it still has great freshness and will age further. Will work with fish, lamb, cassoulet, tagine, even curry.

14% abv

La Forêt 2012, Domaine Alexandre Bonnet, Rosé de Riceys, France

This 100% Pinot Noir is the burnished, dusky pink of a summer sunset. Despite its age it still holds evident hedgerow flavours – raspberries and blackcurrants – but softening and merging, with a poetic overlay of violets. The spritz of acidity acts like a cooling spray. Carries its complexity almost weightlessly.

12.5% abv

Classica Gran Reserva Rosado 2009, Lopez de Haro, Rioja, Spain

If the name is familiar to eagle-eyed readers, it’s because this won Best in Show at DWWA in 2022. With four years of oak ageing and more than a decade in bottle, it is about texture, character and breadth rather than fruit. So savour its subtle flavours of dried orange peel and savoury rancio, held together by a spider’s web of acidity.