For the French, a glass of chilled blush rosé was once considered a delicate but not entirely serious “swimming pool drink”; a summer apéritif for lightweight, often female, tipplers.
Real wine lovers would select a red heavy with tannins, or a traditional white – both considered the true expression of French terroir, the untranslatable concept encompassing not just the soil in which the vines grow but also the natural, geological climatic and cultural elements associated with it.
But tastes are changing. Sales of red wine in France are declining. Drinkers are turning to lighter, lower alcohol wines, but what has surprised winemakers most of all is the rise of rosé, now enjoying year-round popularity.
Even former president Nicolas Sarkozy – who has reportedly never let a drop of alcohol pass his lips – and his wife, Carla Bruni, have joined the fashion. The power couple recently launched a rosé wine called Roseblood from their Château d’Estoublon vineyard in the Bouches-du-Rhône, acquired last year.
While bottles of red remain the jewel in France’s global winemaking crown and 40% of annual production, domestic demand has plummeted to half of what it was in the 1990s. Industry experts say people eating less meat and drinking less alcohol means there are fewer occasions calling for a bottle of red.
Independent winemaker Thomas Montagne, whose Luberon vineyard in southern France produces red, white and rosé wines, said: “In the 1990s we had the ‘French paradox’, where studies showed that red wine was good for your health. Now people, especially the young, are turning to rosé wines, which are easier to drink, contain fewer tannins and feel more festive.”
The French have noted a general decline in their wine drinking for decades. The national committee of wine professionals, the CNIV, reported in 2019 that average wine consumption was now 40 litres per person per year compared with 100 litres in 1975. Almost 38m hectolitres (830m gallons) of wine are produced in France each year. After reds are whites at 29% of bottles, rosés at 19% and champagne and sparkling wine at 12%.
A 2022 survey by pollsters Kantar found 18- to 35-year-olds less interested in wine than previous generations, with 47% of wine drunk by those over 55. Only 7% was drunk by 18- to 24-year-olds and 21% by 25- to 39-year-olds. The survey also found red wine drinking had dropped by almost a third in the previous decade when other studies showed meat-eating had dropped by 12% in France.
Burgundy vineyards now produce half as much red wine as they did 20 years ago but have increased white wine production, a spokesperson for regional winemakers told the Observer.
But it is the popularity of rosé that is raising eyebrows. “Rosé was often regarded as the wine of the swimming pool but in the last few years it’s been drunk not just in summer but all year round. I was surprised to discover it was being drunk in winter,” the spokesperson said.
“The drop in the popularity of red wine is due to an erosion of clientele – with people drinking less overall – and because the occasions to do so are disappearing. The younger generations are eating less meat and shunning reds in favour of whites or rosés.”
Contrary to the myth that it is produced by mixing red and white wines – illegal in French wine production – the colour of rosé is a result of the vinification process. The length of time the red grapes are macerated gives red and rosé wines their colour. For red wines, black grapes are left to macerate longer. The process is the same for rosé except the fruit is left for less time, giving a lighter colour.
Around 42% of French rosés are produced in the Provence region and, while exports are growing, most is consumed by domestic drinkers.
Brice Eymar, director general of the Conseil interprofessionnel des vins de Provence, the group that represents regional wine growers, said rosés were shaking off their image as an industry lightweight.
“Because it is a wine drunk during the holidays, this has stuck in the head of consumers. But Provence has fought hard to enlarge the period in which it is drunk. Rosé is not just for summer,” he told French radio.
Montagne, however, thinks the taste for rosé has peaked. “I think we have seen sales of rosé wines plateau. For the last five or six years sales of white wines have risen,” he said. He believes red and white wines are the true expression of French terroir and the decline in popularity of red wines reflects a change in French and European culture, which he regrets.
“People no longer sit down to family meals, and campaigns against alcoholism have hit quality wines in favour of beers,” he said. “But it makes no sense, because wines are generally drunk at mealtimes while young people drink beer all day long.”
On a lighter note, he said: “Wine is meant to be drunk for pleasure. Of course there is an art and an aesthetic to it, but what will kill the industry is taking it all too seriously.”
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