Rosé : Understanding the pink wine revolution | Elizabeth Gabay MW

Rosé wine is like an erupting volcano. For the past 30 years we have had smoke and rubble in the form of generic cheap rosé, but now the smoke is beginning to clear and we can see an island forming in the shape of a new, serious wine category with complexity and challenges. Its shape is not yet fixed, but now is the time to start mapping the land. Elizabeth Gabay’s pioneering book, Rosé: Understanding the pink wine revolution is the first expert guide to the rosé market as it is today and to where it is going.

Gabay begins with a history of rosé. Its rising commercial popularity during the past 30 years has been a success story, but it hasn’t necessarily helped to raise rosé’s image as a quality wine. In the cellar not only has there been an enormous leap over the past 10 years in the quality of rosé produced, but also a growing number of producers are experimenting with different styles, all pink, but different. Viticulture has developed for rosé wine production, and Gabay shows how production for premium rosés is moving from the harvesting of unripe grapes (for the essential acidity) to planting at higher altitudes and north-facing slopes, before analysing the economics of rosé production, the role of Provence as a catalyst for change, other French rosés, and pink wines from around the world.

Undoubtedly rosé wine is a big fashion, and there is a substantial marketing and promotion network for anything pink, but its success is due more to substance than style. Rosé: Understanding the pink wine revolution is essential reading for wine professionals, students and collectors as well as serious wine lovers and wine tourists.