Olivier Poels 5:40 p.m., June 13, 2022
With fine weather, it will impose itself on many tables.
In recent years, the rosé wine segment has been the fastest growing in France.
If he is attached to Provence, was he really born there?
It is not certain.
Long before the Romans, it was the Greeks who brought the vine to the South of France, colonizing the Mediterranean coast 600 years before our era.
The wine they produced at the time was very clear: the juice did not stay in contact with the skins of the grapes for long.
A wine to which resin, spices and even honey were frequently added to “stabilize” it.
Difficult then to define its color.
During Roman times, then beyond, the vinification will always take place without vatting, the wine then not being able to be well colored.
We can say that we made rosé without knowing it, but above all without mastering the color.
In Bordeaux, from the 13th century, Clairet was in vogue, a wine that can be placed between red and rosé.
The English love it.
It was probably an Irishman, Jofroi de Waterford, who mentioned the term rosé wine for the first time, around the year 1300. However, it only appeared in the French dictionary in 1680. In 1682, it was produced in the vineyards of 'Argenteuil a rosé wine intended for the court of Louis XIV.
Other regions will follow suit.
As for Provence, it will be necessary to wait for the 20th century, paid holidays, tourists and the desire to dehydrate with lighter wines for rosé to develop there.