Dominic Buckwell thinks pink
Wine in decline
All around the world, wine is in decline. Last year saw the lowest levels of production since 1961. With changes in demographics and the rise in health- conscious lifestyles, consumers are tending to prefer different styles of drink, and less alcohol in general. One distinctive kind of wine, however, is flying in the face of this trend: pale pink rosé. Production has doubled since the Millennium, with a penchant for pink plonk increasing from around 5% to 12% of all wine in the UK, and the French now chugging even more rosé than red.
So what has triggered this trend? Two words: Whispering Angel. This brand was launched in 2007 as the most expensive rosé in the world, with enormous success. Promoted through social media and enjoying celebrity endorsement from the likes of Adele and Victoria Beckham, it is the undeniable champion mass-produced premium wine of any style. Appealing to oligarchs and fashionistas alike, millions of cases each year are devoured on yachts and trendy night spots across the globe. Made from old Grenache vines in oak barrels, it has spawned many imitators, competing for sun lounger space around salubrious swimming pools in and beyond Southern France.
Other A-list-led labels from the likes of Brad Pitt (Miraval), Bon Jovi, John Malkovich and Kylie Minogue have joined the pool party. Even Jeremy Clarkson reputedly extolled the virtues of this ‘Brosé movement’, detoxifying his previous description of rosé as ‘lady petrol’.
Creating colour
Most Sussex wines are white and sparkling in appearance, with precious little colour differentiation. If skins are removed during production, the juice that runs from all common grape varieties, regardless of colour, is the same: a very pale lemon- yellow. The influence of colour in wine comes from macerating grapes before and during fermentation. Otherwise all wines would turn out white.
So the colour of wine tells us something about how it has been made, but not always the grape. Many Sussex vineyards make a ‘blanc de noir’ sparkling white wine from red grapes, and some offer still white wines made from red grapes: Albourne Estates White Pinot Noir and Artelium’s White Pinot are good examples of the latter. But once you have identified a wine as either red, white, pink or orange, what does the colour of a wine indicate in terms of character, quality and age?
As wines age, they change colour. Red wines become lighter with age, turning pale when the colour pigments extracted from grape skins fall out as sediment. Whites darken with age as the wine oxidises, turning brown like a fresh-cut apple. Eventually, the colours of all wines converge, becoming the same tawny-brown. Rosé wine comes in all shades of pink from very pale or blush to deep salmon; the range is everything between white and red. A curious fact about rosé is that it has no legal definition. Wine is simply classified as either red or ‘other’. Rosé is usually made by red grapes being left to macerate to leach colour from the skins into the must, before being pressed and fermented, like a white wine, without the skins. The time spent soaking with the skins determines the depth of colour. Once the wine is finished, the colour gradually fades over time.
Some rosés start with a mix of both red and white grapes before they are co-fermented together. Different regions of origin have different rules as to the varieties which may be used and the proportions to give a typicity of style and colour. The fashionably pale rosé typical of Provence is made with a short maceration, and energy intensive chilling in hermetically sealed tanks to preserve fruity flavours and prevent oxidation. Coming from warm climates like Southern France and California, this is not exactly the most eco- friendly method.
Pink fizz
Sparkling rosé – common for high-end Champagne brands and English Sparkling – is usually made by blending in some finished red wine with the white to tint the colour, and at the same time adding back in some natural fruity flavours. It is otherwise made the same way as white sparkling wine, and typically commands a price premium of 10-20% above white on account of scarcity rather than cost of production. But sparkling rosé can also be made like a red wine, with a fermentation that starts with inclusion of the red colour skins, then bleeds off some juice before taking on all the colour. This technique, called Saignée, is associated with particularly high-quality sparkling rosés, and is more costly to produce. In England, I am aware of one producer who uses this method in the better vintages only, with stunning results: Ditchling’s Everflyht. But it is difficult to get hold of, as supply is very limited. Historically, red Bordeaux was much lighter in colour than it is today, and was also made Saigneé style. Clairet was the name given to the deep pink colour of the wines exported to England from around the 12th century, which became anglicised as Claret.
Ironically, the Saigneé technique is used for the very inexpensive semi-sweet wine associated with Californian bulk-produced White Zin[fandel]. In the 1970s some producers seeking to make premium Napa red wine took to concentrating the flavours and tannins from red Zindfandel grapes traditionally grown in California by running off some pale semi-fermented must (which remains sweet since not all the sugar has turned to alcohol) effectively as a waste product. However, they found a market for this by-product as inexpensive pink nectar. Barefoot is an example of such a brand widely available today in corner shops and petrol stations.
Local pinks
Returning to Sussex, there is one producer that concentrates solely on rosé. Off The Line (see ROSA #7) specialises in growing various red grapes near Hellingly to make mostly still wines – Dancing Dog, Hip Rose and Dog Rose, inspired by Sussex hedgerow flowers and flavours – for around £15 per bottle. Further west in Arundel, you’ll find Digby Fine English, which was established originally as a negotiant, buying in grapes from vineyards, and outsourcing production to experts like Dermot Sugrue to produce their own branded wine, scalable from year to year depending on supply and demand. Winning the top trophy (alongside another Sussex wine from Bolney) in the 2019 Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Awards, Digby’s flagship rosé is Leander Pink. This Henley Royal Regatta favourite has a slightly higher dosage of sugar, making it easy to drink, and is priced competitively for a sparkling rosé at £28. England’s most expensive rosé so far is Nyetimber’s 1086. Named after the date of the Domesday Book (in which Nyetimber gets a mention), this extraordinary wine was tasted blind by ROSA’s editorial team last year (see ROSA #9) and stood out in terms of quality (which it should, for £175).
Folc is another notable English-brand still rosé emerging in 2019. Cashing in on the growth in demand for Provençal-style pale still rosé, it sources grapes all over the Southeast of England, packaging its product for £22 per bottle – relatively hefty for still rosé. At the other end of the market, you can find English rosé in a can. The Uncommon is an innovative young company in every sense, using Kentish fruit to sell well-packaged low-carbon impact wine from £6 per 250ml can.
Orange wine
What is it? Orange wine is made from white grapes using the techniques usually applied to red wines. The grapes are macerated with their skins and allowed to ferment like a red wine to extract the skins’ colour, tannin and flavours. I consider it a kind of ‘non-binary’ wine combining elements of both red and white, and it is increasingly appealing to younger millennials and Gen Z wine drinkers. Artelium offer a Skinny Gris as part of their top end Artefact range for £30, but my favourite English orange wine to date is Westwell’s Skin Contact Ortega, costing £27 at retail. Orange wines are also associated with ‘natural wine’ (the subject of an article in its own right). Suffice to say, not all orange wines are natural and not all natural wines are orange. Tasting colour Wine colour is an important aspect of its quality, though not determinative of how it tastes. Just as presentation of food should be aesthetically appealing to whet the appetite, the colour of wine needs to entice you to want to taste it. Some flavours are associated with certain colours, or shades of colour, especially when it comes to pink and orange wine. But there have been experiments conducted to show that wine tasters tend to use sight more than they should. When it comes to price, expensive wines come in all colours, and nasty cheap wines tend to give little attention to anything, appearing watery in all aspects of how they look, smell and taste [of nothing]!