10 minute read
ROSÉ TRENDS
Stop and sip the rosé
Brendan Black discusses the current trends of the rosé market and how this is impacting the wine’s performance at the moment in Australia.
In great news for winemakers, retailers and drinkers alike, rosé has shown strong growth over the last 12 months. While it still only accounts for a fraction of the domestic wine market compared to white, red and sparkling wines, and global sales have been relatively stagnant, Australia has proven to be an excellent market for rosé. According to Wine Australia data, between 2016 and 2021, Australia moved from the 27th to 13th largest rosé market in the world.
Interestingly, there are certain clear trends showing up in the market, both from makers and consumers, particularly in regards to quality and preference for colour and sweetness, as well as the grape varieties that we now see increasingly being used as the basis for rosés.
Quality AND quantity
The quality of domestic and overseas rosé is very much on the rise. Pacha Mama and Cloak & Dagger Owner and Winemaker, Callie Jemmeson, says that while “rosé was once made as a by-product, producers are now allocating [to it] some of their most expensive fruit”, such as Yarra Valley Pinot Noir, which is known to fetch prices above $4000 per tonne.
Barton & Guestier Export Director Asia Pacific, Guillaume Bladocha, has seen an increase in sales volume for higher quality rosés priced AU$20-30. This is in line with research by IRI MarketEdge, which found that while the total value of still wine declined by two per cent between 2020 and 2022, rosé managed to grow by 15 per cent.
Australian Vintage Limited (AVL) General Manager Asia Pacific, Jeff Howlett, has noted a 6.5 per cent increase in rosé sales within the AU$15-25 segment, while the AU$25+ category grew by a whopping 39 per cent. This was due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said “accelerated this premiumisation trend across the wine category in general as consumers were buying higher-priced wines at less frequency.”
-Mitchell Taylor, Managing Director and third-generation Winemaker Taylors Wines
The competitive nature of the rosé market has meant that price will always be a considering factor with consumers.
However, Brown Brothers Wine Ambassador and Educator, Andrew Harris, states: “Fortunately for rosé lovers these styles are quite affordable for the quality return, particularly in the $15-25 bracket.”
Colour me (salmon) pink
Overwhelmingly, colour is a key factor influencing most consumers and their decision to buy a rosé versus a white, red or sparkling wine, and then also helps to decide which rosé to buy from a varied selection. The rosés of Provence are mainly responsible for this trend, with their pale salmon colouring being mimicked by producers outside of France.
Bladocha says: “As the leading French producer, this is of course flattering but this makes this segment much more competitive.”
This competition can be seen when scanning the shelves of most bottle shops, where there’s a great deal of uniformity when it comes to colour and hue, much more than can be seen with red, white or sparkling wines. The majority of these wines are made in Australia, which accounts for 76 per cent of sales on the domestic rosé market. Yet they are competing fiercely with French rosé, made predominantly in Provence, which is still showing strong growth.
Marketing Manager for Vintage House Wine and Spirits, Matt Redin, has seen brands such as Les Peyrautins and Estandon French rosé imports grow at an amazing rate. Both are priced at around AUD$20 retail and are salmon pink, so they hit the mark in terms of price and colour for consumers.
Managing Director and third-generation Winemaker at Taylors Wines, Mitchell Taylor, says, given the fast-paced nature of wine retail: “Something as simple as the colour of the liquid can be a significant influencing factor.”
Taylor adds that a prospective buyer might see a rosé on the shelf and simply use its colour “as an indicator of the wine’s body, sweetness, or refreshment”, even if these impressions might actually be off the mark.
Dry or sweet?
Overwhelmingly, consumers are now leaning towards dry styles of rosé, which appears to be, as stated above, intimately coupled to the perception of colour. Lighter styles are commonly seen as being dry, whereas darker styles are believed to be sweeter, yet the reality is not so easy to discern from looks alone.
The Daytime Drinks Company Director, Anoushka Szlagowska, producer of Tart canned rosé, believes that the public still equates colour with sweetness level – pale equates to dry; darker equals sweet – yet she says: “The reality is that the colour is on a light/full-bodied scale not necessarily a dry/sweet one.”
Tasting through a broad range of currently available Australian rosés, it’s difficult to find ones that are overly sweet, rather than with just a touch of sweetness, while most are completely dry. Producers have therefore responded to the market
by fermenting their rosés to dryness, particularly if they are priced above $20. As a consequence of removing sweetness, and in an effort to produce wines that are fuller in the mouth, rather than thin, many producers are using techniques such as lees ageing in barrel before bottling.
Not a gendered drink
Gone are the days when rosé might be seen as a wine that appealed predominantly to women, over men. Taylor attributes this to the market becoming more knowledgeable about wine, which then affects consumers’ appreciation for diverse styles. Producers and marketers have in turn responded to this by creating “gender-neutral” labels designed to appeal to anyone, regardless of demographics. For example, Taylor says the Taylor Made Pinot Noir Rosé “showcases more of the craft perspective of winemaking” rather than being marketed to a specific group.
According to Redin: “The ‘Brosé’ movement has gathered force and men are now quite comfortable to enjoy a glass of rosé with friends and family.”
This busts through the myth that rosé only appeals to women. As Szlagowska adds: “Your palate has nothing to do with what’s between your legs” - and the diversity of styles and varietals in rosé has overcome this narrow image of who actually drinks rosé.
Variety is the spice of rosé
An increasingly visible trend for the rosé category has been the use of varieties that one might not usually expect to see. While Provence rosé is usually produced from grapes such as Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah or Mourvèdre, Australian rosés are reflective of the more flexible rules regarding which grapes can be grown in a given region (that is, we have no rules at all, unlike in many French wine regions).
Pinot Noir is perhaps the most popular variety you’ll now see in Aussie rosé, made wherever this tempestuous grape feels at home, such as the Yarra Valley, Adelaide Hills, or the Mornington Peninsula. Treasury Wine Estate’s Squealing Pig brand is one of the most popular rosés on the Australian market, made from Pinot Noir sourced throughout South Australia. It’s an incredibly approachable wine with nice structure, great acid and pleasant flavours, as well as being well-priced.
Winemakers now aren’t afraid to try something a little different with their rosé, whether they’re microproducers or large conglomerates. For example, Wynns produces a Cabernet Sauvignon-based rosé from its Coonawarra fruit, while Cloak & Dagger’s is a multi-region blend of Syrah, Savagnin and Pinot Gris, three varieties you’ll rarely see together. Latta Vino, run by Eastern Peake’s Owen Latta in Ballarat, produces a zero-sulphur rosé from Nebbiolo and Sangiovese, varieties which are becoming increasingly more common as the basis for rosés in Australia.
Legislation changes in Italy regarding what can be classed as Prosecco mean that it’s also now possible to see rosé versions of this too, from both Italian and Australian producers. Pernod Ricard Winemakers Global Marketing Director, Eric Thomson, has seen strong sales of the company’s label Rosie, a rosé Prosecco, demonstrating that consumers are keen to try different styles of the wine.
Four seasons in one drink
When the weather starts turning warmer and drier, many consumers will turn their attention away from reds and high-alcohol spirits to lighter styles of wine. With the perception that rosé is typically lower in alcohol than other styles, it is one type that will see its popularity increase as the mercury rises. Yet given the diversity of styles now available, from light and simple to more full bodied and complex, rosé is not just a wine for consuming at the beach or next to the pool.
Wine Unplugged’s Callie Jemmeson says there are now many rosés that are almost pushing into the “lighter red” category which make great accompaniments to grilled meats and vegetables due to their savouriness and tannin grip. Straddling that important divide of being a wine that is pleasant to drink by itself but which also pairs well with a range of foods is now key if producers want their wines to appeal to consumers in any weather.
-Matt Redin, Marketing Manager, Vintage House Wine and Spirits
This versatility is coupled to the proliferation of drier styles of rosé, which are easier to pair with food than sweeter examples.
Harris says that, personally, he drinks: “A lot of rosé when dining out during the winter, because I like the versatility that rosé can have with food.”
While he feels that sales of rosé in winter and summer will never reach parity, the gap is certainly shortening, which is great news for producers and retailers.
Howlett meanwhile believes Australia is the ideal place for drinking rosé year round, with AVL’s sales of rosé not dropping off so evidently in cooler months.
“Our warmer climate lends us to having warm/ sunny days even during the winter season,” he says.
Other trends
The proliferation of zero or low-alcohol beverages has certainly now crept into rosé. For example, Wolf Blass Zero is a range of wines such as Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, sparkling and rosé which each have less than0.5 percent alcohol, embracing a ‘passion to explore and break boundaries.”
The public’s yearning for ‘better for you’ options has been embraced by winemakers, and just as most car companies are now offering electric vehicles, many wine producers are now looking at lowering alcohol levels. For vegans who struggle to find wines that don’t use animal products in their creation, there are the Angove Organic and Naturalis ranges, which is vegan friendly, and many producers are following suit by not fining their wines with animal products.
The type of container has changed for rosé just as it has for other styles, with plastic bottles, aluminium cans and ‘bags in a box’ now seen on the shelves next to the ubiquitous glass. Given their lighter weight, portability, and greater emphasis on sustainability versus glass, they are starting to shake off any negative associations that older drinkers may have had with them, such as the terms‘ goon bags’ or ‘chateau cardboard’ used for cash receptacles and wines of lower quality. Taylors Wines has even introduced a PET bottle which is 100 percent recycled and significantly lighter and smaller than regular glass bottles.
