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Five minutes with Ben Bernheim, Pink.wine

Global rosé consumption has gone from 8% total or thereabouts in 2000 to about 10.5-11% now. The rosé world has changed. It’s not necessarily that more is being made, volumes haven’t necessarily gone up, and in some places, like Navarra, they have actually gone down. But it’s gone from being sold in local supermarkets, cafés and so on, to being more available in Britain.

With Provence rosé, it’s about €3 a litre now, whereas it was €2.5 five years ago, so prices are clearly going up, while other [rosé] wines have stayed the same. But the value of the category has hugely risen. However, it’s not that the rosé category has absolutely exploded, that’s just the perception. What has exploded is the Whispering Angels and the Miravals – they are the ones behind the huge growth in the market.

• Read more: War of the Rosés 

Even today, you can find small, family producers in Provence with a good story, selling (say) at €4.50 a bottle ex-cellar, but even if you can get an allocation, would [consumers] go for an unheard-of estate at £16 or Whispering Angel, which they have heard of, at £20? It’s not rocket science. But the whole explosion [of rosé] is more evident here than in Provence.

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• Rosé
• Pink Wine