Don’t panic: there’s plenty rosé for us all
Wine producers are reassuring
A headline in the leading finance newspaper Les Echos asked ‘Will there be enough rosé this summer?’ and sparked mild panic among tipplers and talk of rising prices... but wine producers in both Languedoc and Provence say that summer will still be rosy.
Headlines with a question in them can usually be answered with ‘No’, and Languedoc Wines president Xavier de Volontat backed this, saying although world rosé consumption was up 31% and Provence production down 12% vignerons in Languedoc had no fears as they decided last year to increase rosé production for this year.
Languedoc is the largest producer and made 320million bottles last year, double Provençal production and three times that of the Loire, without forgetting areas like Alsace, Bordeaux, Champagne (including bubbly), Jura and most of the south-west.
France produces a third of the world’s rosé and one out of every three bottles of wine sold is rosé, making an average consumption in France of 20 bottles for every person.
Mr de Volontat, who heads the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Languedoc and IGP Sud de France, said that after the spring frosts and summer drought they “anticipated the rise in demand.
“Like other French wine regions, our area suffered from a smaller harvest, down 20%, but the production of AOC Languedoc rosé was up 23% in 2017 against 2016.
“The wine shortage Les Echos talks about is largely for Provence. Languedoc should be able to offset the drop in production in Provence so France can continue to meet international demand.”
In Provence, wine producers’ president Alain Baccino of the CIVP told journalists that vignerons there had never talked of a shortage and had no fears as everything was still looking good for the season, helped by the fact it started late.
He added: “I can tell you that now, at the start of the season, the cellars are full.”
The Côtes de Provence AOC – where 90% of the vineyards make rosé – produced 780,000 hectolitres or 103m bottles of rosé in 2017 and became leading AOC region, making 34% of French AOC production.
