Roségence

Class on Friday made me realize that I have no idea why the rosé craze has grown so much. I am fully a part of it (a lover of rosé who has liked a million photos of someone in sunglasses, on a swan float, with a glass), but I couldn’t tell you why I love it absent of all of its status as a fun, summer, Millennial drink. So what has made it the craze it is?

Pantone selects, sometimes years in advance, a “color of the year” (fun fact – I used to work at Sephora and the office dress code, Monday through Thursday, was that we could only wear red, white, red, grey or the Pantone of the year). In 2016, for the first time, Pantone selected two colors of the year: serenity (aka baby blue) and rose quartz (aka, Millennial pink).

The pale pink color of rosé, and that being the color of a generation, is certainly a huge contributor of the rise of rosé’s popularity. Wine makers are certainly responding, where pink wine used to be something only made as an afterthought, it is now being produced with the same quality considerations and nice whites and reds. However, with rosé becoming a category of its own (e.g., “I’m not ordering a chardonnay, or a cab, but a rose”), I think this this is also emblematic of a new trend we’re seeing in “inconspicuous consumption.” The big labels of the 90s and 2000s are very rare to see anytime, and those that are the taste makers are wearing things that are totally unidentifiable outside of those in the know (e.g., Allbirds – there is basically no labels, and are only really identifiable if you already know the brand).

Finally, a question I’m still left with is something I learned from a trip to Darcie Kent Vineyards (the amazing Amanda Kent’s family vineyard – where she led our tasting!). Referring to wines by their varietals is much more of a new world concept, versus referring to wines by their region (e.g., a Bordeaux) is more common for old world wine. I wonder if “rosé” is at all a foreshadowing of the integrating of these two worlds, or if it really is just all about the color.