I had the opportunity to meet the Wine Division President of a French conglomerate at a wine tasting last summer and I asked why this is the case. He leaned over and whispered, "it's white wine with food coloring."
In a recent Thrillist article, this view was further nuanced: "Pink wine was once the Nickelback of boozy drinks -- no one wanted to go near them, and if they did, they consumed them in shame. Putting rosé on a restaurant's wine list used to be nothing short of ignoble, reveals Chicago-based, James Beard Award-winning sommelier Belinda Chang." White zinfandel was apparently the reason for this viewpoint. It's sickly sweet and cheap, and flooded supermarkets in the 1980s. "Beringer white zinfandel left such a bad taste in America's mouth that selling rosé -- even the high-end versions -- was a near-impossible task." Interestingly enough, this view latest into the late 1990s.
However, at that point, travel magazines followed by Instagram influencers took advantage of the aesthetically pleasing hue of rosé to communicate beach style and vacation to their followers turning the tide for the wine industry seeing exponential growth in rosé with sales climbing by 53% by volume year-over-year, as Michael explained in the last session.
Now, it's time for restaurants to catch on!
Very interesting, Camille! I've always wondered why there were so few rosé options on restaurant menus, even in NYC in the summer, when you'd expect restaurants to be able to make a killing on rosé sales. I didn't realize it was so stigmatized in the restaurant industry. Given restaurants make so much of their profit on alcohol sales, it's very surprising that they haven't capitalized on rosé more quickly. Do you think this will change in the coming years?
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