Flushed with success

While every Tom, Dick and national newspaper has been writing about the incredible growth in the cider market, rosé wine has been enjoying a similarly startling transformation.

Rosé wine in pubs is boom town. According to Jane Hunter, Western Europe marketing director for E&J Gallo, there has been a 184 per cent growth in the market in the last two years. More specific to Gallo's territory she says last year US rosé sales grew by 105 per cent. Two years ago that figure was nearer 10 per cent.

Julian Drake, wholesale on-trade sales manager at PLB wines, says this growth is as much focused on the pub trade as any other sector in wine.

"We are seeing rosé sales up by 50 to 100 per cent," he says. "Very recently a drinks buyer from Marston's said to me they would be increasing their rosé offer across the board in all of their pubs.

"If you go out on a Friday night and go into any pub or nightclub you will see young people drinking rosé wine - it is the current ultimate entry level wine. It is the Liebfraumilch for the 21st century."

What's driving the growth?

Jonathan Pedley, master of wine and consultant to Carlsberg wholesale, says that for a long time rosé in the UK was "pretty moribund".

"It was only really found in long established brands like Mateus rosé and Anjou," he points out. "And so we have experienced really extraordinary growth over the last five years."

And rosé's strength, says Jonathan, is that it lacks any of the baggage of traditional wine.

"The great thing about rosé is its informality," he explains. "It doesn't carry with it the traditional wine values and baggage of red and white - it can simply be drunk on any occasion. Above all else it is just an easy-drinking wine. It is an informal relaxed lager-style drink made from grapes - in much the same way pinot grigio is."

Jane agrees with Jonathan's assessment, arguing rosé is a pub wine perhaps more than any other. But she also admits the market and the fantastic growth figures may have had some help along the way from the sun.

"I think a couple of hot summers have really helped with rosé but there are other reasons for such incredible growth. Rosé is a fruity, easy-drinking wine - as a result it is a great entry level wine for consumers who don't normally drink it," she says.

"There is no doubt it's a great way to enter the wine category and the pub is a great place to do it."

However, Robin Knapp, wine director at Matthew Clark, does not believe the 'simplicity' of rosé is the reason for its phenomenal growth. In fact he believes there are numerous reasons - with some even being economic.

"I think attaching popular grape names to rosés has really helped - for example there are a number of new pinot grigio rosés," he says. "The off-trade has created more consumer awareness too - some retailers, like Marks & Spencer, are doing entire rosé stands and gondola ends.

"People are gaining access to rosé by having more cash to spend on leisure. They are willing to spend more money on 'bling' products like Champagne, which itself has done a lot for awareness - brands like Laurent Perrier rosé has a lot of cache in top-end bars and with 'aspirational' drinkers."

Robin also attributes some of the category's success to the fact that people are also spending more money travelling and experiencing rosé in producing countries like France, Spain and Italy.

"Look at Spain," he says, "it is a very common experience to sit down at a street café and have glass of rosé with a meal - these are simple dishes that are always well-matched."

Here to stayWhatever the reasons behind its popularity, rosé will not be a flash in the pan like some people are predicting with cider.

Rosé is not stealing market share from other wines - on the contrary it is actually recruiting drinkers from outside for the wine revolution. Quite how long it can keep up its incredible growth figures is another question - more interesting is whether more premium rosés will start to make a major impact on the market, particularly with the growth of food sales in pubs and this is an issue analysed later on (see page 60).

But for now, Jonathan Pedley's assessment sums up rosé's place in the market quite neatly: "Rosé is very much flavour of the month right now and over time that will evolve - but it is here to stay."