Rosé wine has experienced great success for a few years. This very new trend suggests that it is a recent wine. However, rosé wine is older than it seems, since there are traces in ancient Greece, and in Roman times. Let's go in the footsteps of rosé wine, and discover who invented it.
Rosé wine, an older wine than it seems
The history of rosé wine is difficult to trace, because the works that refer to it are few. However, we can advance the idea that Clarum vinum (light red wine) consumed in Antiquity, or the Clairet consumed in France for centuries, have been very similar to the rosé wine that we know today.
Indeed, if the term "rosé" does not appear until much later in the texts, we easily recognize with each description of wine dating from antiquity, the pale pink color of the rosé that we know today. From the 16th century, the first references to clear wine appeared, before the vinification techniques improved, and that the red wine of rosé wine is precisely discerned.
It was not until the 19th century that we will find the first official definition of rosé wine, based on precise oenological criteria.
If it is therefore not possible to say that the first wine in the world was a rosé, however, it could not be said that it was not a red wine either, contrary to what we believe. The first wines consumed, in their description, then looked much more like a rosé wine than a red wine.
The history of rosé wine
The history of wine tends to be confused with that of rosé wine. The distinction between the two took long centuries before being made, as the techniques of wines production in antiquity and in the centuries to follow were underdeveloped.
Before the 13th century, the harvest was walked on the feet, and the maceration and cuvison techniques were so little perfected, that it was then very complicated to obtain a thick red wine as we know today. The wine was therefore clear, with a dress close to that of current rosé wine. It is obvious that if the color was very similar, the flavor had to be very different, as the vinification technique was not developed.
It was not until the 18th century that the vinification techniques have greatly improved, and that we were able to differentiate between white wines, pink/clear wines, and red wines. At the time, clear and white wines were not at all successful, and offered a very acid flavor. They were therefore initially abandoned in favor of red wine, thicker and colorful, but also more alcoholic. This is where the passage of Clairet wine to red wine takes place.
It will take a long time for the vinification technique of rosé wine to improve, and consumption increase.
Rosé wine: a renewed popularity from the 1940s
Very long abandoned for red wine, rosé wine has not said its last word. With the advent of paid holidays, in 1936, the French rushed in Provence, and rediscovered this long forgotten wine. Rosé will have long been considered a summer wine, a symbol of the holidays and aperitifs with friends.
The consumer fully recognizes himself in this uninhibited, fresh and close to the terroir wine. Its success is then growing, to become a wine appreciated by all. Far from the acid rosé wine from the 13th century, today's rosé wine can say it is equal to the great white and red wines, and is consumed in all season.
It is difficult to say who invented rosé, as its history merges with that of red wine. One thing is certain, the region of production of rosé wine is Provence. The Domaine de Bern perpetuates this tradition by offering quality pink wines, from the terroir and an ancestral know-how.
