How rosé took over the world: a history in 6 bottles

Scan through history and you’ll find that every time has its wine. For the Romans it was ‘Falernian’. By the time of the Georgians they were drinking three bottles of Port a day. The Roaring Twenties was fuelled by Champagne. Ours? Ours is the age of rosé. Not any rosé. But the pale, dry, fresh pink of Provence. It’s become the wine of our times. But when historians of the everyday look back, what will these wines say about us? And what should we be drinking now?

Joe Fattorini, The Wine Show writes for the Gentleman’s Journal
Pret-a-porter rosé in a can - ready to go

One day a museum will have one of these ‘canettes’ in a display case. Perhaps the V&A. Or The Design Museum. Mirabeau-en-Provence is owned by Stephen and Jeany Cronk, expats with impossibly beautiful children whose life has become their art. Their Instagram page is an homage to pastel linen dresses, white shorts, running through sun-bleached fields, vintage baskets artfully arranged with flowers.

It’s a lifestyle we taste in a bottle of Provence rosé. We can’t have it. But we can dream about it. Even if we’re on the Friday night 17.55 to Doncaster in the rain. Because as we hurried through the concourse we bought a cannette of fragrant, fruity Prêt-à-Porter rosé. Jeany says it’s “perfect for picnic baskets, beach bags, festivals and parties”. But in truth this is the wine-equivalent of a holiday read — it’s escapism. It’s a (literal) taste of luxury, aspiration — even hope.

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