Sue and I have been sampling some interesting Rosé wines from France and this got us to thinking about the challenges and opportunities for pink wines in today’s market. Here is our report. (Click here to read an earlier survey of the Rosé market.)

Anatomy of the Pink Wine Market

It isn’t easy being a pink wine in today’s wine market. Rosé wines have had to fight all sorts of battles to get where they are today. As a category (according to NIQ data reported in the July 2026 issue of Wine Business Monthly) pink wine sales ($1,099 million in the last 52 weeks) lag behind red wine ($8,197 million) and white wine ($7,302 million) in the measured U.S. market.

Pink wine sells at a lower volume than red or white and at a lower average price ($7.42 per bottle equivalent for pink versus $10.66 for red and $8.58 for white wine). Pink wine sales still peak in the summer months (although I suspect this is less a factor than in the past), so the wines are sometimes put into the category of “swimming pool wines.”

Rosé wines also suffer more than most categories from a sort of color curse. Pink can be pretty, often beautiful, so they are generally packaged in ways that accentuate color. This is an advantage, of course, but also a problem because the color varies for all sorts of reasons, and consumers naturally try to draw conclusions from it. All things being equal, the experts tell me, Rosé color is not a reliable indicator of quality or other sensory factors. But if you have enjoyed a deeply tinted Rosé once, you can be forgiven for imagining that other darker wines will taste just as good.

50 Shades of Pink

These days there seems to be a preference for very pale wines, especially from Provence. Some of them are so light in color that you might mistake them for white wines. But light color doesn’t necessarily foreshadow light flavor.

Deeper colors are avoided by some consumers. I wonder if it is a residual White Zin effect? Perhaps once upon a time they tasted one of those inexpensive sweetish White Zinfandel wines and projected these qualities onto the entire category? I find this puzzling because I remember when Tavel Rosé was very popular.  It had a deep hue and was more full bodied that most pink wines today. I think it would be a hit if consumers gave it a chance. But I seldom see it on store shelves today.

Certainly some wine drinkers look down their noses at pink wines. There must be a reason, don’t you think?

Many Faces of French Rosé

The French Rosé wines we have been tasting this summer are nothing to look down on. We tried two wines in the $15-$20 price category from Barton & Guestier and two in the $50+ category from Domaines Ott. Taken together they say a lot about the diversity of Rosé wines and how product differentiation can address various problems of being pink.

B&G has celebrated its 300th anniversary and their selections are variations on classic themes. The B&G Rosé d’Anjou from the Loire Valley draws on a garden party theme with its deeper hue and colorful label. We love Rosé d’Anjou, but don’t see much of it on our store shelves. Maybe it is that color curse?

The B&G Côtes de Provence “Tourmaline”  presents that classic pale Provence pink, but in a festive limited edition bottle and label featuring artwork by Montreal-based French artist Isaure Atelier. These are wines that match perfectly with the season. They remind us that there is a reason people think of Rosé in seasonal terms.

Then there are the pink wines from Domaines Ott, which show a different side of the pink wine world. These wines are defined by the tension between minerality and salinity more than punchy fruit. That’s a tension we really enjoy because it makes them especially useful with food.

The Domaines Ott 2025 Château de Selle Rosé (AOC Côtes de Provence) paired perfectly with a pasta and pesto dish made with basil from our garden. The Domaines Ott  2025 Château Romassan Rosé (AOC Bandol)  was terrific with a Niçoise salad. The wines were distinctive and I am not sure you would have guessed that they are Rosé wines in a blind tasting because they are so unstereotypically savory. Really interesting!

It’s Not Easy, But Do We Have to Make It Hard?

It isn’t easy being pink, I guess, because Rosé wine has all the challenges and complications of wine in general plus the color curse. But maybe it isn’t necessary to make life difficult. If you are looking for the simple, delicious summer wine, it is right there waiting for you. And if you are looking for something more, it’s there too.

In other words. When Pink is all there is to be it makes you wonder why. But why wonder why?