Not even a decade ago, rosé was considered in many circles as wine for people who didn’t know what made great wine. Today, to sit at any of the world’s finest wine bars with blush filled glass is a statement of being up to date with the trends and direction of the industry.

Changing times

In 2015, one out of every five-hundred and ten bottles of wine drank in America was a rosé, by 2017 the figure had become one in thirty-six. This has been a growth trend not just in the Uniteed States, but across the world. The massive increase increase in popularity of rosé can largely be attributed to Sacha Lichine, a pioneering wine producer from Provence who’s most famous production is 2006 Whispering Angel Rosé, also known as ‘Hampton’s Water’ among the New York/New England elite.

Steeped in viticulture

Starting out at a young age, Sacha worked in almost every part of the wine business — from the vineyards, to the cellars, to labelling wine bottles and working as a sommelier. Unlike his father, Sacha opted to make his a négociant wine, produced by purchasing grapes from multiple vineyards and thus allowing for the fruit to be picked when it is most ripe. The first vintage of 2006 Whispering Angel saw a production of 130,000 bottles — by 2017, that figure was in excess of 6 million.

#roséallday

His meteoric success is in part due to his entrepreneurial approach to life. As he has stated, rather than create a brand that appealed to wine snobs and people with stale views of what constituted good wine, he created a brans that appealed to the millennials and embraced new media and culture to accomplish his aims. He partnered with events like Coachella and, in doing so, filled our devices and screens with millions of photos of his wine, in the hands of the young and affluent.

The delicate colour of rosé lends itself particularly well to this Instagram age and hashtags such as#brosé and #roséallday have served to make rosé unapologetically a drink to be enjoyed by all sexes and many an occasion.

Rock Angel

Among Lichine’s premium rosés is Château d’Esclans Rock Angel, which is a very serious rosé and similar to good white Burgundy in complexity and style. The 2018 vintage is absolutely remarkable and the quality (as with every vintage it seems) is truly second to none according to Almost Essential’s wine experts. Their view is that a Rosé rarely receives a 98/100 score, let alone a ‘Master’ title, yet Château d’Esclans has achieved this score (and higher) with more than three rosés this year. Rock Angel has always been crafted with the best grapes from Provence. The wine is very light wild salmon pink with rich, dry and elegant notes coming from the oak ageing it receives prior to bottling which gives it its almost Burgundian style. Sacha Lichine has managed over the years to create wine such as this that elevate rosé to a new dimension through innovative winemaking.

If you would like to place an order for this wine, then click through to their website via Almost Essential and don’t forget to use our code almostessential for an extra 10% off.