Can it be that rosé sales in France have overtaken white wine for the first time? Apparently so, as a new generation of Gallic drinkers eschew bigger, bolder red wines in particular for la vie en rose. Curiously, the swing to rosé has taken place elsewhere. Even though much of the summer here has been a washout, the pink wine boom has seen British drinkers knocking back almost a third more rosé this year than last. Typically, the US has gone one better, with a 40 per cent increase over the past 12 months, and rosé sales have surged in unlikely countries such as Japan and Australia.

No one is quite sure why rosés are growing like Topsy worldwide. In France, it could just be the annual holiday race to the south has persuaded more folk to drink the salmon-pink local wines; 80 per cent of all wine made in Provence is pink. Britain’s love affair with rosé started four years ago when evil, sticky, mouthwash-coloured dross from California – blush wines – washed up here. Gallo’s White Grenache, Blossom Hill’s White Zinfandel, followed by Echo Falls, are the big blush names, and California continues to account for half of the pinks we drink at home. Dear oh dear.

Thankfully, there are signs that our taste in pink wines is improving: sales of California’s cloying blush wines are down, while bone-dry Provençal pinks are picking up. Finer grapes such as shiraz, grenache, merlot, pinot noir and cabernets sauvignon and franc are now being used and have helped make rosés respectable. As has the world’s winemakers at last treating it seriously, using less sulphur and more cool fermentation in stainless steel. Great pinks are now not just created using the bled-off or saignée method, but by direct pressing, with red grapes crushed, pressed and treated exactly as if they were a top white wine.

Forget year-round sales, summer is the season for pink. One of rosé’s great attributes is its jewel-pink colour that lifts the spirits. It is also almost the only wine I know that can cope with summer menus including garlicky salads, curried chicken and burnt barbecued fare with sweet, spicy sauces. My vote for summer ’08’s top bone-dry pink goes jointly to the fuller-flavoured, almost light red-styled, plum and raspberry-charged 2007 Château d’Aquéria Tavel Rosé (Waitrose, £9.49; Berry Bros & Rudd, £9.95) and the pale, aromatic, light peppery fruit of the St Tropez co-operative’s 2007 Carte Noire Côtes de Provence (Nicolas, £9.50). Cheaper, sweeter rosés to plump for include St Hallet’s briary 2007 Barossa Valley Rosé (Waitrose, £6.99) and the summer pudding fruit of Chile’s Casillero del Diablo 2007 Shiraz (Waitrose, £4.79). Between these two styles lies Château Guiot’s 2007 Costières de Nîmes Rosé: rich, rose-scented and hued, with a fine firm finish (Majestic Wine, £5.99 or buy two for £5.49 each). Rosés rule.

jane.macquitty@thetimes.co.uk

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