"We must stay the course and roll up our sleeves": Provence rosé seeks ways to diversify

" Never waste a good crisis!" Winston Churchill said it, Eric Pastorino does it and includes it in the strategic plan of the Côtes de Provence to turn it into an opportunity.

On Thursday, June 19, in La Londe, this concept of a "well-managed crisis" was presented at the general meeting of the Côtes de Provence union, the leading appellation in Provence in terms of volume and surface area (20,332 hectares), in front of an over-represented wine industry.

"We are living through a particularly complicated period. Provence rosé has so far escaped the major crisis of deconsumption, which is particularly affecting reds, for the moment! We are making a product that will continue to please, but we must stay the course and roll up our sleeves. After the easy years, without giving in to defeatism, we must invent new things," insisted President Éric Pastorino in his moral report.

Flat growth in exports

These remarks are supported by the financial report unveiled on this occasion. Over the past ten years, the sales curve of Côtes de Provence has been halved in supermarkets, and in 2024, rosés will have declined by -3% (-7% for reds) on supermarket shelves. Exports, which had increased fivefold in the same decade, are also in decline.

With the current economic situation and the trade war waged by the Trump administration, rosés sold to the United States, the largest market in terms of volume (37%), are floating at 0% for Côtes de Provence, falling to -11% for Coteaux Varois and remaining at -3% for Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence.

"After two years of decline for our three appellations, -9% in 2023 and -4% in 2024, growth is quite flat (flat in French, Editor's note) . The Côtes de Provence, with their reputation and power, are holding up better, but the commercial context remains very disrupted, with more competition for rosé. Other regions are now imitating the Provence style," analyzes Brice Eymard, general director of the Interprofessional Council of Provence Wines (CIVP).

In this context, with a marketing potential of 715,000 hectolitres of rosés (for a volume of 800,000 hectolitres at the start of the 2025 campaign), the stocks mobilized in the cellars are estimated at 80,000 hectolitres.

"This represents 10% of our volumes, be careful with this market situation, for which we need to think of various solutions," warns Brice Eymard.

Among those considered, the old issue of sparkling wines from Provence resurfaces, "there is an interest in developing this non-vintage market, which would allow us to manage part of our stocks by blending several vintages with that of the year" , explains Brice Eymard. Especially since Provence is not born yesterday, in terms of bubbles.

Sparkling wines are back on the table

Twenty years ago, a collective of around fifty winegrowers wishing to bring a more festive dimension to their Provençal rosés, took a gamble on sparkling wines by developing a "Provençal method", supported by their Association des bulles Provençales.

With the hope of obtaining a decree authorizing production under the Côtes de Provence appellation... which had remained in the closet.

"Alain Combard (Château Figuière in La Londe, Editor's note) and others had worked a lot on this project. We were almost able to finalize it, but the recognition file had not been submitted to the Inao (National Institute of Appellations of Origin, Editor's note) due to a lack of volumes," recalled Éric Pastorino.

The president now sees it as a promising avenue for diversification. "Why not bring it back out? We have some available in our cellars. In Burgundy, they did it with a quality crémant, which opened up new outlets for the volumes they couldn't sell," the president adds.

The union has been working on it for a year, with the aim of submitting the file to the INAO at the end of the year.

Soon a "Provençal method" bubble

A rose petal color, fine bubbles, and aromas of citrus and red fruits. Provençal sparkling wines owe much to the late Alain Combard, one of the founders of the association created some fifteen years ago to develop specific specifications.

But if winemakers produce it, it is not in the Côtes de Provence appellation, the "Provençal method" having never crossed the Inao ford, despite a demonstrable historical precedence (it was already produced at the beginning of the ^19th century) and four large operators established in the region, offering different methods of making mousse.

The so-called "Provençal method" being well established, the Côtes de Provence union has been finalizing the specifications for a year.

"What has already been done is the second fermentation in the bottle of the base wine (finished still wine, Editor's note) , with the addition of grape must, without exogenous sugars, therefore without an increase in the alcoholic strength," explains Mireille Conrath, oenologist and technical manager at the Côtes de Provence union.

Among the other criteria already included: the same appellation area, the same grape varieties and the same yields as for the Côtes de Provence.

What remains to be determined in the coming weeks? The color (rosé or white, or both), the aging time (during the fermentation process) and the final sugar content. "We are moving towards no or very low sugar content, to maintain the typicality of Côtes de Provence," says Mireille Conrath.