Rosé All Day

There is no category of still wine growing faster in popularity than rosé – for several years now, it’s been a booming category, and when, a few years ago, the then-married couple of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announced they were buying a winery in Provence, it seemed as though the glamor status of rosé was locked in. While many rosé lovers cheered the increased publicity there were many who thought we were in for a glut of move star plonk, but that didn’t happen.

(Photo: Patrick Gaudin/Wikipedia)

Pitt and Jolie did an incredibly smart thing and paired up with a group of the savviest winemakers in the south of France, the Perrin Family. Owners of Château Beaucastel, one of the most admired wineries in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the Perrins are accustomed to innovative partnerships. There were already half-owners of my favorite winery along California’s Central Coast, Tablas Creek. Now, with Jolie and Pitt, they were making a very respectable rosé.

The solid credentials of their winery, Miraval, was cemented with consistently well-received vintages. Even after the couple divorced, they confounded gossip mongers by retaining their ownership of the winery with the Perrins – good heavens, this was a real labor of love and not a vanity project after all! Now, they are doing it again.

It was just announced the Pitt and Jolie formed another partnership to make another rosé – they’ve joined with the highly admired Champagne grower-producer Pierre Peters and plan to make rosé Champagne. Given the amount of time to make quality champagne (it will be at least four years from their first harvest until the first bottles are released), we don’t have a lot of details yet, but the very fact these two parties decided to make a partnership is telling. 

Pierre Peters does already make a rosé Champagne, but they are by far best known for their mineral-laced and deeply flavored blanc de blancs Champagne highlighting the strength of chardonnay. Here, they plan something different. Winemaker Rodolphe Péters told Decanter magazine, “We have effectively created a new Champagne house, which is a partnership between Miraval and Pierre Péters.”

I love rosé Champagne and can’t wait to learn more. Cheers!