Today, some of the most popular wines from France are the rosés from the Côtes de Provence production zone. With their light pink color and fresh berry fruit, they are ideal sipping wines for the summer. Combine their appeal with value pricing – most are $15 and under – and you have a winning recipe for wines from this territory.

At 50,000 planted acres, Côtes de Provence is the largest appellation in the Provence wine region. As the vineyards are not far from the sea, this is a Mediterranean climate, one that has very warm summers, along with cooling breezes that temper the hot conditions. There is also the Mistral wind that comes up in the afternoon and cools things off, making this a very specific wine zone for fruit-driven wines.

Rosé is clearly the engine that drives the train in the Côtes de Provence, as these wines account for almost 90% of the zone’s production; grapes used are Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. The small percentage of reds made here are produced with the same grapes, while Cabernet Sauvignon is also planted sparingly. Only about 3% of production is dry white, crafted from varieties such as Vermentino, Semillon and Ugni Blanc.

Côtes de Provence continues to grow in popularity, thanks to the quality and marketing of the rosés. More than 120 million bottles of Côtes de Provence wine are produced today annually; this is a great success story in today’s wine industry.
(Wine/Appellations)