French Rose wine details 3

The “Claret”
From the thirteenth century, the Bordeaux region and to a lesser extent other areas of production, enjoyed a fruitful trade of claret with Britain and the Nordic countries.  Important areas of the archdiocese of Bordeaux produced, at that time, 87% claret and 13% red wine (vinum rubeum), and an entirely negligible share of white wine. These proportions were the rule, not only in Bordeaux, but also in other French wine regions.
The application of claret was still high in the sixteenth century, as at that time it was the favorite wine of the English. But it is also very popular in northern Europe, which the Flemish merchants introduced in Holland at that time. It should be noted that at the same time artists have represented Holland in the decanters and glasses used for the “clear” wine.

Customs statistics of the port of Bruges show that the consumption of claret in Belgium in the fifteenth century and sixteenth century was seventy-six liters per capita. In Paris, after an inventory of 169 wineries, in the first half of the seventeenth century, financiers realized there was a proportion of 80% of “claret.”
The messages from doctors informed about the perception of these light-colored wines: consumers appreciated their liveliness and their freshness, and they were considered a “healthy” wine, “little nourishing the body, and for urban consumers and the aristocratic.
At that time, the claret was made by “bleeding”, but sometimes also includes a mixture of white grapes and black grapes, as was seen when co-plantation of red and white varietals could properly protect the crop from frost.
In 1682, in the vineyard of Argenteuil, it is noted for the first time the appearance of the word “rosy” among the names referring to the clear wine.

A major turning point late seventeenth century; Evolution, schematic proportions and development of red roses
For centuries, the claret largely dominated production and trade, but at the end of the seventeenth century, popular demand, especially in Paris, was moving towards the more strongly colored wines, which, because of longer maceration, were tougher and more tannic than the claret. These wines existed for several centuries but their applications had not been previously expressed.

They were now regarded as ‘more nutritious’ and were supposed to give people strength. They were most often developed in Lower Burgundy, Beam, Gaillac, Cahors, or Spain. Over the decades, they will be called “black wine” or “rosy wine,” then simply “red wine.”

In the eighteenth century, in all areas of production, the maceration time increased little by little, the must remaining on the marks, and the color of wine changed from pink to red.  This coincides with the Social Movements in France who lead the bourgeoisie to supplant the aristocracy. Nothing can now draw a parallel between these two developments, but the coincidence is disturbing.
In England also, demand shifted toward “new French clarets” that are far different wines than those previously referred to as “clarets”, since they are much more colorful. Subsequently, Britain retained the term “claret” but as a synonym for wines from Bordeaux, while the term “pink” will become commonplace elsewhere in Europe.
In the nineteenth century, the demand for pink wine had faded in favor of red. At the dawn of the twentieth century, replanting following the phylloxera crisis confirms the trend; varieties most used are those that produce particularly colorful grapes.
At this time, having dominated for centuries over 80% of production and consumption, the claret and all wines in that range are now under the name “pink wines” and are reduced to less than 10% of the market. The change took place in a century, and although the majority of vineyards produce a few, the real production is now confined to some regions of France and Spain.

In 1936, on French territory, access to paid leave for a share of the population gave rise to the annual tourist migration to the south. This will give some color to the rose market, but it was not until the early twenty-first century that, after a profound qualitative change, the pink was back on the tastes and consumption patterns.