According to the Fairfax Media the craft beer apocalypse is looming, and it is heralded by none other than rosé wine.
Or should that be “brosé”?
The article reports that Treasury Wine Estates is looking to expand its rosé offering in the wake of expansion beyond traditional gender lines in the US and Europe in the current summer season. Or simply: men are drinking pink wine by the gallon and now lots of people are writing about it.
One columnist for the Guardian UK was shocked that his occasional glass of pink tipple was actually a deeply subversive act, and that he had joined hordes of men in England who were opting for a nice glass of rosé over a pint of ale.
As far as the trend for making the name more “manly” – in a culture that does love to mash words together (Kimye, anyone?) – that can be attributed to a think piece from the depths of New York that expounds the trend of men turning to pink tipples despite their feminine connotations.
While it may seem like a beat up, there is some truth in the ridiculousness. Wine Communicators of Australia hosted a panel discussion and tasting looking at the opportunities for Australian rosé in May this year. It was a primer on the versatility of rosé as a complement to food and how on- and off-premise can educate consumers around the fact that the category is a many and varied thing. Not simply a teeth-achingly sweet drink for those with lesser developed palates.
Then there are the growth figures from the past few years that suggest that the market for rosé is expanding, excellent news for Australian purveyors of quality rosé – of which there are many.
In fact, the idea of men drinking rosé is nothing new.
De Bortoli Wines has been running its Rosé Revolution – which comes with the tagline “Real Men Drink Pink” – from 2010-2014, with the support of manly men in the food industry such as celebrity chefs Matt Moran and Luke Mangan. This campaign focuses on promoting “dry” and “textual” rosé wines that have been discriminated against by men due to their colour – the obvious association is that pink wines are always very sweet, a generalisation that is certainly not always true.
As to whether the sky is about to fall and the powerhouse craft beer industry in Australia will fall in the face of a mighty wave of “brosé”, we will wait for the warmer weather with bated breath.