Foncalieu aims to be leading rosé producer

French co-operative Les Vignobles Foncalieu has announced its intention to become one of the country’s leading producers of rosé.

Speaking at Wine Paris last week, the company’s chairman, Michel Servage, said that 60% of Foncalieu’s production was white and rosé wines and that amount would increase.

“Our goal is to become one of the leading rosé producers in France,” he said. “We already produce eight million bottles of rosé a year [across 10 labels] and the goal is to produce 10m by 2025.”

The Languedoc (where Les Vignobles Foncalieu is based) already produces twice as much rosé as Provence he added – even if Provençal rosé is the more famous.

The announcement came at an unveiling of a new label for the rosé in the group’s ‘Le Versant’ range (pictured).

Vignobles Foncalieu also recently added a new rosé to its output with the introduction of three new wines in what it calls the ‘Green Gang’ range.

The three wines (red, white and rosé), use fruit sourced from growers who are currently undergoing conversion to organic agriculture and the packaging for the wines is produced from recycled material.

Vignobles Foncalieu recently announced that 1,000 hectares belonging to its growers were now classified as Haute Valeur Environmentale III.

Servage said: “Our Foncalieu branded wines will all be HVE certified by 2021 – that’s 3.2 million bottles.

“Since 2017, 29 farms have demonstrated the relevance of this environmental framework by joining the movement. By 2020, 110 farms are due to be certified, representing 1,600 out of a total of 4,000 hectares under vine.

“This officially recognises the environmental performance of our winegrowers and wineries. It confirms that farming promotes biodiversity through techniques that safeguard and use natural areas within the vineyards and in the surrounding areas”,