The medal-winning wines from The Global Rosé Masters 2022

Following judging in June, we are able to reveal the full list of medal-winning wines from this year’s Global Rosé Masters, featuring outstanding wines from Hampshire to Rioja, and Sicily to Santorini, as well as, of course, Provence.

IN KEEPING with our Global Masters series, our competition for rosé brought in wines from a broad range of locations. While it was, as one might expect, those from increasingly popular Côtes de Provence that dominated, both in terms of number of entries, and Gold medallists, we did see greatness elsewhere, often with a pleasingly distinctive character too. After all, there’s little point creating something that can be done just as well in Provence, unless your aim is simply to do the same, but cheaper

As for those sources of brilliance from beyond the borders of Côtes de Provence, our shining examples in 2022 hailed from Spain, Italy and Greece, as you can see among the highlighted bottles over the following pages. Nevertheless, the highest-scorers of the competition were barrel-influenced rosés from Provence, made using Grenache and Rolle, which now seem to sit atop the pink wine pyramid like Chardonnay-Pinot Noir prestige cuvée blends from Champagne.

But beneath such high points we found much variation in style and quality. Disappointments came primarily among the samples in the £15-20 price bracket, where the judges would have liked to have seen see more colour and fruit flavours, as well as less reduction – smoky, rubbery, burnt-match sulphidic aromas were present in some samples. In certain cases, dilution was an issue, but rarely did we see any overripeness in today’s rosés – the pendulum has well and truly swung away from jammy flavours towards the lean, and sometime green, when it comes to pink wine.

Commenting on the difference between the top end of the rosé category compared to the lower end, long-standing Global Wine Masters judge Patricia Stefanowicz MW suggested that maybe not enough time is being devoted to the entry-point offerings in this sector.

Noting that “oaked dry rosés fared well”, she said: “Maybe winemakers are more willing to spend a little more time and effort on these wines to obtain balance and interest rather than the ‘quick, cool, gentle’ attempts to get the wine in bottle and on the shelf as soon as harvested?”

Nevertheless, as the following results show, there were plenty of wines that managed to both look and taste good. And, not all of these were from the fashionable southern coast of France.

Please read on to find out more about The Global Rosé Masters, as well as to see all the medal-winning wines from this year’s competition, starting with sparkling rosés, and then onto still wines, which are arranged according to price band and style (dry, off-dry, oaked). 

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