The medal-winning wines from The Global Rosé Masters 2023

We bring you all the medallists from the UK’s biggest rosé-only blind-tasting competition, which highlighted the growing number of places now making fine pink wines – although it was the Camargue, Provence and the Languedoc that came out on top.

IT’S AN irony that the wine category that is most closely associated with frivolity, rosé, is the hardest to get right.

From the grape varieties used, to their management in the vineyard, then their pressing and fermenting, to the handling of the wine, including lees management and ageing, there are plenty of challenges to make a drink that’s pale, pristine, and refreshing. But if there’s one thing that’s key for creating a fine version of this fun drink, it is gearing everything from the outset to making rosé. With more producers taking the trouble to do this, we are witnessing a broadening of sources of first-rate pink wine.

As you can see from the results tables, we had Gold medals from the Languedoc and Provence, as you might expect, but also from Bardolino, Tuscany, Marlborough, Victoria, and Jumilla.

There was also a brilliant wine from Burgenland in Austria, and another that came from Banat in Romania.

The best expressions had ripe fruit, from peach and white-fleshed cherry to red berry and blood orange, while some managed to add complementary additional layers of flavour and texture from extended lees contact in oak barrels.

As for the disappointments, it was notable that some of the wines had almost no fruit flavours at all, especially among the higher price bands.

Discussing a set of “pretty bony and etiolated liquids” in the £30-£50 category, one of the judges, Jonathan Pedley MW, said: “It is curious to reflect on just how much the consumer is prepared to pay for austerity.

In other words, some of the priciest rosés were the lightest, and it seems as though in certain cases, the more you pay, the less you get – both in terms of colour and flavour.

Please click here to peruse our top 10 picks from the tasting, taking in a range of prices and styles, and scroll down to see all the medallists from the competition.

Sweet sparkling rosé (+12 g/l)

Still unoaked dry rosé (4 g/l or lower)

Still unoaked dry rosé (4 g/l or lower) continued

Still unoaked dry rosé (4 g/l or lower)

Unoaked medium-dry rosé (4 g/l to 12 g/l)

Unoaked sweet rosé (12 g/l+)

Oaked dry rosé (4 g/l or lower)

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Top 10 rosés of 2023