Strangely enough the word rosé was introduced to the English language by a British Egyptologist. From the middle of the 1800s onwards, Egypt had become a major travel destination for European and American visitors and guidebooks on how to cope in this foreign environment successfully became widely popular. One of the most widely available ones was the Handbook for Travellers in Egypt (1847) by John Wilkinson. After the typical education of a 19th century British traveller (Harrow and Oxford), Wilkinson went to Egypt to visit the sites which would dominate his research for the rest of his life. As a scholar of Egypt’s history and resident, Wilkinson was supremely qualified to introduce Egyptian customs and culture to fellow travellers. In his work, he not only gave practical advice such as how to find in a hotel in Cairo, but he also attended to the mores sophisticated needs of his readers. Besides boats, camels, asses and saddles, the book features a long list of the types of wines available to the European traveller. And the very first thing on the list is Rose Champaign. The travellers had it good!
There are limited references to rosé or pink wines for the next 100 years. Rosés were known to exist, particularly in France, as the name suggests, but they were not particularly popular or available. This changed after the Second World War when a slightly sweet rosé wine was produced by two winegrowers in Portugal.
In the 1980s, the preeminent of the two – Mateus – managed to sell some 40 million bottles a year of their sparkling wine, most of it rosé, at very affordable prices. It was a masterstroke of advertising. Rosé became a fashionable and affordable alternative for a light summer wine. Despite its current association with more affordable wines, rosé is still available at the upper end of the market as well. In fact, Rosé Champaign can still be purchased in champagne form, just as British travellers to the pyramids ordered it 150 years ago.
