Forty years ago, tasting notes for rosés from Provence were full of descriptors that felt like a reflection of the terroir, like ripe red fruit and garrigue. But in the 1990s, with the evolution of gentle pressing, temperature control, and yeasts for rosé, these wines became fresher and strawberry notes began to dominate.
By 2010, recognizing that rosé appealed to consumers who also loved the vibrant, grassy, thiol-driven notes of Sauvignon Blanc, rosé producers started to embrace those flavours thanks to thiol-enhancing yeasts, which thrive in lower-oxygen environments with cold temperatures. In Provence, this move towards more reductive rosé winemaking was also necessitated by the high proportion of oxidative varieties, notably Grenache and Cinsault.
Today, technical sheets for Provence rosés still abound with assurances of avoiding oxygen at all cost, but reductive winemaking can be taken to an extreme, and if not handled properly, the wines can take on unpleasant characteristics like cabbage, rubber, smoke, or even struck match. While most winemakers in Provence still focus on keeping the color pale, there is a new, quiet evolution in style taking place. A small but growing number of producers are showing that, with careful management of oxygen, they can add a desirable level of complexity to their rosés.
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Why Oxygen Matters During Winemaking
An excess or lack of oxygen during the winemaking process can lead to unpleasant aromas through a variety of ways. Reductive winemaking, which aims to protect a wine from oxygen, can result in volatile sulfur compounds smelling of rotten eggs or burnt rubber. The use of sulphur dioxide (S02), an antioxidant, plays a critical role in protecting wine from oxygen and for years was seen as a way of producing better, fresher styles of rosé. However, the use of S02 can also result in these reductive aromas, even with sufficient oxygen. Moreover, the aerobic action of yeast transforming sugar into alcohol requires some oxygen and without enough, the yeast cells start to stress and absorb the alcohol they have produced, which in turn creates off aromas.
On the other hand, insufficient protection from oxygen can lead wines to develop oxidized notes. But the level of oxidation is key. Fully oxidized wine is faulty, having spoiled through excess oxygen exposure. But a rosé made in an oxidative style, by contrast, is the intentional opposite of a reductive wine, typically showing fewer primary fruit flavors and more secondary notes such as honey, nuts, beeswax, or even slightly riper, more rounded red fruit flavors.
Despite the current predominance of reductive rosé winemaking in Provence, producers are rethinking their approach to rosé, and some winemakers are now allowing more oxygen into their rosés in an effort to improve the wines. Audrey Baccino, the enologist for Domaine des Peirecèdes in Côtes de Provence Pierrefeu, feels “oxygen could be said to be the enemy of rosé, but it does give some complexity.”
Changing Perspectives in Provence
Plenty of Provence winemakers still favor a more reductive approach. Mathieu Meyer, the technical director and winemaker of Château Galoupet in Provence’s coastal region of La Londe, acknowledges that the reductive versus oxidative style is an “endless question” that largely depends on the tastes of the winemaker and the client. At Galoupet, they are more on the anti-oxygen side, which they favor to maintain freshness.
“The only time we allow oxygen is during the harvest prior to the must-pump—[there’s] no protection, even with sulfites—and during fermentation when we add a little oxygen to help the yeast … and during aging in oak,” says Meyer. “The oxygen is carefully controlled with the use of diffusers, which can accurately deliver the exact quantity of oxygen wanted. Timing is key—[the oxygen should be delivered] when the yeast population is at its peak.” For Meyer, this controlled approach is better than using porous containers such as terracotta or cement, especially for sensitive varieties such as Grenache, Cinsault, and Rolle.
For others, the approach is shifting. Jeany Cronk, the cofounder of Maison Mirabeau, was a massive fan of the fresh, reductive style, but their new wine, La Réserve Rosé, is gently aged in barrel and Cronk is slowly converting to the more oxidative style. “For La Réserve, we don’t just talk about oxygen, we actively tolerate it, we want to get the wine used to it,” she says.
Baccino plays with a blend of reductive and oxidative winemaking techniques. She blends two different press juices, one made using inert conditions to provide a touch of citrus and thiol notes, and one where the grapes are unprotected from oxygen, which she feels adds a level of complexity.
Oxidative Winemaking and Provence Grape Varieties
Winemaking consultant and owner of Château Paquette in the volcanic region of Côtes de Provence Fréjus, Jerome Paquette, believes the choice of grape variety is an important part of the equation. For example, Syrah, a highly reductive grape with a high percentage of thiol precursors, can cope with heavy oxidative handling. For Paquette, using “[oxidative] Tibouren to complement the [reductive] Mourvèdre” in his rosé Thémis, which is vinified and aged in barrel, helps the wine achieve balance.
Richard Maby, the third-generation owner of Domaine Maby in Tavel, is in the unique position of having a range of rosés. His Lirac rosé is his most reductive, largely due to the high percentage of oxidative Cinsault. His premium Tavel, Libiamo, made with a blend of white Grenache, black Grenache, and Cinsault, depending on the vintage, is the most oxidative of his wines thanks in part to a longer maceration, and ageing in demi-muid for up to a year. “I believe that longer macerations, and therefore more tannins, better protect wines from oxidation, as tannins are well-known antioxidants,” says Maby. “As far as I’m concerned, these wines age better and longer.”
Jacqueline Guichot, the owner of Domaine de Saint-Ser on the limestone slopes of Côtes de Provence SainteVictoire, says that rather than fighting the character of Cinsault she admits that “Oxygen is there, we work with it, we’re not going to stop it.” She has experimented with amphora and concrete eggs and currently uses “stoneware, because it’s less porous than terracotta, which is more porous than a barrel.”
A Broader Perspective Outside of Provence
For many, the fresh, reductive style of most Provence rosés defines the entire category of wine, which makes it all the more difficult to make stylistic changes in the region. Austrian biodynamic producer Johannes Zillinger admits it takes courage to make a rosé differently, but as he is in the Weinviertel, away from the constraints of producing “Provence” rosés, he’s doing just that.
Zillinger’s more natural approach, which includes spontaneous fermentation, is possible with his sulfite-free, oxidative environment. Using an open press with no protective atmosphere during fermentation, he is careful in the post-fermentation phase “filling up the barrels directly after fermentation and sealing the barrels after finished malolactic fermentation,” he says. “Storage is always on the full lees and just 30 milligrams of total sulfites [are added] on the day of bottling. This helps to protect the freshness, juiciness, and fruitiness over years.”
He also notes that to be able to produce in this more oxidative way, work begins in the field, harvesting the grapes with a low pH. “It’s all about the pH level (below 3.3) by nature and not by adding acid. This helps to stabilize the color, soften already extracted tannins, secure a fast and uncomplicated spontaneous fermentation, and create more mouth feeling later in the wine.”
Rosés made using older, traditional methods are often viewed as the ultimate expression of long, oxidative ageing, such as the Grenache-based traditional Gran Reservas of Rioja with their minimum four years in barrel. Rosados from López de Heredia and López de Haro, both currently selling their 2012 vintages, show that oxygen can create high-quality rosé.
With most rosés around the world still following a reductive regime to produce fresh, crunchy, crisp wines, the use of porous barrels, amphora, and pottery—aimed at building structure, concentration and longevity—is still in its infancy, particularly in Provence. Yet the conversation is shifting. As more producers explore oxidative techniques, they are challenging assumptions about what rosé can be: not just a wine for early drinking, but one with complexity, aging potential, and identity rooted as much in the cellar as in the vineyard.
The future of rosé may not lie in one approach, but in a more nuanced interplay between oxygen and restraint, where winemaking choices amplify variety and terroir instead of repeating a reductive recipe.
Dispatch
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Elizabeth Gabay, MW, has been working with the wines of Provence since the mid-1980s and has lived in the region since 2002. She has written several books focused on rosé and southern French wine. Ben Bernheim grew up in the South of France, becoming firmly involved with wine through his university tasting team, after which he worked on vineyards and then as a hotel sommelier. Since 2020, he has specialized in building awareness of premium rosés and has co-authored two books with Gabay. Their latest book, The Wines of Provence, was published in July 2026, along with a new Provence Guide.
