Rosé

Clairet

Robe — Between rosé and red — the pale ruby the Middle Ages called claret

  • redcurrant
  • cherry
  • rose
  • orange zest
Palate
A light red's fruit with a rosé's coolness; supple, faintly tannic
Ageing
1–3 years
Serving
10–12 °C

The ancestor. Medieval Bordeaux did not ship today's dark reds but a pale, briefly-macerated red — the wine England called "claret" and drank in staggering quantity: in good years of the fourteenth century, most of the wine England imported was this. The word survives in English to this day as the nickname for red Bordeaux.

Modern clairet, an official appellation since 1950, is its deliberate revival: a short two-or-three-day maceration on Merlot and the Cabernets, giving something between rosé and red — cherry fruit, a whisper of tannin, best cool. A small production, drunk young, and a six-century memory in a glass.

The blend

A typical modern composition

Where it is made

Producers

A few estates working in this style today — a sample, not a ranking

Through time

Indicative presence index, 0–100Origins & Antiquity — 5The Monastic Middle Ages — 90Exploration & the Fortified Age — 40Classifications & the Golden Age — 10Phylloxera & the World Crises — 5The Modern & New World Era — 6Antiquity550015001700187519506