The Annual Juhlin Tasting’13 – rosé champagne the color of sensualism [collaboration with Twenty Studios]

Hand on the heart would you leave your newborn son dressed in pink? Will you proudly attend with a bouquet of pink roses on his graduation day? Hardly! No color is as strongly value-laden and gender-controlled as the romantic and soft creamy color pink. I just need to go to myself. I have never ever bought a pink gadget, but have always been kneeled by rose-skinned blondes who dress in cut creations.

There is also nothing more sensual than pink lips. I also get a moody expectant feeling in my stomach when the Japanese cherry trees are in full spring bloom. The pink leader shirt in Giro d´Italia is anything but goofy and Sicilian tan macho men in Palermo have the Italian league’s best looking sweaters in bright cream tart pink. The Pink Panther is my favorite animal and, overall, I must reluctantly admit that I still like the color pink, which for a real man, even in feminine Sweden, is anything but politically correct. Rosé champagne then? Is it also girly and politically incorrect for us men? It took a while before we realized why they were staring at us, but me and my photographer Pål Allan were often regarded as a suspicious love couple when, during our first trips to champagne, we ordered a rose champagne for dinner after our tough work days.

So, even in Champagne, there are prejudiced prejudices surrounding this wine’s loaded symbolic value. First, we must note that in reality, rosé champagne is hardly cream pink with the dominance of white. Most rosé campaigns have instead a variety of red shades with elements of brown, blue or yellow to orange. I’m sorry to disappoint you but really no lipstick pink champagne exists. Lately, however, several completely red rose campaigns have emerged. Champagne which, in all honesty, should be classified as sparkling red wine. Since there is no such appellation and no precise measurable boundary around how red a rosé champagne may be, the darkest specimens always get away with a warning before they appear if possible, even darker the following year. The color is psychologically important for how you perceive a wine and rosé champagne has a much wider color range than its white cousins ​​and also colors our taste more clearly if the expression is allowed. Far too many men have come to realize that rose champagne can not be serious precisely because of the color and just as many, usually women, prefer categorical rose champagne precisely thanks to the appetizing female-appealing color. Personally, I think that there are just as many fantastic and mediocre rosé campaigns as white ones, though almost always at a slightly higher price.