Is the typicality of “Provence Rosé wines” only a matter of color?

Aims: Given the diversity of French dry Rosé wines, Provence Rosé producers (France) wish to evaluate the typicality of their wines in order to better identify their typical characteristics. A clear pink color is one of them but they would also like to identify some specific odors and aromas. Here, we address these issues by: (i) assessing whether the identity of Provence Rosé wines is perceptible by tasting and shared by professionals based on specific odors and aromas (disregarding color as indicator using black glasses), and (ii) evaluating the impact of color on Provence Rosé wine typicality. Methods and results: Complementary methods were used: exemplarity measurements by a panel of wine professionals, sensory evaluation by a trained expert panel, and color assessment. It was confirmed that Provence Rosé wine typicality is based on color because the clearest wines were found to be more typical. However, typicality in odors and aromas was also demonstrated. Using black glasses, wine professionals from Provence agreed on ‘citrus fruit’, ‘exotic fruit’ and ‘fresh floral’ odors and aromas being typical attributes of Provence Rosé wines. Next, when using transparent glasses, the color of the wines clearly modified the perception of exemplarity. Conclusion: There is no single sensory profile of typical Provence Rosé wines. Variability within the sensory profiles of this specific Rosé wine area was observed, but some common aromatic and visual characteristics were identified. Significance and impact of the study: These results could be used as a marketing tool to better highlight the specific intrinsic characteristics of Provence Rosé wines. It will now be interesting to investigate the Provence area further in order to evaluate potential sub-area specificities linked to “terroir” factors