The location was secret until just 48 hours before the festival kicked off but starting Friday February 5th, women and men dressed in pink and white made their way to the uber trendy Art Beam Gallery in NYC’s Chelsea area to celebrate La Nuit En Rosé’s inaugural Winter Edition.
Guests chose and attended 1 of the festivals’ 3 sessions over the weekend where they were transported from the cold streets of New York City to a warm indoor garden with lights strung from the ceiling, beautiful oak long communal tables, flowers lining the sides of the gallery and videos of sandy Bermuda beaches projected on the walls thanks to Bermuda Tourism, one of the festival’s official sponsors.
Guests sampled more than 50 rosés with most being from the south of France region. Some of our favorite wineries were Ferrari (which contrary to what we thought, is not associate with the luxe car brand), Maison Cubi because boxed wine is making a comeback, and the Chateau de Berne winery because their square bottle is breaking all the rules. Many wineries were pouring more than just a “sampling” – luckily Wine Enthusiast magazine presented a tasty food pairings dinner with items such as soft shell tacos from Toloache Taqueria, thin crust pizza from Don Antonio Pizza and New York’s finest cannolis from Caffe Palermo.
So we’ve all heard the saying “Rosé all day” but “Rosé all year”?
“Just last year rosé wine saw over a 25% sales growth within the United States, indicating consumption is no longer governed by seasonality,” said festival founder Pierrick Bouquet. Rosé lovers can rejoice knowing that drinking rosé in winter is perfectly acceptable.
We had the pleasure of chatting with Bouquet on why he started the growing festival and his thoughts on the future of rosé.
The Knockturnal: Rosé has become so popular, why do you think that is?
PB: Several reasons, I think its attractive because its not as intimdating as other categories of wine with fancy names to describe the wine, so rosé is this new category that’s an easy drinking type of wine, can be enjoyed all the time with any kind of food. Another important thing is that when people think about rosé they think about summer time and the south of France and it makes them feel good.
The Knockturnal: What inspired the festival’s winter edition?
PB: We always try to do new things. We’re known for the summer festival in New York and I thought how can I raise awareness for rosé in the winter time – and its by getting people to come to a garden party in the middle of winter and create a summer type of feel.
The Knockturnal: And has the winter edition been as successful as the summer editions?
PB: It’s been as successful but the space is much smaller and for the first time we decided to do the festival for 2 days instead of 3 – it’s 1200 people attending over 2 days. Anything over 1,000 people is a success to me.
If you’re not in the NYC area but love rose, La Nuit En Rosé festival continues onto Miami March 4th – 6th, Los Angeles May 13th – 15th and goes International for the first time with the London edition June 24th – 26th.
ABOUT LA NUIT EN ROSÉ
La Nuit en Rosé is the world’s first food & wine tasting festival specializing in rosé wines. With the ambitious goal of designing the ultimate rosé wine event, La Nuit en Rosé’s founders recognized that rosé wine was not just an emerging trend, but rather a movement that was here to stay. The result is a spectacular culinary experience that highlights the unique diversity and blossoming popularity of rosé wines from all around the world. For more information on participating wine brands, please visit www.nuitrose.com
