Toward a Standardized Color Assessment of Rosé Wines: Application of a Natural Color System Chart Across User Expertise

ABSTRACT The extensive color palette of Rosé wines plays a crucial role in sensory evaluation by both professionals and consumers. However, despite efforts toward objective characterization, a standardized color reference for Rosé wine assessment remains largely unexplored. This study introduces a Natural Color System (NCS) Rosé Wine Chart, designed to evaluate typicality and color preference in Rosé wines, including Rosé de Provence. A total of 197 participants, categorized as Professionals ( N = 60), Novices ( N = 64), and Social Drinkers ( N = 63), selected NCS samples that best represented typical and ideal colors for Rosé and Rosé de Provence wines. Results highlighted significant perceptual differences across expertise levels. Professionals exhibited a refined ability to distinguish between Rosé and Rosé de Provence, selecting lighter, less chromatic, and slightly yellower samples for Rosé de Provence compared to Rosé. The difference in preferred color is more subtle, with Rosé's ideal color being only slightly redder than Rosé de Provence. Social Drinkers made similar distinctions between Rosé and Rosé de Provence's typical color, but these are limited to lightness and hue, and no distinction is made between the wines' preferred color. At the group level, Novices made no distinction between Rosé and Rosé de Provence in either typical or ideal color. However, wine knowledge plays a role, as more knowledgeable Novices tend to align with Professionals and Social Drinkers by selecting redder samples for Rosé. Additionally, more knowledgeable Novices tend to select lighter colors with lower chroma for Rosé and Rosé de Provence as their ideal color. By integrating a color‐order system aligned with human perception, this study demonstrates the advantages of the NCS Rosé Wine Chart for quantitative color evaluation. The ability to express wine color representation directly in CIELAB parameters enhances accuracy, standardization, and cross‐industry communication, and by establishing a perceptually relevant framework for Rosé wine assessment, it will bridge analytical color specifications with sensory perception.