The Best Rosé Wine, How to Find it?

Rosé has been the biggest trend for the last decade and is finally as common as white and red wine. The category is popular and it’s easy to see why — everyone looks great with a glass of pink wine in hand.

The thing is, rosé is a varied category. You can find rosé made with Pinot Noir, Grenache, Syrah, Zinfandel, Cinsault, or any red grapes. Winemakers everywhere use the varietals they have in hand to make rosé; the result is always fantastic. Here’s all you need to know about the best rosé wines and how to find them.

What is Rosé?

Rosé is a wine style made with red grapes and pressed with skins for several hours to create a pink wine.  However, unlike red wine, it uses the same  fermentation process as white wine. The result is wine with scents that might remind you of fruity red wine but the minerality and acidity of crisp white wine. The red grapes don’t add tannins but red berry scents to the wine.

Dry rosé has a thirst-quenching flavor profile, and sweet styles are equally refreshing but sugary. Then you have rosé Champagne and other sparkling rosés — these are in their category. Brut rosé is one of the most elegant (and expensive) sparkling wines worldwide.

What all pink rosé has in common, whether made with Cabernet Sauvignon or a pale rosé of Pinot Noir, is its aroma. Red fruit, pink grapefruit, rose petals, watermelon, or stone fruit, rosé is always enticing on the nose and palate. So, what are the best wines in the category? Let’s find out.

The Best Rosé. Where Does it Come From?

The most famous pink wine is French. Interestingly, in France, rosé is also known as vin gris. Provence rosé is regarded as one of the most popular in the category, with producers as famous as Château d’Esclans and its Whispering Angel Rosé, Domaine Miraval, and Château Minuty. The pink wines labeled as Côtes de Provence and those made in every other Maison in the French Rhône Valley are fantastic, but they’re not necessarily the best.

South of France shares similarities with other wine regions worldwide. California produces spectacular rosé in Napa and Sonoma, and California rosé is good. Then you have the Willamette Valley in Oregon and even a few cellars in New York (like Wolffer Estate) specializing in the wine style.

Italy is no stranger to Rosato, and every Italian winemaker makes a bottle of rosé now and then, from the warm regions like Puglia to the cold Alps. Generally, people make rosé wherever conditions are right to make refreshing white wine.

Spain is home to spectacular vino rosado, especially in northern Navarra, often compared to Provence itself. Spanish rosé, whether made with Tempranillo, Garnacha, or Mourvèdre, is crowd-pleasing and delicious, and given its fruit-forwardness, it’s one of many people’s favorite for food pairings.

Make Rosé Part of Your Life

Rosé is versatile at the table, refreshing, and easy to drink. It is varied too, so there’s a pink wine for every palate, budget, and occasion.