Lettie Teague of the Wall Street Journal wants readers and rosé buyers to embrace “last year’s” rosé for many reasons. One is the supply chain, making it undetermined if the 2021 vintage will be state-side in the Spring. These wines are not just your “best-bet” for lack of other options, many have evolved and continue to be very refreshing. Lettie recounts a wine that she revisited and “It was every bit as good as I remembered it, no less lively or fresh.”
Rocco Lombardo, president of Wilson Daniels shares that rose sales are indeed seasonal, and therefore their arrival is time sensitive. “We sell 75% of our rosés between April and September,” he told me in a phone call. Still, Mr. Lombardo decried the idea that rosé is a “seasonal” wine, to be consumed only at a specific time of year. It makes no more sense to him than the idea that sparkling wine should be consumed only for a celebration.”
Related Wines
Attems
Attems Pinot Grigio Ramato Rosé 2020
Friuli DOC
Attems Pinot Grigio Ramato continues a traditional way of producing Pinot Grigio in the province of Venice. The term ramato, or "coppery", was used to describe the pink hue of the wine due to the slight contact with the purple skins before pressing and fermenting. This rosé boasts a rich, fruity bouquet, and opens full on the palate, with multi-faceted flavors.
Masciarelli
Masciarelli Villa Gemma Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo 2020
Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo DOC
Perhaps the finest rosé production area in Italy, and one of the few appellations dedicated only to rosé, Cerasuolo has a long history of producing serious rosé, and showcasing how well the Montepulciano grape is adapted to rosé. Masciarelli first produced this wine in 1986, only 5 years after the winery was founded. With deep fruit and structure but no shortage of pleasure, it is a rosé you can take to the dinner table.
Château Minuty
Château Minuty M de Minuty Limited Edition Rosé 2020
Côtes de Provence
Minuty invites you to savor the essence of the French Riviera with its fourth M de Minuty Limited Edition bottle. This year’s iconic M de Minuty “Bouteille Provençale” breathes new life through the minimalist design of French artist Madi. A departure from the bright, colorful designs of years past, Madi seeks to evoke purity, calmness and comfort in her bottle artwork for the 2020 “M” Limited Edition.
Château Minuty
M de Minuty Rosé 2020
Côtes de Provence
M de Minuty is the quintessential Côtes de Provence rosé, a style that Chateau Minuty defined,and is the reason behind their success as the world's top producer of premium rosé. Fresh, lively and perfectly balanced, fantastic quality, a glass in hand transports you to the seaside and the French riviera lifestyle, watching the sea and the sky, surrounding yourself with friends and family, and enjoying life to the fullest.
Château Minuty
281 Rosé 2020
Côtes de Provence
281 refers to the Pantone number for this royal blue color that elegantly cascades in a glaze down the side of the bottle. It evokes the sky and the sea of Minuty's French Riviera home, in particular the deep blue that appears everywhere after the strong afternoon wind. 100% estate from a single old plot of Grenache whose clone is exclusive to Château Minuty, it is the ultimate reflection of their special seaside vineyard and Provence.
Château Minuty
Prestige Rosé 2020
Côtes de Provence
If you notice just one wine on the beach and seaside restaurants in the south of France, it is almost certainly Minuty Prestige. This wine has become the emblem of the Riviera lifestyle, and it is place that has been earned through the unbelievable dedication to quality by the Minuty family.
Château Minuty
Rose et Or Rosé 2020
Côtes de Provence
Rose et Or encapsulates the Chateau Minuty Saint-Tropez estate. It speaks of the seaside with its freshness and flavors, and represents the ultimate in what a quality Côtes de Provence rosé can achieve: it's gentle freshness giving way to concentrated, almost gourmet flavors. It moves from the terrace to the white table cloth like no other.
E. Guigal
E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône Rosé 2020
Côtes du Rhône
The Guigal family has made serious rosé wines since the 1940s, and their Côtes du Rhône Rosé, like all their Côtes du Rhône wines, is humble in name only. The wine bursts with irresistible fresh red fruits and yet is also long and satisfying. Because of its quality and body, it's a rosé that you can bring to the table, and do so all year long. It is a rosé that offers both refreshment and pleasure.
E. Guigal
E. Guigal Tavel 2020
Tavel
The Guigal family has been working for decades in Tavel, and today specifically works with 6 growers to produce the traditional style of rosé the region is known for deep fruit, full of spice you find in the reds of the area, structured, and substantial enough to age. Thank goodness this appellation across the river from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 100% dedicated to rosé, still produces wines of this full-bodied style!
Marietta Cellars
Marietta Cellars Old Vine Rosé 2020
California, United States
Marietta's Old Vine Rosé is a perfect extension of the Old Vine series. Made in a Provençale, direct-press style from some of the oldest Syrah and Grenache vines in California, it is fresh, nuanced, and perfectly balanced to enjoy with food or on its own. As always with the "OVR" wines, it delivers a lot more substance and pleasure than you could expect.
Related Producers
Marietta Cellars
Sonoma & Mendocino, California
Starting with only a handful of purchased grapes in 1978, Marietta Cellars has been a standout winery in Sonoma and Mendocino since the very start. Founded by Chris Bilbro, a Sonoma native with winemaking roots dated back three generations, Marietta rose to prominence with its revolutionary Old Vine Red, a California red blend that essentially created the category. The winery has slowly expanded its estate holdings over the past thirty years, evolving into a beacon for high quality, balanced Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Rhône variety blends.
Masciarelli
Abruzzo, Italy
Through tremendous vision and endless innovation, Masciarelli has not only become one of the most admired wineries in Italy, but is often regarded as the standard-bearer of the Abruzzo region. Led by the mother-daughter team of Marina Cvetić and Miriam Lee Masciarelli, the winery is the only one in Abruzzo to own land in all four provinces and produce wine from 100% estate-owned vineyards.
Château Minuty
Côtes de Provence
Château Minuty is the global leader in Côtes de Provence rosé, and beyond that it can be argued is the most important estate in the history of Provence rosé. The Saint-Tropez based, family owned estate has been, since its founding, one of the quality leaders for the region. Minuty then became one of the most visible producers in the second half of the 20th century, a result of quality production and commercial foresight when no one in the region could imagine the global phenomenon Provence rosé would become. And then in the last two decades, Minuty defined the vision for and led the unbelievable growth in Provence rosé around the globe.
Attems
Friuli, Italy
Attems is one of the most historic producers in the northern Italian region of Friuli, with a winemaking heritage dating back nearly a millennium. Attems wines have a decidedly Friulian character: fresh, full of flavor and elegant, they respect the singularity of the unique terroir of a region ripe for discovery.
E. Guigal
Rhône Valley, France
The more you learn about the Guigal family, the more astounding becomes their story. Their wines are the benchmarks for every Rhone appellation, and over the last thirty years they have become arguably the most lauded producer in the world. Year after year the Guigal family produces wines of exceptional quality that in all classes offer exceptional value.
