We had a rosé we enjoyed very much recently that costs around $12 a liter and in some places even less. It was so good that we reached out to the winemaker to ask how he could make such a nice wine for that price. His answer was charming, much like the wine.
Rosé is easy – and hard. Clearly, it’s easy to pump out oceans of OK rosé, since there are so many on shelves. But making a good rosé – a wine with character, a beverage that earns the right to be called wine – is another matter.
Some rosé is excellent. Some is really bad. Most, to us, exist in a kind of in-between zone. We have been tasting rosés for months to prepare this column and our notes on some will show you what we mean:
“Perfectly OK and tongue-wetting, but there is not much to it. It’s kind of meh.”
“Adult lemonade. Just kind of pleasant pink water.”
“Not clear there was any vision at all here. It just kind of is there.”
“Very watery Kool-Aid.”
“No real thought or soul behind it.”
It does not have to be this way! Some of the rosés we tasted over the past several months stood out. As you look at these, note the diversity of countries, grapes and prices.
--Tenuta di Fessina “Erse” Etna Rosato 2022, from Mt. Etna in Sicily. This wine, from the pioneering estate founded by the late Silvia Maestrelli, was an unqualified winner. It’s made from gently handled Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio grapes. We wrote: “Dry, crisp, with a white-wine-like acidity and minerality and a blush of red-berry flavors. Good with all kinds of food. It’s so crisp it’s like a just-picked, crunchy head of lettuce and just as mouth-watering. Savory. Not a hint of sweetness.” It costs about $25, and was sent by a winery rep.
--Echolands Winery Rosé of Cabernet Franc “Taggart Estate Vineyard” 2023, from Walla Walla Valley in Washington. This stopped us cold because it had a fetching texture. We don’t often use the word “texture” in our notes with rosé. We wrote: “Great fruit, with some texture, a sense of roundness, and just enough balancing acidity, with no sweetness. Maybe some watermelon? This is so very easy to enjoy. Every sip affirmatively tastes refreshing.”
Echolands is owned by Master of Wine/Master Sommelier Doug Frost and the winemaker and general manager is Brian Rudin, a certified sommelier who grew up in Washington. Sustainably farmed, it costs $30. When we looked at the tech sheet, we were disappointed to see that they made only 191 cases and it was only available to wine club members (a winery rep had sent it). We contacted Frost to ask what made the wine so good and why there was so little of it. He responded:
“Candidly, this first iteration of the Cabernet Franc Rosé was limited for two reasons: one, because we had a single block of Cab Franc that was young and not expressing a great deal of character (especially since we had some other blocks that were more expressive), so there was a limited amount of fruit. Two, Brian wanted to barrel-ferment this block and I, frankly, was kinda skeptical. The skepticism didn't last long, not more than a few weeks. I fell in love with that wine pretty quickly and now we want to ramp up production. Not by magnitudes of order, mind you, but we want to keep making it because we love that it is distinctly different from our Grenache rosé, and shows greater texture from the barrel impact.”
--Weingut Loimer “Gluegglich,” Glückliches Weinland Österreich (non-vintage), from Austria. Fred Loimer is one of Austria’s best-known winemakers and a pioneer of biodynamic/organic farming and winemaking. We have been fans for a very long time. This unfined and unfiltered wine, which costs $45, took us by surprise. It’s 67% Zweigelt, 3% St. Laurent and 30% Pinot Noir and was bottled on March 29, 2022. Alcohol: 11 percent. At first, it looked more like an orange wine than a rosé, with some cloudiness. “A little bit of spritz,” we wrote. “A little tar. It’s light-bodied at first but at the same time has some weight at the end. Papaya and guava. Different and charming.” We’re not sure we’d reach for this at the price (it was sent to us), but we’d be very grateful if a trusted wine merchant urged us to buy it. It’s special.
We contacted Loimer with a simple question: What does it take to make an outstanding rosé, of any kind of grape? Is there a secret? His response was direct: “The answer is: NO! No secrets or maybe the same as for all other wines: high quality grapes, ripe but not overripe (as for almost all our wines) and as clean as possible vinification. Our style is for sure a ‘cool climate’ -- Rosé style, low alcohol, bone dry, fruits and freshness. And there are a lot of different styles.”
(Photo: Fred Loimer)
--Domaines Paul Mas “Côté Mas Rosé Aurore” Sud de France 2023, from Languedoc. This was our $12 liter surprise. As we all know about wine, so much of the enjoyment is that each bottle somehow connects to time and place in a special way. About a decade ago, we took a cruise from New York and had a bottle of rosé from France: François Lurton Les Fumées Blanches Rosé. Made from Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault, a judicious, juicy blend, it was perfect while we watched the moon, the stars, the sun and the ocean. When we took the same cruise two years later, we had dreamt about this rosé, but it was not on the wine list! Before the ship even sailed, John discussed this with the bartender, who smiled, took out an ice bucket, put two glasses into it and then, from behind the bar, pulled out a bottle of the Lurton. It was just as wonderful.
So when we have a rosé and get a faraway look in our eyes and one of us says, “This reminds me of the cruise,” that’s very high praise indeed. The Côté Mas reminded us of the cruise – not necessarily the taste, but the ease with which it presented itself. Not sweet, not heavy, not showy, yet not a sip without pure flavors of sunshiny fruit. It’s made from Grenache Noir, Cinsault and Syrah, a savory, mid-weight blend with good acidity that paired well with herbed chicken. We were so taken with the wine that we reached out to winemaker and founder of the Domaines, Jean-Claude Mas, with two simple questions: 1) What is the secret to a good rosé? 2) How do you keep the cost down?
(Photo: Jean-Claude Mas)
His response, here in full, was equally to the point: “a) Bringing wine into the USA from France requires efficient and solid distribution partners. b) Rosé wine requires good yielding vineyards planted in the right soils that enable us to reduce costs of production per liters. c) Rosé wines do not require heavy investment for aging wines and are sold within 4 months from the harvest date.”
Simple question, simple answer, but not at all a simple wine. This is a wine of character that we see in some places online for as little as $10 per liter. Next time you buy a rosé, ask yourself: Is it OK and quaffable or do you really enjoy it? Unless it’s more than a tongue-wetter, try another. There are so many on shelves, from all over the world, at all price points.
Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher conceived and wrote The Wall Street Journal's wine column, "Tastings," from 1998 to 2010. Dorothy and John have been tasting and studying wine since 1973. In 2020, the University of California at Davis added their papers to the Warren Winiarski Wine Writers Collection in its library, which also includes the work of Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson. Dottie has had a distinguished career in journalism as a reporter, editor, columnist and editorial writer at The Miami Herald, The New York Times, and at The Journal. John was Page One Editor of The Journal, City Editor of The Miami Herald and a senior editor at Bloomberg News. They are well-known from their books and many television appearances, especially on Martha Stewart's show, and as the creators of the annual, international "Open That Bottle Night" celebration of wine and friendship. The first bottle they shared was André Cold Duck. They have two daughters.
