4 photos of different seasons with rosé wine — **Choose a season or place! It’s always fun!**

Rosé wine all year long?!?!

YEP! How fun is that?!?!?

It’s not just seasonal??

What does that even mean?

Seasonal is such a vague term.

I once went to buy bookends so that my books didn't fall off a shelf. The store didn't have them. They said it was a seasonal item. Reading is seasonal?!?!?

One time I went to buy cocktail sauce at Costco. They told me it was seasonal. Shrimp cocktail is seasonal? When did that happen?

Since rosé wine is neither reading nor shrimp cocktail, go ahead and drink it all the time. Obviously!

I am putting myself out there and saying: Rosé wine is not seasonal. It is not just for warm weather. It is not just for summer!

A fun wine should always be in season!

Here’s my video take on why rosé is an all-year wine:

You can always watch later, by the way.

Now let’s keep the conversation going:

I know some people take all wine way too seriously.

I clearly choose not to.

There is no downside to finding wine fun. No need to overanalyze or overspend. Value is personal. But seriously, don’t overspend thinking you have to! Don’t assume more expensive is “better.”

I have tried rosé wines for $100. Insanity! It was good, but not any better than those for around $20.

You also do not have to “know” wine to enjoy it. You don’t have to be a trained chef, or even an excellent cook, to enjoy food. You know what tastes good to you.

A little knowledge goes a long way! Let’s discover!

Wait!

Does anyone need or want to know how it is made?

Rosé wines are made from red grapes. The skin is what gives the wine the color. When you crush the grapes, you leave the juice in contact with the skin for a short time. Voilà! You have rosé wine! I really simplified it, but you get the picture.

At this point, you may roll your eyes and say, of course I knew that.

Just making sure.

OR, You may think What? Is that really how rosé is made? In that case, you’ve learned something.

You should never feel you have to pretend you know something you don’t.

If you don’t know something, always ask. (If someone is rude about it, that’s on them!)

Wine fans are learning all the time.

Discovery is definitely part of the fun.

One question people have is whether rosé wine is sweet.

It can be (I’m looking at you White Zinfandel!), but it is usually dry.

Rosé wine can go from savory, to fruit forward to sweet. Many people confuse fruit forward (referred to as fruity by some) and sweet. Nope! With wine it all comes down to balance.

It is not just what grapes are used (and it is often a blend,) but where and how the wine is made. Wine from the Loire Valley will often be different from the South of France (Pays D’Oc region) which will be different from Provence. And that is just in France!

I recently went to a wine tasting and had 3 different rosé wines from the Languedoc region of France. They were all incredibly different! This region is geographically within Pays D’Oc which I mentioned above.

You absolutely should be able to find a rosé wine you will love.
With so many choices there will definitely be a rosé wine that you can love all year round.

Public Service Announcement:

The term dry means different things to different people. To some, it means not sweet.

To some people, it means tannic. If you are expecting one thing, and getting another, you may not be happy about it.

If you are ordering wine, make sure the person you are talking to has the same definition of dry as you do!

If you need help with this or any other term, check out my post:

Top 10 things you need to know to have a useful wine vocabulary.

Click the title or this handy button:

Handy vocabulary button

Back to some questions you may have:

Should I focus on rosé from Provence?

Nope. I think people are most familiar with rosé from Provence. It has incredible marketing and a long history.

Sometimes I think that the success of Provence marketing rosé wine as fabulous by a beach or pool convinced people that summer was the only time to enjoy it.

Some people believed that the pale color of Provence wines ensured that it would be dry. Remember what I wrote above about dry. Don’t judge a wine that way.

Here’s even more helpful info:

Different grape varieties may add different shades of pink. There is a whole world of delicious dry rosé wines no matter the shade of the wine.

8 bottles of rosé wine with plants and buildings in the background — **All different shades and grape types! Oh my!**

From left to right the grape types are Pinot Noir, Rioja Garnacha blend (kosher*), Cabernet Franc, Cabernet/Mourvedre blend, Grenache (kosher*), Aglianico, Mourvedre, and Provence blend.

(*Click here if you want to know about kosher wine. Spoiler alert: it tastes the same.)

FYI:

Rosé wines from Provence are a blend of different varieties of grapes. They will not all taste the same. At all. There are also a bunch of different areas within Provence that have different styles. So just reaching for that rosé from Provence is not a sure bet of delicious wine.

At this point you may say:

Hey, there are too many choices! I like what I’m drinking now.

I can understand that thinking.

But there is always the joy of discovering a wine that you say,

WOW!

or even:

WOW!! I want more of that!

I am extremely value conscious. Value is relative. If you don’t spend a ton of money on wine, you can discover more delicious wine.

Don’t waste money on wine that brings you no joy!

Here is some advice for your wine adventures. Remember that a little knowledge can go a long way.

Bonus:

The email subscribers are the ones that get the store discounts.

How to find that joy with rosé wine any time:

For years it was hard to find rosé wine at other times of the year. Now, it should be available wherever wine is sold all year round.

Is there a best time to buy it?

That will totally depend on where you live and where you buy your wine. If you live near a winery, sometimes there are great deals before the harvest so that they can make room for other wines.

I visited the Hudson Valley in New York State last year and the deals on rosé were incredible. Some were buy 1 case and get another one free. Fantastic if you liked the wine.

Don’t commit to a deal like that unless you taste it.

I was in California this year during the fall, and many of the wineries have similar deals.

Judging by all the pink at my local wine store for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, you could shop then for a good selection.

On the other hand, not sure if there are deals to be had. It could be like how they jack up the price for red roses during that time period. Just saying.

Best way to find rosé wines, or any wines for that matter:

Compare them!!

You may not have the specific vocabulary to describe what you like or don’t like in a wine. If you compare them, odds are you will prefer one to another!

Even better, compare with friends or family. I did just that: