Wine Focus: June - is it time for Rosé yet?

[David M. Bueker]

This spring has been bizarre. 90+ degree days a couple of times, but mostly cold. Very un-spring cold. There were snow flurries nearby yesterday. WTF?

Anyway, I used to not be much of a Rosé fan, but somehow (umm…Tempier) that changed several years ago, and now I love it when I have a warm day, light (usually veg-centric) meals, and a bottle of lightly chilled Rosé. My tastes in Rosé have also branched out, though I still prefer a Mourvèdre-based Rosé if given a choice.

So let’s celebrate the warmer weather, and talk Rosé. What are you opening? Which grapes are your favorites for Rosé? What are your favorite food pairings?

Yes I know Rosé is great anytime, but there is something about a bottle when things finally warm up.

Good subject. I notice that more younger folk are looking at the pinkies! Great selection downtown at the store I frequent but at other stores not as impressive a selection. Overall, Bandol rosés always do it for me.

In spite of its now becoming very fashionable in France, I’m not a big fan of rosé. I can’t think of a single one that I would rank amongst my great wine experiences. However we have just been struck with a premature week long heat wave (daily maxima well into the 30s C and minima hardly below 20°C), so I was overwhelmed by a popular demand in the family for rosé. I much prefer a good dry white or a light fresh red like Beaujolais or Loire Cab Franc from a sandy soil, but I complied and rushed out to buy. The results below are very mixed. I always reached for bottles towards the back of the shelves but some of the bottles may have been damaged by light strike about which I ranted last time the rosé topic came up.

2024 Château Henri Bonnaud Côtes de Provence Sainte-Victoire - France, Provence, Côtes de Provence Sainte-Victoire (22/05/2026)
I bought this on the strength of the producer's nice red and white wines from Palette, one of my favourite appellations in Provence, where Château Simone produces one of France’s best pinks. However, this Bonnaud rosé was disappointing. There were some pretty strawberry tinged aromatics but the palate was soft centred, almost sweet and rather bland with none of the crispness and grip needed to pair well with Madagascar and other prawns in a garlic tinged preparation. Only fair.


2024 Château La Gordonne Côtes de Provence Tête de Cuvée Rosé - France, Provence, Côtes de Provence (23/05/2026)
We have been hit by an early heat wave, so there is a popular demand in the family to bring on the pinks. This one is better than yesterday's rather soggy offering from near Aix-en-Provence. Colour is typically pale pink, nose is quite subdued and the medium- bodied palate is quite refreshing with citrus and red fruit notes and adequate acidity and grip. Quite good.


2022 Château Thieuley Bordeaux Rosé Made With Love - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Rosé (24/05/2026)
Unfortunately the fruit of this bottle has faded a lot compared with my last year's and we are left with a rather characterless and boring drink. Only fair.


2024 Lionel Osmin & Cie Négrette Le Conservatoire - France, Southwest France, Comté Tolosan (25/05/2026)
This is the best so far of the pinks which I rushed to buy to help face the premature heat wave. Crisp and refreshing with lively fruit, earthiness and a perfumed overlay which was slightly reminiscent of reds from Fronton made from the same grape. Good.


2025 Château Barthès Bandol Rosé - France, Provence, Bandol (27/05/2026)
The first really good pink of the season and also worthy of its appellation. From the first sniff, it showed aromas of cherry, strawberry and rose petals followed by a lively medium bodied palate replaying the same with added mineral touches and some real backbone. One of the problems of a near 30° ambient temperature is keeping the wine at a stable cool temperature but here slight warming opened up extra complexity without flabbiness. Very good.


2025 Domaine de la Fourmi Sable de Camargue Rosé - France, Provence, Sable de Camargue (28/05/2026)
Quite a lot of aroma jumps out of the glass, mainly strawberry, but slightly marred by a touch of bonbon anglais(=English boiled sweet). On the lively palate, this element is less marked and pleasant fruit, decent acidity and some grip make for an agreeable drink.


2023 Domaine Roblin Sancerre Rosé Les Fossiles - France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre (30/05/2026)
As always with Sancerre rosé, the Pinot fruit's juiciness, moreish minerals and acidity bring a touch of class but this one is quite pale in colour and light in body compared with the best. Good though.
Posted from CellarTracker

[David M. Bueker]

Unfortunate that you had such mixed results.

I like a good, uncomplicated rose on a hot summer day. Although I like the viognier from Cline Family Cellars even more. My favorite rose used to be Bonny Doon's vin gris de cigare, but it went downhill after Randal Grahm sold the winery. Currently I'm fond of Louis Jadot's rose, made from gamay grapes grown in Beaujolais.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

Having a lovely Grenache Rosé from Desire Lines winery tonight.

I do think Bandol rosés as a class tend to do well, but one of my favorite rosés is the Baudry Chinon rosé, which also ages quite well. Then we get into semantics: is Tiberio's Cerasuolo a rosé or light red?

[David M. Bueker]

is Tiberio's Cerasuolo a rosé or light red?

Yes.

Pizza party last night and one person brought along a 2019 Rosa by KT. This australian wine was grenache and tempranillo but was rather on the elderly side!! Lacked acidity.... from Watervale.

Sorry, not a fan.

Most recent still I had was in 2019; that was a Rondo Rose from a vineyard in my own fair city (and the best thing I can say about it was that Rondo is better pink than red), and the previous one was in 2013.

I've unexpectedly got a pink fizz which was delivered by Amazon instead of the white I'd ordered. I re-ordered the white and Amazon, refunded what I paid for the pink and said I could keep it.

However, I sometimes buy pink for tastings and I am presenting a tasting tonight that has a pink:
Clos Culombu (Etienne Suzzoni)
The Society’s Corsican Rosé 2024
12.8% abv
Vin de Corse
(90% Sciaccarellu, 10% Cinsault)

[Jenise]

Not all questions are this easy to answer, but my favorite rose? If I had to choose one and forsake all others? Easy. Tavel. Domaine Mordoree. Serve them with strong cheese or anything containing herbs, tarragon especially. Another favorite was Navarro's delicate rose of pinot noir out of California. Used to buy both by the case so had enough to hold them back for the wonders of bottle aging, but once life here at Chez J got complicated a few years back I stopped.

I may have half a dozen bottles other things in the cellar right now, but I'm not sure what.

[David M. Bueker]

Gosh Peter, if forced to live with one wine for the rest of my life it would be a Rosé Champagne. Not sure which one, but likely Vilmart.

Agreed about Domaine Mordoree--one rose to rule them all.

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

Maybe it's just that my excellent neighborhood wine shop owner loves rosé and is good at picking excellent bottles, but I too find that I've been enjoying rosé more - and buying more of it – in recent years. It still seems a hard sell, though. Whenever I feature a pink wine in a Substack post, I notice that engagement and the number of people who open the TN drops off. Not precipitously, but enough to show up in the numbers. I wonder if the negative effects of the blush-wine craze are still with us, although, one hopes, dropping off as that insipid sweet juice fades from memory.

Anyway, here's one I tried last month and liked a lot ...

Bieler Père & Fíls 2024 “Sabine” Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence Rosé ($14.99)
Not at all pink, Bieler Père & Fíls “Sabine” Rosé shows an attractive light copper color in the glass. A not entirely traditional Provençal blend of Grenache (41%), Syrah (30%), Cinsault (10%), Cabernet Sauvignon (10%), Rolle (7%), and Counoise (2%), it opens up with a springlike mix of juicy peaches and ripe strawberries. With swirling and time in the glass it adds hints of fresh herbs and lemon-lime. All these refreshing flavors are shaped by crisp acidity that lingers into a long finish. 13% alcohol. U.S. importer: Bieler Pere et Fils, St. Helena, Calif.

Gosh Peter, if forced to live with one wine for the rest of my life it would be a Rosé Champagne. Not sure which one, but likely Vilmart.

We all have different tastes. Me, I dislike pink Champagne.

Clos Culombu (Etienne Suzzoni)
The Society’s Corsican Rosé 2024
12.8% abv
Vin de Corse
(90% Sciaccarellu, 10% Cinsault)

We had the tasting. Inspired by a post by Jenise some time ago, I titled it Island Hopping and had wines from eight islands - Corfu , Crete, Madeira, Majorca, Sardinia, Sicily, Tasmania & Tenerife. I’d managed to get white, pink & red wine, topped and tailed by a traditional method sparkler and a fortified wine.

The pink was so pale that when it was in a glass it appeared white. It was my dud of the evening, but over all was scored the last but one.

The pinks are back on the table. We have been enjoying warm temperatures (max 26 to 30°C) for a few days and now it seems as if we are in for a record breaking week of temperatures (3 days of max nearly 40°C = over 100°F).

Here are three recent bottles, two of which were creditable if not exciting.

French medical authorities are recommending that senior citizens should abstain from alcohol in weather like that now imminent. I have paid little heed to the demonization of alcohol by medical “experts” in recent years but am wondering if they may not have a fair point here. Any views about this from the forum?

2025 Les Vignerons de Tavel Tavel Acantalys - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Tavel (13/06/2026)
As usual with Tavel, colour is quite dark and there is more body than usual with pinks. Add to this rose petal aromas and round S.Rhône fruit together with sufficient acidity and modest alcohol for the region (13.5%) and there is a lot to like. Good.

2025 Joseph Castan Crocodile Diamanté - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Costières-de-Nîmes (16/06/2026)
The most interesting thing about this wine is its fancy bottle with a scaly surface, perhaps in reference to the wine's name Crocodile Diamanté. The wine itself is another of those flabby almost sweet pinks. Its colour is more amber than pink and its flavours show a lot of sweet cherry with an ointment like edge and little acidity and grip. Mediocre.

2024 Château Saint-Laurent Rosé - France, Southern Rhône, Côtes-du-Rhône (18/06/2026)
This is an agreeable rosé made from Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah & Viognier. There is some round fruit without the sweet-seeming impression sometimes imparted by this grape cocktail because of the freshness of its acidity backed up by some grip on the finish. Quite good.
Posted from CellarTracker

Château Saint-Laurent is owned by Tony Parker, a former basket-ball star in the USA. His rosé seems a better effort than many from “celebrity” owned wine estates.

[David M. Bueker]

I’ll just say that when the heat gets out of control I go water, water, water.

[Jenise]

David's right. Alcohol is dehydrating and if one exclusively uses alcohol for hydration you're not doing yourself any favors. Just drink plenty of water, too!

David's right. Alcohol is dehydrating and if one exclusively uses alcohol for hydration you're not doing yourself any favors. Just drink plenty of water, too!

I like the "too"!

[David M. Bueker]

Yeah. If I want wine in really hot weather I do two glasses of water for each glass of wine instead of the one to one.

Of course as a man well into middle age that has other consequences.

[Jenise]

had the Dorks over on Sunday for Anything But Champagne--other bubbles, if you will. There were a lot of leftovers, so I blended a r Chidaine, a Hugel and an Argyle rose with about 25% leftover '13 Reynvaan ITR Syrah and drank it last night with a friend--this might just be the best rose this year!!!!! Way way above average aroma, complexity and body. If I could buy this blend, I would!

[Jenise]

Opened this weekend:

2024 Gran Moraine Rosé of Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton
High acid and fresh with pink lemonade, seashells and rose petals. Better second day when the fruit caught up with the acidity.

I don't know that "pink lemonade" would have occurred to me as a descriptor had I not had a piece of pink lemonade flavored Australian licorice at Costco (it was a demo) two days before, but it was SO spot-on as the prevailing flavor in this tart rose.

[David M. Bueker]

Pink lemonade licorice???