Should Rosé be your absolute best go-to Valentine’s Day wine?
Rosé wine is great for all occasions!
Yay! Rosé Wine!
Pink is great!
Should this be your go-to Valentine’s Day wine?
Let’s talk about it!
Rosé wine is being placed front and center in wine stores near where I live. Similar to Mother’s Day in the United States, I could be blinded by the amount pink.
Clearly those selling wine feel that this should be your go-to Valentine’s Day wine.
Not sure if they are offering great deals on these wines. If so, take advantage of great pricing and stock up.
Or, it could be like roses on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, and they jack up the price. If so, DO NOT BOTHER!
Whether Rosé wine should be your go-to wine or not, let’s talk enough about it so you can be informed. (You may want to buy it at some point.)
There are as many options for rosé wine as there are for white wine. Actually, I should really say there are as many options for red wine since rosé wine is usually made from red grapes.
Quick overview of how rosé wine is made:
Most 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 very short time. Voilà! You have rosé wine! There are other methods, but limited skin contact is the most common. If you want to do a deep dive, research saignée.
There is also a method called blending which is literally blending white wine and red. Other than in Champagne, it is not allowed in Europe. New World has fewer rules, so it can be done there.
In case you missed all my posts about New World and Old World Wine, just know that Europe is Old World and New World is everywhere else. I really simplified it, but go with it.
It’s possible to try to make your own rosé wine with this method, but I do not know anyone personally who has tried this. Now that I have mentioned it, maybe I may try it one day and report back. Nah! I won’t be doing this, but let me know if you do.
Now to the different styles and flavors of rosé.
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 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 would love. You may have to work a little to find it, though.
ADVICE:
First decide your price range. If you want, compare rosé wines from different price ranges and see if it is worth the extra cost. Don’t be a lemming and just buy what “everybody” says is THE thing to buy.
If all the money for the wine is going into marketing, why bother? If in a wine store, ask what you are gaining with the higher price tag. This is always a good idea with whatever wine you are thinking of buying.
What style would you prefer? Think about whether you want more fruit forward or savory. Don’t be rigid with this, though. There can be a time and place for both. I have read articles that will describe a rosé wine as either savory or fruity based on the grapes it is made with. I would not rely on that. There are stylistic differences based on where and how it is made.
However, if it is a white zinfandel it is almost always sweet. That does not mean just fruit forward. It means sweet. For years, people thought all rosé wines were sweet because of the popularity of white zinfandel.
In a restaurant, they may offer many different rosé wines by the glass. Ask to taste each one before you order the glass. If that seems like too much, compare just two. You will learn a lot about what style you prefer.
Great advice: Always ask for a taste of the wine you are ordering by the glass!
The bottle is already open!
The big question: Now that you know all this, should it be your go-to Valentine’s Day wine?
Spoiler alert: It is up to you!
Valentine’s Day or something similar is celebrated around the world. In the world of made up wine holidays, one wine blogger puts National Rosé Day on February 5th. But that is only in Australia and New Zealand. Makes sense, the weather is warm then.
According to my wine calendar (yep, I have one where I have put down any and all wine “holidays'“ by various wine bloggers and marketing groups), Rosé Days are all over the place but mostly in June. Quite frankly, they should just make it the whole month.
June 8: National Rosé Day
June 13: Rosé Day
June 23: National Rosé Day ( I wonder which nation they are talking about, specifically)
June 28: Rosé Day and International Rosé Day! (All in one!)
You absolutely can and should celebrate wine whenever you want, but if you want to jump into social media with it, choose any and all of these days. They all have “official” hash tags.
If you decide to celebrate Valentine’s Day with rosé wine, here are some great suggestions:
Rosé wine tasting at home. (from left to right) Cote des Roses Rosé, Whispering Angel, La Vielle Ferme Rosé. In no way is this Valentine’s Day. My terrace does not look like this in February. (Shout out to me because I grew the tomatoes.)
Cotes des Roses Rosé (to be clear, it is roses like the flower, and then rosé like the wine) is from Languedoc (I mentioned that area above). It was the clear winner in this group of three. Not only is it delicious, the bottle is so worth saving. Everything looks beautiful in it. Sometimes you can even find it at Trader Joe’s.
Whispering Angel is from Provence. It is wildly popular, possibly because it is so well known. It was not the winner in our really informal blind taste tests. Taste is personal. If you feel more comfortable buying a well known wine, go for it. It was actually a very welcome gift for us.
La Vielle Ferme Rosé is a blend from the Rhone area of France. I love it for a cookout and summer parties, but I am not sure it screams Valentine’s Day. You do you, though.
Opaline Pinot Noir Sparkling Rosé
Another wine from France. This is a fun wine in a gorgeous bottle. I bought it at Trader Joe’s. You don’t have to have expensive for Valentine’s Day. The sparkling makes it festive.
This wine was not part of our Rosé wine tasting on the terrace.
Millbrook All-Day Hunt Country Rosé 2021
This was an insanely delicious rosé wine from Millbrook Winery in the Hudson Valley in New York State..
Not sure when it is available, but worth it to visit or call the winery and find out. Click on the link here or above. This wine was not part of our Rosé wine tasting on the terrace. Maybe next summer.
Rosé of Aglianico from Absolution Cellars was the absolute winner in our family summertime rosé wine (really informal) tastings on the terrace.
Absolution Cellars ( Click the link. Trust me, you will want to know more.) is a limited production winery in Paso Robles, California. (The tasting room is in Morro Bay.) When I say limited, I really mean it. Only 2 barrels of this wine was produced. That’s about 50 cases of wine. This is tiny compared to the 1 million cases of Whispering Angel. Even more impressive are their gorgeous wine labels.
It is not common to make rosé wine from Aglianico Grapes in the United States.. It is an Italian grape variety. If you call the winery, they will tell you why they did it. This wine was shockingly delicious! The color of the wine was way darker than what you usually see in a rosé wine. It was a beautiful color.
The wine was part of my wine club distribution. (If you can’t get the same delicious wine in a wine store near you, a wine club membership may be worthwhile ) As soon as we tried the rosé wine, I ran to the phone to order more. The phone number for the winery is right on the bottle. This is a delightfully intimate winery.
Not sure if it was fair to mention a wine that you may not be able to purchase. I just wanted to give a shout out to the winner. It does cost more than many of the other rosé wines, but it gives great value for the price. Like taste, value is subjective.
If you are looking for a special rosé for Valentine’s Day, any of these wines could be a good choice.
As always, have fun with the search.
Even if you don’t end up with a rosé.
Want to read more about Rosé wines? For “Seriously, Rosé wine is for everyone and not just for Mother’s Day!” click here.
