Spec’s Top 50 Rosés

Dry Rosé made a meteoric rise over the past few years. For many years, Rosé was considered sweet with wines like White Zinfandel flooding the market and creating an insatiable appetite for sweet pink wines. As the American palate progressed into enjoying drier styles of wine there was an inevitable drop off from White Zinfandel which allowed for drier Rosé to enter the market. The popularity of Dry Rosé was a slow burn for several years until wines such as Whispering Angel and Miraval lit the fuse and its popularity exploded with numerous options becoming available and thus we now have some of the best selection of Rosé, dry and sweet, in the entire United States for you to try at Spec’s!

Rosé comes in numerous iterations with variations in color hues, sweetness levels, and sometimes bubbles! The pink hue variation comes from the contact of the juice with the skins of the grape causing pigmentation in the color of the ensuing wine. The longer the contact with the skins of the grape, the darker the color will typically be.  The most famous region that produces a darker style of Dry Rosé is the Rosé only appellation in France named Tavel. Some of the most serious (and age worthy) Rosé in the world comes from this region, yet the color hue has caused the American consumer to shy from it, typically gravitating toward the light salmon hued wines of Provence.

Provence has BY FAR become the most popular region for Dry Rosé where you can find famous actors pairing with famous producers to produce light, crisp, and flavorful Rosés that are extremely quaffable. 

Texas is truly a perfect setting for the continued Rosé resurgence as the scorching hot weather makes it possible for us to enjoy Rosé year-round. This style of wine allows the consumer to enjoy the flavors offered in a red wine, but without the drying tannins while retaining mouth watering acidity that helps keep the palate refreshed on a hot summer day. 

Some of my favorite Rosés are bubbly versions! Champagne is the only region in France that can add red and white grapes together to produce a Champagne Rosé hence you will see Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (or Meunier) mixed together to produce a blush. You can find varying levels of sweetness from Demi- Sec to bone dry versions of sparkling wine throughout the world. 

So pretty much no matter what style of wine you are craving, there is a Rosé wine produced to hop right into this hot Texas Summer! AND for the month of August, 50 of our top roses’ are on sale! So stock up now!

James C. Barlow, CWE, CSS
Spec’s Fine Wine Buyer