It's Rosé Season. Choose Wisely, Favoring Personality, Panache, and Sense of Place

These small-production rosés resist homogeny, and are fruity, terroir-driven expressions.

Invisible as Music (oil on canvas) by Jered Sprecher (2019).

Earlier this year, Max Rohn, CEO of Wölffer Estate in Long Island’s Hamptons AVA, reminded me of the foreboding headlines from 2014 and 2015: “There’s a Severe Rosé Shortage in the Hamptons” (The Cut) and “Rosé running dangerously low in the Hamptons” (The New York Post). Past and present momentarily collided. In 2015, my husband and I had just joined Channing Daughters Winery’s wine club in Bridgehampton. We journeyed east from Brooklyn a few times each summer to chisel away at massive wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano and sip rosé alongside scores of restless city dwellers seeking respite from their tiny apartments in the winery’s green, sun-drenched estate vineyard. At the time, my husband had texted me links to the exact same articles Max referenced: “Uh-oh!” Our pilgrimages for salty air, boogie boarding, and wine tastings ultimately led us to associate the wines we brought home with their growing place intuitively—sandy soils, gentle maritime breezes, temperate golden hour vineyard strolls—and to thus appreciate them differently.

Rosé imparts the flavors that constitute summer—strawberry, raspberry, peach, cherry, watermelon, nectarine, herbs, citrus zest, guava, and so on. The bounty of fresh summer fruit is balanced by acidity, minerality, sapidity (savoriness), salinity— ultimately, by a sense of aliveness and immediacy. We are refreshed, and when September comes, ready for another busy autumn. So many small production rosés defy homogeneity and capture seasonal abundance—consider this selection a primer for some new bottlings to try!

California

Bouchaine 2024 Vin Gris of Pinot Noir

Honestly, any wine that Chris Kajani has a hand in, from Alsatian-style Riesling to single-clone Pinot Noirs to this rosé, which expresses tiny summer strawberries just home from the farmer’s market, so fresh and lively they don’t even make it to the fridge before being devoured, brings one right into the present moment. This wine has a more saturated strawberry pink hue than paler versions of ‘vin gris’ (where grapes are immediately pressed, with little to no maceration beforehand) and is produced exclusively from Pinot Noir grapes. Eighty-five percent of the lot has been “whole cluster pressed,” meaning grape stems are included in the fermentation, and the remaining 15% percent is ‘saignée’ rosé, where some juice is “bled” from a red wine fermentation that’s just gotten underway, expressly for rosé; the remaining red wine benefits from a closer ratio of contact with grape skins. All grapes for this one are cultivated on Bouchaine’s 100-acre, sustainably-farmed estate in Napa Valley’s Carneros region.

Missouri

Stone Hill Winery Dry Rosé

In the 19th century, Missouri was the epicenter of American wine production. This wine is part of the state’s post-Prohibition viticultural renaissance, and embodies the height of summer’s yield of strawberries, watermelon, and peaches, with a medium body and bright acidity. It’s a blend of three hybrid grapes, i.e. the breeding two different grape species. Chambourcin has unconfirmed parentage, while Chardonel is a union of Chardonnay and Seyval blanc, the latter also a hybrid; Chardonel was developed in 1953 at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Cornell University. Traminette, developed at Cornell in 1965, is a hybrid of ‘Joannes Seyve 23.416’ and Gewürztraminer.

Image courtesy of Wölffer Estate.

New York

Channing Daughters Molti Rosati (Many Rosés) program

As Long Island rosés, and Channing Daughters in particular, began this journey, I’m linking to the winery’s Molti Rosati (Many Rosés) program. In 2025, seven were produced, blends and single-vineyard, single-varietal expressions that are balanced by sea breezes and maritime climes. Per the winery, “The East End of Long Island has the climate, the food and the feeling that engenders the production of great rosé,[…] especially with the bounty of the ocean, the bays, and the land where we grow our grapes and make our wine.” Long Island’s sandy terroirs produce bright rosés of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Refosco and Lagrein, among others, the latter two grapes indigenous to northern Italy’s Alto Adige region.

Macari 2024 Sparkling Horses Cabernet Franc

When Macari, on Long Island’s North Fork, releases a vintage of Horses, make haste. This is a pétillant-naturel (aka, pét-nat) series, a sparkling style made via the ‘ancestral method,’ wherein wine is bottled before fermentation completes, resulting in carbonation. Winemaker Byron Elmendorf brings forth the best from Cabernet Franc, New York’s signature red grape, Petit Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, and so on; the Taste of New York Collection is a nice introduction to New York wine, featuring a Horses bottling, a Chardonnay harvested early to express bright acidity, and Cabernet Franc.

Wölffer Estate Summer in a Bottle Long Island Rosé 2025

In 2014, Wölffer released Summer in a Bottle, a runaway hit made from a blend of eight to ten grapes grown in Long Island’s sandy soils; its success later inspired production abroad of Summer in a Bottle Côte de Provence and Loire. An annual delight, SiB is a blend of Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, often Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon, and sometimes, a hint of Gewurstraminer, “for a floral lift,” described Rohn, while remaining on the right side of freshness, balance, and acidity.

Dr. Konstantin Frank 2025 Dry Rosé 2025

We’re journeying to the Finger Lakes for this berry burst, a pale pink rosé redolent of raspberries and strawberries, with a bit more plushness of fruit, ever so slightly sweet—think juicy strawberries and ripe watermelon. The 2025 is 90% Cabernet Franc and 10% Blaufränkisch; stay tuned for varietal roses at Dr. Konstantin Frank in the near future, Pinot noir, Blaufränkisch, and Cabernet Franc.

Keuka Lake tempers winter chill and cools summer heat at Dr. Konstantin Frank winery’s estate vineyards in the Finger Lakes.

North Carolina

JOLO Vineyard 2025 Twinkles, Sparkling Rosé

This is beautifully balanced sparkling wine hails from North Carolina’s Yadkin Valley region, on the northern border of the Piedmont and in the Sauratown Mountains. It’s a refreshing coalescence of red berries, citrus, stone fruit, and floral notes, a blend of 57% Traminette, 30 % Chambourcin, and 13% Vidal Blanc that pairs versatilely.

Texas

Pedernales Cellars 2025 Aletheia Rosé

I tasted this wine earlier this spring at Rhône Rangers in Paso Robles, an event celebrating the prominence and adaptability of Rhône varieties in U.S. terroirs. Aletheia is 80% Grenache and 20% Mourvedre, both sustainably grown in the Texas High Plains, and both with roots in the southern Rhône and the Iberian Peninsula (as Mataro and Garnacha, respectively, for the latter). This is a special wine, substantive and layered, evolving from a first impression of berries to stone fruit and then to tropical fruit on the palate.

Spicewood Vineyards 2024 Grenache Rosé

In the glass, this wine is luminous rose gold, offering pristine acidity, fresh raspberries, sliced watermelon, orange peel—the best of summer and a brilliant, food friendly counterpart to pasta with lobster in a tomato-cream sauce, oysters mignonette, and strawberry arugula salad.

Tatum Cellars 2024 Rosé of Carignan

This is a bright expression of cranberry and cherry notes from winemaker Joshua Fritsche, with a relatively moderate ABV of 12.2%. Tatum Cellars is a Texas Hill Country gem in Johnson City, a historic small town (President Lyndon Johnson’s birthplace!) just east of Fredericksburg. Visit alongside other exceptional wineries like Crowson Wines, Lewis Wines, and Farmhouse Vineyards.

Oregon and Washington

Cave B 2024 Dry Rosé

In Washington’s Ancient Lakes of Columbia Valley AVA, Cave B is an estate winery dating from the 1980s. The Byran family originated what is now the Gorge Amphitheater and Sagecliffe Resort and farms 19 grape varieties in windy climes and shallow sand and silt soils that are the result of Missoula floodwash. Glimpses of the Columbia River, shades of emerald and slate wending through the gorge, invite you to “B” yourself, says winemaker Freddy Arredondo. This wine is a blend in almost equal parts of Syrah, Malbec, and Tempranillo; it’s fuller-bodied and deeper in color, a symphonic expression of strawberry, peach, and tropical notes.

Goose Ridge Estate Winery 2023 Revelation Rosé

Washington' petite Goose Gap AVA is in the south-central part of the state, and defined by the east-west orientation of Goose Mountain, an uplift that’s part of the Yakima Fold Belt. A gap “between Goose Mountain to the west and Badger and Candy Mountains to the east” creates Goose Gap, which (along with Goose Mountain) is named for its passageway for migratory waterfowl. Goose Ridge is the only winery in the AVA, and this pale pink rosé is reminiscent of a cool berry granita and chilled watermelon slices.

Irvine & Roberts 2025 Rosé of Pinot Noir

If you can get to this Rogue Valley estate in southern Oregon, you’re in for a decadent pairing experience and awesome beauty, the grandeur of the Siskiyou Mountains offering perspective and reverie. You are also in striking distance of Crater Lake National Park and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in downtown Ashland. This wine is strawberry freshness that has the structured minerality to pair with savory summer fare like grilled vegetables and glazed chicken, or, later, with strawberries and cream.

itä wines’ 2025 Rosé of Zinfandel and Primitivo

A blend of Zinfandel and Primitivo (the latter thrives in Puglia, the former in California, and parentage is almost identical), this rosé is structured and fruity at once. It’s cultivated within the Les Collines Vineyard on the eastern edge of the Walla Walla Valley AVA, in the Blue Mountain foothills. ‘Ïta’ means “east’ in Finnish. The grapes macerate ‘on the skins’ for four hours, gently extracting color and tannins. Winemaker Kelsey Albro Ïtameri is a one woman wonder, who prioritizes a low intervention approach.

Troon Vineyard, Druid’s Pink

This southern Oregon site in the Applegate Valley AVA was replanted in 2016 to achieve Demeter and Regenerative Organic Gold Certified status; wines are alive in a different way, the soil’s vitality imparting acidity and dynamism. Druid’s Pink is a southern Rhône blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault, Carignan, and Counoise, the grapes selected during replanting to align with the region’s Mediterranean climate.

Read on…

White grapes of the southern Rhône are in diaspora in the U.S., hardy, bright, and resilient. I wrote about their progression abroad in the May/June issue of Imbibe magazine. I don’t think this one will be online, but I’m sharing the featured image with best wishes to Imbibe, which has just marked it’s twentieth (!) year of publication! The image is from Acquiesce Winery in Lodi, where the 2025 rosé of Cinsault is a brand new release. I’ve been wrapping up the school year, and look forward to sharing more soon.