Last summer, I drove back to visit my parents for a long weekend. Per tradition, I stopped in the wine shop by my childhood house because, to be honest, nobody’s going to survive the weekend if we’re all not a little bit tipsy.
It was a magical moment, because when I walked in, the first thing that caught my eye was my favorite South African rosé. I had been low-key searching for months and there it was, right in front of me in the “new arrival” section. I even vaguely remember beams of light shining down as a chorus of Hamptonites serenaded me from the skies above.
When I got home, I couldn’t contain my excitement, and showed my mother the spoils of my adventures in the Atlanta suburbs. She gave me one look (we all know the one) and said, “Why did you buy White Zin?”
And with that, my heart sank. Because the fact is, some people in our lives don’t understand the pleasures of rosé wine. There are so many misconceptions and historical stereotypes attached, it’s hard to blame them for not wanting to dive in.
But it’s time we stop judging wine by it’s color. Pink is not what it used to be. Next time a friend gives you ~the look~ throw some knowledge in their direction. Here’s how to start converting people one by one to the cult of rosé.
Let’s get one thing straight: It’s not red and white wine mixed together
Get that shit out of here. Mixing white and red wine is not only a crime against humanity as a whole, but it’s also not what rosé is all about. Rosé is about grape skin contact. The less amount of time, the lighter and brighter your wine is going to be. The more time those grape skins sit in the metaphorical wine hot-tub, the darker and richer those flavors are going to be.
Because of that, the rosé rainbow is an adventure within itself
Taste the rosé rainbow. Just as not all reds are the same, not all rosés are created equal (we even had a 40-bottle tasting event). There’s Cabernet, Provence, Syrah… the list keeps going. A sip might give you the juicy flavors of a strawberry, a zing of a Meyer lemon, or maybe even the heat of a green bell pepper. Life is like a case of rosé; you never know what you’re gonna get.
So to be clear, rosé is not the sweet White Zin they chugged in the ’80s
This wine was not designed to be sipped out of a plastic cup filled to the brim with ice (we’re nauseous just thinking about it). While it definitely has a lot of fruit-forward notes swimming around the bottle, rosé is generally fairly dry and doesn’t have nearly the residual sugar content of the wines that lead to the night you were conceived.
It pairs like an absolute dream
Rosé isn’t the friend you bring to the party that sits on the couch and plays with the dog. Rosé is the friend you drag with you to the family barbecue because she’s going to not only start up a conversation with your dad about her World Series picks, but is also going to buddy up with your mom and DRAG Sharon for what she did at the tennis match last weekend. Our favorite pink wine gets along swimmingly with the warm weather favorites (think cookouts, barbecue, etc.) but also would go great with a solid flatbread you whipped up with arugula you snatched at the farmer’s market. Taking it a step further, this wine can even mix up some pretty awesome cocktails. Now that’s delish.
Your friends are in a wine rut and it’s up to you to take them out of it
As someone who cannot get enough of drinking outside on a warm spring day, consistently sipping on white wine is like listening to your *NSYNC CD that always skips two minutes into track seven. It’s time to step out of the rut and try something new. Rosé has so much to offer and it’s time to widen the scope from the Pinot Grigio your people purchase by the case at Costco.
Did we mention it’s, like, SO in right now
Sure, the basic bitches of the Hamptons are making a scene about rosé, but there’s a reason for it — it’s delicious and looks cute AF in Instagram pictures. Up your fam and friends’ Insta-game and get a bottle of rosé in their hands so they can ride the pink wave to glory. Plus, they’re going to look SO relatable when you take them to your friend’s Fourth of July party.