5 Amazing Wines to Savor on National Rose Day 2022

PSSST…OUR SUMMER BUNDLE IS NOW LIVE!

This year National Rose Day falls on Saturday, June 11, which seems as good a day as the summer solstice to celebrate the season. 

Rose screams “summer time,” “party time,” and “play time.” No pink beverage is as evocative as the lore of rose. To me, National Rose Day is a celebration of rose and everything this wine represents: mainly the kickoff to summer. 

Even so, rose can and should be enjoyed year-round, prompting me to wonder whether a grassroots movement to celebrate National Rose Day twice a year is warranted (like summer solstice/autumnal equinox). Whether you love the deeply hued roses of Tavel or the salmon-tinged sippers of Provence, here are 5 domestic roses you can uncork with confidence.

But wait - Did you know this about rose?

Rose can be vinified from any red grape. Rose does not specify a varietal as much as a winemaking style and technique. To celebrate National Rose Day 2022, let’s quickly review the winemaking steps behind everyone’s favorite pink beverage. 

As you know, rose wine is crafted from red wine grapes that have limited contact with the skins (in winemaking terms, we call this “skin contact,” since we winemakers are endlessly creative). Since a wine’s color and flavor compounds live in the grape skins, winemakers can exploit contact time between grape juice and grape skins to manage color and flavor extraction. 

For example, if you ferment red grapes in a tank for 10 or 14 days, the resulting wine will be richly and deeply colored. In contrast, if you smoosh those same grapes and allow the grape juice to marinate among the crinkled, smashed grape skin for an hour or two or twelve, the juice will be barely tinted the palest pink. 

After a prescribed amount of skin contact, you can drain that pink juice away from the grapes and ferment that pink grape juice into pink wine, globally beloved as “rose.”  Knowing the winemaking decisions behind rose makes celebrating National Rose Day that much better.

The Versatility of Rose

The world of rose is endlessly exciting and expanding.  Rose can be made from any red grape, from syrah to pinot noir to grenache to merlot. Rose can be a blend of more than one wine varietal, or not. Rose can be dark pink or the palest ballet slipper pink. This wine is an expanding category of the domestic wine market, because everyone loves rose. 

It’s best served cold on a warm summer day is bliss. So celebrate this holiday by uncorking something bright, aromatic, zippy, and food friendly. Look for a rose you can sip alone or pair with nibbles, a hearty salad, or charcuterie. National Rose Day is a chance to explore new wines! Embrace the challenge.

Better still is that most rose wine remains reasonably priced. You can find delicious rose for $15-$35/bottle.  (Maybe even less, but that’s not my area of expertise!).  I encourage you to use National Rose Day as an opportunity to taste, taste, taste.  Gather your friends and gather enough roses to share & make your palate sing.

Rose Reco #1: Bruliam Wines’ 2021 Rose of Pinot Noir

Since I am a winemaker offering insights on this momentous holiday, it should come as no surprise that shameless self-promotion is my core competence. Needless to say, I recommend my 2021 rose of pinot noir as the first entry to this list. 

My 2021 rose of pinot noir is aromatic with candied and tropical notes, zippy with bright acidity, well balanced, and really, really yummy.  What can I say? She’s a stunner. But my job here is to offer insights and encouragement for National Rose Day, so I’ll humbly suggest some other to try. 

Let me preface these suggestions by confessing that this list is totally excellent domestic rose choices has never been better. The biased, in favor of my wonderfully talented friends and colleagues who craft fantastic wines. This is an insiders list. Production from these gals is small. None are supermarket wines.  You may not be able to find them or buy them at all. But that should not discourage your enjoyment of National Rose Day one bit. 

The explosion of small lots of utterly delicious domestic rose is something to celebrate on National Rose Day. The panoply of excellent domestic rose choices has never been better.  This is a call to action - support local, support family wineries, support women winemakers and winemakers of color.  A vast ocean of rose deliciousness awaits. 

How to narrow the field from so many wonderful domestic roses to a few insider gems? I’ve curated a list of female winemakers making great juice. Here we go. Five Women Winemakers Crafting Exceptional Rose to Uncork this National Rose Day:

Bruliam Wines. Note to self: you can self-nominate for one of five slots but not all of the five slots.  Winemaker Kerith Overstreet is crafting really great wines.

Rose Reco #2: Meyer Family Cellars

Winemaker Karen Meyer studied winemaking in Australia, and worked harvest in New Zealand, France, and Oregon, before settling in NorCal. Her palate is international, and her wines are imbued with Old World finesse and restraint. 

Karen brings a European sensibility to her domestic wines.  She makes a delicious and richly hued rose of syrah.  She is also my long-time running partner and mom to three great kids.

Why I picked Karen Meyer’s 2021 rose: made with syrah and sourced from the Yorkville Highlands in Mendocino, north of my homebase in Sonoma.  Go ahead.  Expand your rose palate this National Rose Day.

Rose Reco #3: Trombetta Family Wines

Mother/daughter team Rickey & Erica are the sales/winemaking team behind this family-owned winery.  Sure, Erica is crafting a beautiful Sonoma County rose of pinot noir, much like mine.

Perhaps you’re wondering why I picked Erica Stancliff’s 2021 rose: Erica is a younger-than-I-am up-and-coming female winemaker with great technique, a terrific palate, and excellent credentials. Plus, I prefaced this list by promising you something like insider baseball. Now you know.

Rose Reco #4: Keller Estates

Ana Keller is the dynamic, electric energetic force behind Keller Estates. She manages everything - from extensive estate vineyards to the business of running a winery to the nuts & bolts logistics of day-to-day operations. And she is a mom. Of three. She is also an inspiration.

Can you guess why I picked her 2018 brut rose bubbles? Oh yes, a curveball. Shall we include pink bubbles under the umbrella of National Rose Day? Of course, we can, since that base wine is vinified with limited skin contact to create the subtle and beautiful pink hue of her rose bubbles. Now that’s a National Rose Day 2022 celebration!

Rose Reco #5: Anaba Wines

Superstar winemaker Katy Wilson is the special sauce behind the wines at Anaba. Katy is a celebrity hired hand who makes wine for a few well-known brands as well as her own label.

Why I picked the 2021 turbine rose? Because Katy recently had a baby girl, who is simply the cutest. Just kidding, a little bit. Herein I present a rose vinified from grenache, one of the classic varietals used in the globally renowned roses of Provence, France. As I explained above, rose is a style, not a specific grape.  And grenache is a classic pick for vinifying a rose. What better way to celebrate National Rose Day than by adding a third rose varietal to your armamentarium?

Want to get your hands on some rose this summer?

While you won’t receive it in time for National Rose Day, you will be able to dip your toes in our summer recommendations. Our Summer Bundle is now live, but it’s only around for a limited time - so make sure to place your order before we sell out!