I know, I know, I’m not supposed to describe rosé as pretty, feminine, or heaven forbid, girly. If for no other reason, because I want to help break the boundaries on this maligned category of wine. There's no reason we all can't #roséallday or proudly order a bottle for the table to pair with a delicious meal given the level of quality and range available on the market today.

But you know what, this rosé truly is beautiful, nearly poetic, and yup, I’m going to say it, somewhat feminine. I come from the world of classical ballet, where the interplay between expression, technique, strength, and delicacy, are what create a moment of magic. Elegance, beauty, and artistry come together to take you out of your daily grind and into a more beautiful world - the same way they do in a Chopin nocturne or a Monet landscape painting. When twenty-four women move and breathe as one unit, adorned in pink tulle and satin pointe shoes, the audience holds its breath at the mesmerizing beauty of it all.

So, at the risk of furthering a stereotype and distancing those who would rather pass on the pink stuff, truth be told, this elegant rosé is pure poetry and I can’t wait for you to try it.

Pink satin in color, with aromas and flavors of strawberry, grapefruit, and tangerine, this wine has a sophisticated creamy texture and lingering acidity that take it from a mere smile on your face to a “close your eyes and take a deep breath” kind of moment.

Pairs perfectly with:
~ Homemade crab cakes
~ Cucumber, watermelon, and feta salad
~ Strawberry, avocado, and chicken salad
~ Pink grapefruit and avocado salad
~ Grilled peach and burrata salad
~ Nicoise salad with seared tuna

And for the true Millenials out there, did you ever wonder how we got to a place where everyone from Angelina Jolie to the @thefatjewish began making their own label? Believe it or not, there was a world before cans of rosé adorned every shelf of your local specialty market - and yes, I’m looking at you Bi-Rite.

The first question I wanted to know, is how did rosé become associated with all things summer? I mean, we have an actual rosé season now, complete with highly allocated bottles, 4-bottle limits per person in the Hamptons, and of course, shelves upon shelves that make you wonder whether or not you actually are wearing rose colored glasses when you walk into your local wine shop!

It turns out that this latest craze all began when France first introduced a mandatory vacation period for French citizens. Every August, families began flocking to Provence to escape the cities, splash in the waves, and of course, eat the local seafood and drink the regional (rosé) wines. French families would look back on their summer holidays with fond memories of a glass of rosé in one hand, and a delicious bowl of fresh bouillabaisse in the other, and the wine naturally became synonymous with all things leisure.

Not too long after that, American Hollywood stars began flooding the city of Cannes for the newly established Film Festival in the 50s and 60s. Images of our glamorous movie stars holding delicate glasses of pink wine while strolling along the French Riviera flooded the magazines back home - creating quite the buzz with the ladies who lunch, especially in California and New York.

But rosé still wasn’t thought of as “quality wine.” It was for pool parties and holidays, not restaurants or collector’s cellars. In many cases, rosé was made by simply “bleeding off” excess juice in order to make more concentrated red wines, so naturally, the rosés being sold were more of an afterthought or small bonus to the profit margins, not something the winemakers were pouring their heart and soul into. There were certainly some winemakers making a traditional “direct-press” approach like the winemakers in France, but US winemakers were in no way trying to compete on global markets with their new pink wines. Rosé was simple, cheap, and ubiquitous.

So when was the big “serious” transition? When did it become cool to order a bottle of rosé while dining at a Michelin starred restaurant? Or more recently, to brag to all your followers on social media about your latest acquisition of a “unicorn” rosé bottle? We can credit the restaurant scene for that.

In the mid-2000s, top restaurants in New York, the Hamptons, Beverly Hills, and Miami began including rosé wines by the glass. In fact, the very concept of “by-the-glass” programs had only recently begun to be taken seriously and expanded, in large part due to the sommelier crowd of San Francisco. Customers began to associate the by-the-glass programs at their favorite restaurants as opportunities to experiment and discover new producers, regions, grapes, and in the case of rosé, new styles. And of course, when trendsetting diners saw specific bottles on the menus of the best restaurants around, then the who’s who of the social scene would do anything to pour those same wines at their summer parties. And that’s how we have the NY Times Style Section declaring rosé the “drink to be seen with,” and the now hilarious “rosé blackout of 2012” in the Hamptons, reported on by Page Six, when shops began limiting customers to 4-bottles per person!

Following this “dangerously low” rosé catastrophe, who enters the rosé story next? Josh Ostrovsky, who goes by the name Fat Jewish, of course! Josh launched his perfectly timed, “White Girl Rosé,” writing in the caption of his Instagram launch, “The world needed a rosé for this Summer that is cage-free, gluten-free, conflict-free, low-carb, grass-fed and fair-trade, so myself and @babewalker created one… IF YOU HATE ROSÉ YOU HATE YOURSELF.” And so we entered the official craze of US rosé - complete with celebrity labels, ironic labels, cult labels, and finally, with so many of us left scratching our heads and wondering how we got here.

So what’s next in the story of rosé? We have rosé in cans, with screwtops, and even in magnums. No format is off limits. And we can look forward to wider acceptance of styles - from dry to sweet, serious to silly, and everything in between. I hope that what we’ve all learned from this craze is that yes, rosé is perfect for summer and by the pool, but it can also be absolutely perfect at the table beside a nice meal. And finally, I think we’re just about past the idea that rosé is just for women. I mean, as GQ declared, “Make way for brosé.”

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