You can read and see more about this episode on it's webpage HERE.

Rosé has officially grown up. Once dismissed as cheap and sweet, today's pink wines are landing on fine dining menus, earning high scores from critics, and being taken as seriously as any red or white.

In this episode, I'll break down how rosé is actually made (and how it's NOT), why the color doesn't always predict the flavor, and how to find the bottles that match your palate — plus a few of my personal favorites for you to try!

Nikki's Favorite Rosé Picks

• Gérard Bertrand's Provence rosé (France) — a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Cinsault — lands around $20, sits on the drier side with bright acidity, and comes in around 13% ABV. It's a reliable, crowd-pleasing bottle.

• For something a little more unique, a Rosato di Nerello Mascalese from Sicily was highlighted as a 92-point Wine Enthusiast pick at just $24.

• Ingrid & Julia rosé from Tres Sabores in Rutherford, CA — a certified organic grower of Zinfandel and Petite Sirah blended — it's a local gem that defies expectations with its pale color and concentrated flavor.

Coming Soon from Sollevato Wines

Nikki and Michael's first ever rosé — a single-barrel Grenache with a touch of Sangiovese — releasing late May 2026, with first access going to Il Circolo, the Sollevato wine club.

Their 2023 Petite Sirah (bold, inky, and great for BBQ season) is also coming this fall. Sign up for the mailing list at sollevatowines.com to be the first to know. use code PODLISTENER for 10% off all of Nikki's wines on sollevatowines.com

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I'm like, what is this guy drinking?

Until I saw him reach down to his Trader Joe's cooler that was on the floor next to him and pour himself a half a glass of shall not be named white wine. And then poured a red wine that shall not be named into that same glass. And in front of my eyes, he made his own schmose.

That was the first time I ever saw that. And you know what? No shade, no judgment. Oh, New Jersey friend, you do you. That was a first. And that is not typically how rose is made.

Well, hello there. It's Nikki Lamberti coming to you from Sonoma County, California. If you're a new listener, welcome. So happy to have you.

And for all my regular sippers, welcome back. So glad that you're here this week. So we have had a very exciting week here in our household.

Michael and I have bottled two different wines this week for our Solevato brand. Now that doesn't sound like such a big deal, but we usually bottle one wine about three times a year.

So to do two in one week, it was just a very big and a very exciting week of two different projects. Ready to get in the bottle.

And it's going to go first to our brand new Il Circolo, the Inner circle, our wine club at Sollevato. And if they don't scoop it all up, we'll make it available through our website.

Make sure that you're signed up to receive our newsletters@solovatowines.com and then click mailing list so that you can be the first to know when these two exciting wines are out.

Now we were extra excited about the because has really been growing in popularity and some of the trends around beautiful pink wine have been changing even since I recorded a' all day episode not even two years ago.

So in preparation for sort of re editing and rerecording this today, I typed into our good friend AI I said what's hot about rose right now? And here is what it returned. Because guys like I have to use AI to be cool and be trendy and to know what's going on in the world right now.

So the first thing it said, what's hot right now is premium serious. And then it says parentheses, not cheap cool wine anymore. So the biggest shift is that people are drinking a little bit more higher end roses.

It's becoming and has been in my eyes for some time a legitimate wine for dinner and for pairings. And not just your quote, Porch pounder. Sparkling is also growing as a segment.

It's one of my favorite types of and also just very food friendly and full bodied. This is a new category called gastro rose. I don't know if I like that term, but I get it.

Which generally means they're a little bit richer, heartier roses that can handle pairing with whether it's grilled meats or, you know, richer dishes. And sommeliers in restaurants and wine bars, they are treating like a red, not a white.

And that was a very interesting point which leads right into what we're going to talk about today. Because is made from red grapes. It's just the process is different as you're about to learn.

So very excited for you to get caught up on what's going on with going to give you what you need to know. So maybe instead of calling this all day, we'll call it serious rose, whatever it's called. Here we go.

So if you see a bottle of pink wine and you think, oh, I'm going to steer away from that. I don't like sweet wine. The first thing that we need to talk about is that not all is sweet. Sweet.

Now, back in the day, white zinfandel was very in fashion and there's still some well known producers that are making it in the same way. And yes, that does have sweetness. But more recently and has really had like a surge in popularity.

The majority of the ones that you'll find in your local wine shop are actually not sweet. They're most likely completely dry or just have a tiny hint of of residual sugar remaining in there. And they are delicious.

And the fun thing about is that they can have so many different expressions of flavors, from very fruity like cherry, watermelon, jolly rancher to almost earthy and spicy and fresh on the palate. And there's really a huge variety of them, which makes it so interesting and fun to try.

So here's what you need to know about it is made from red wine. Grapes. There are not different types of grapes for wine.

For the most part, it's made from the same grapes that you'll recognize from the red wines that you drink, whether it's things like Cabernet, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Grenache. So we're starting with red grapes.

But the reason that can be anywhere on the spectrum from slightly salmon colored pink to ruby pink, and everything in between is that the type of grape and the amount of time that the juice was allowed to be in contact with those red grape skins, that's going to determine the color and also some flavor profile as well. So to make sense of that, let's back up for a moment.

So the way that we make red wine is when we pick the grapes, we lightly crush the grapes and they go into whatever vessel we might be using for fermentation. Most often it's a stainless steel tank and the skins and the seeds are all in there with the grape juice during that fermentation.

Fermentation is yeast, Whether native yeast that's already present, or yeast that a winemaker has selected and added to the wine. The yeast eat the sugar and turn it into alcohol. Hooray. We love the yeast. Thank you. Yeast.

But during that time, if it's red wine, the skins are in there the whole time, and that could take two to three weeks for the fermentation to be complete. So that whole time, all of the color that makes red wine red is extracted out of those skins.

And then when it's time to age the red wine in a barrel, which is most common, you press away the skins and just put the liquid wine in the barrel.

So if you're setting out to make what we call intentional grapes that you picked specifically for the process of making a pink wine, it just means that you crush the grapes and you put them in that vessel for fermentation. But after maybe just a couple hours or maybe a day or two max, you're pulling those skins away. So guess what?

Since the skin is what gives red wine its color, if you're only leaving that juice touching the skins for a couple hours to a day or two, that's why it only has the chance to get pink. So that's called intentional. That's wine that's being made from the beginning to be.

And the time on the skins Also called maceration or skin contact time. That's going to determine how pale to how bold it is. Now, the type of grape that you're doing this with is also going to make a difference, right?

So Cabernet Sauvignon, smaller grape, thicker skin generally has a darker color. So Cabernet Sauvignon could potentially have more color, unless you really just only left it on the skins for a couple of hours.

So those are the two main things that determine it. And this method of pulling the skins away from red wine grapes to make is probably the most common method.

So if you're scratching your head and you're like, oh, I thought there were different pink grapes or a common misconception, oh, I thought people were just blending red wine and white wine together to make it pink. That is not a thing except sparkling wine. Whether it's champagne from Champagne region in France or sparkling wine from anywhere else in the world.

There's sometimes this blending of red grapes and white grapes like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to get a sparkling. But that's really the only time in sparkling wine when you're going to see that.

Now, one exception would be the gentleman that was at the next table over from us when I was recently home at a fantastic Italian restaurant in New Jersey with my parents. And he had a glass of wine in front of him and the color was almost like light brown. And I was like, gosh, I'm nosy.

I'm always looking at what people are drinking. I'm like, what is this guy drinking? Until I saw him. Cause this was a byob.

Bring your own bottle to the restaurant, reach down to his Trader Joe's cooler that was on the floor next to him, and pour himself a half a glass of shall not be named white wine, and then poured a red wine that shall not be named into that same glass. And in front of my eyes, he made his own schmose. That was the first time I ever saw that. And you know what? No shade, no judgment.

Oh, New Jersey friend, you do you drink what you like and like what you drink. But that was a first. And that is not typically how it's made. So for our purposes today, we're not talking about bubbles.

That's going to be a whole nother episode coming soon. We're talking about still wine, bubble free wine. And it is generally made from red grapes.

Now, the second way to do this from red grapes is called sagnier, which is the French word for blood or bleeding. And so sometimes you'll have producers and this happens a lot where I live and make wine here in Napa and Sonoma in California.

When you are in an area that's really celebrated for red wine production, you can start the process with the intention of making a red wine, but you can sagnier or bleed off a little bit of that juice and in the beginning stages to make as well, simultaneously.

Now, the benefit of that is if you're pulling off some of the juice from your red wine that's going through fermentation, it's going to leave behind a red wine that's even more concentrated because there's more skins and less liquid, less juice. And this is why a lot of winemakers will do this Sagnier.

And then it's kind of like, well, I pulled some of this liquid off, so I might as well make a. So that's a different method of making and that has its benefits as well. What I love so much about is how varied it is, but how versatile it is.

Versatile, especially from a food and wine pairing perspective, because most are going to have that sort of fresh, bright, crisp, lip smacking acidity, which I've talked about. And you can go back to the episode on food and wine pairing, how that is such a nice balance, especially when you have rich food.

But even any one single in the glass, I feel, can be a chameleon.

As far as, you know, if you are having a charcuterie board or if you are grilling and having, you know, smash burgers or tacos, because many of them are more subtle in their flavor profile, it makes them more pairable with more things, if that makes sense. And generally it's inexpensive. Why?

Well, if you go back to earlier episodes where I talked about wine economics and why wines cost what they do, the time from the pick to the bottling, right. Really drives the cost of production. So generally the timetable to make is shorter, doesn't take as long.

So very often it's going to be reflected in the price, which is why you can get some killer for under 20 bucks.

And that's pretty much coming from any wine region around the world, whether it's France, Italy, Spain, California, South Africa, wherever it may be, you really can find some steals. And for this reason, I'm going to encourage you to try many different. Right.

Because again, we're going through some general tips on how to pick one that you think you're going to like, but they really, really do vary.

And I wish it was so simple where I could say, oh, well, if it's a lighter salmon pink Color, then it's going to be lighter, concentration of flavor, drier, not sweet and more acidic. But here's the thing with wine, it's not always linear or predictable like that.

So my recommendation, and this is easy to do when we're talking about, you know, 15, 18, 22 dollar bottles of wine is try many.

Go into your local wine store like I did the other day and pull three different ones that are completely different, whether they're made from different grapes or different regions, or just use the color spectrum as a deciding factor and try them and you'll see the difference.

You know, generally in a well stocked wine store, and especially because has been so popular, I'd say especially in the recent decade or so, just super popular, where you'll see shelves and shelves of it. A lot of it is going to be from Provence, from France.

They are just a very well respected, well known producer of and oftentimes it's made from the Grenache grape.

Sometimes it might be Morvedre or Cinsault or Syrah, but a lot of it's going to be Grenache and generally from Provence is going to be that very pale color, but surprisingly can have some boldness and some robustness to the flavor. But oftentimes they're going to be on the drier side and not sweet.

In Italy they call it Rosato, in Spain they call it Rosato with a D, just a slight variation.

But you know, the Italians will make beautiful Rosato of Sangiovese, Nebbiolo and even Nerello Mascalesi, which if you've listened to the last couple episodes, is one of my new favorite Italian grapes from Sicily, Nerello Mascalesi. In fact, I am gonna put the link in the show notes for a beautiful rosetto of Nerello Masculese from Sicily that is very reasonably priced.

It's a $24 bottle of that one. 92 Point rating from the wine enthusiast. The other nice thing about is that they're usually lower in alcohol.

And so what we define as lower in alcohol by today's standards is generally like 11 to 13%. That's considered lower alcohol by volume. So it just makes them more approachable.

And usually speaking for myself, but think this is probably popular belief here, you know, usually we're drinking outside at the barbecue, by the pool, on the boat.

So if you really are going for a rose all day, 14 and 15% alcohol by volume will sneak up on you where 11, 12 and 13% is just going to let you enjoy the Lovely, delicate crispness and just be sort of low and slow all day. As far as your alcohol content, that's. And that's important.

There is really a big difference, you know, extrapolated over multiple glasses or a bottle. And 12% alcohol versus 14, it does make a difference. So that's one of the lovely things about it.

If you listen to the episode where I just interviewed my friend Tony from Covella Wines in Portugal, he uses the term cheap and cheerful, which I love, and I think that can apply to as well. They usually are cheap and cheerful, inexpensive and just fun and easy to drink. And that's what we love about it. So we have a listener question.

Listen our questions. And this is coming from Morgan. And Morgan said, I love, but only some. I like crisp, sometimes a little bit drier and bright.

So what regions or words should I be looking for to be sure I'm choosing the one with those characteristics? Well, Morgan, it's an awesome question and thank you for submitting that. And I wish I just had a very simple answer to give you.

But like I said, it really is going to vary by the type of grape, the place where it was grown, and the amount of skin contact time. Right.

So if you like crisp and drier and bright, I mean, again, this is not a rule, but generally speaking, some of those lighter color are generally going to be probably more in your wheelhouse because they're probably made from lighter grapes like Pinot Noir, Grenache versus Syrah or Cabernet Sauvignon, which will be a little bit deeper in color. But here is really the best way that I can recommend.

So even as someone who drinks wine regularly, makes wine, is certified and studied this stuff and even studied in preparation of recording this podcast episode today, the best way that I have found to really hone in on, okay, is this going to appeal to me? And my personal taste is I use the app Vivino V I V I N O. It is a free app. You guys have heard me talk about it before.

I wish that I had developed and created this app. I did not. I have no affiliation with them. Maybe one day, but I am just an avid Vivino user.

So even the other day when I was in my local wine shop, you see me pull out my phone and I'm scanning the labels. And what I think, especially for Morgan's question, what's going to guide you is when you pull up in this app the description of a wine.

There is a super helpful section in the description. It's called taste characteristics, and it's like sliding bars, a sliding scale about a wine.

It's going to tell you from light to bold, and then the second one is from dry to sweet, and the third one is from soft to acidic.

So, Morgan, obviously you're going to be looking for that slider bar to be more towards the left of dryness, not sweet, and more towards the right of acidic, because you like that brightness and that crispness, which are the words that you used.

So I find that really helpful because those sliding scales have been developed by regular people, wine drinkers like you and me, who have rated these wines within the app. And that's how they sort of amalgamate all of that data. And I just think it gives a very simple, very easy visual. And you can see.

Oh, nope, that one, the sliding scale is more on the sweet side. That's probably not what I'm gonna like. Or. Oh, on the soft to acidic, the slider bar is kind of leaning towards the soft side.

So that's probably not what I'm going to like.

So my real world answer is, once you're aware Howe is made and the fact that the type of grape, the skin contact and where the grape is coming from, those will have influences. The other thing, of course, is to use the Vivino app and see what other people are saying. I find it really, really helpful.

The last tip, too, is, you know, we talked about the different regions, generally speaking, hotter climate regions, Napa, Sonoma, where I'm sitting, are going to yield bolder, richer characters of flavor not only in the red wines, but also in the that come from them.

Whereas cooler climate regions like Austria, Germany, and then even cooler regions like Provence, as far as France goes, you know, generally because temperature is driving ripeness in the grapes and development of flavors and tannins, you know, the climate of the place.

And I've talked about this in past episodes of New World wine regions like the U.S. australia, South Africa, South America versus Old World Italy, Spain, France, Germany.

While it's changing with climate change, there are still some good general guidelines that wines from a cooler climate will generally be a little bit higher in acidity, which gives us that crispness and brightness that we like in wine versus wines from a hotter place like Australia that is going to have more ripe, more bold flavor, generally a little bit higher alcohol as well. Because of that. I hope this is helpful. Again, my advice for you is just have fun with it.

And because these wines are inexpensive, you can play and try different ones, but keep track.

You know, that's the other nice thing about Vivino is when you scan a wine, you can rate it just for yourself and then you can remember, oh, yeah, this was the one I really liked. And, you know, keep track. And that'll help you hone in on what some of the favorites are.

Another listener question came from Alyssa, who said, I love I especially like light and crisp, but not too sweet. Oh, you and Morgan should get together. She said, I would love to hear your favorites that we can find in local wine stores.

So, yes, Alyssa, I'm going to share a couple of my favorites. And again, I will put the links in the show notes if you can't find them in your local wine shop. And most of these are fairly widespread.

Wine.com, which is my partner website, will ship to most states and they have some great specials right now. So check those out in the show notes. Thanks, Alyssa. A couple of my favorites that you may or may not have heard of, one of them is Girard Bertrand.

That is a French, and I think years ago when I first found it, I'm not going to lie, the bottle intrigued me. It had just a really pretty bottle shape and closure. And it's a blend of Grenache, Syrah and cins and sew for most vintages, right.

About 13% alcohol on the drier side with nice crisp acid and usually right around the $20 mark or sometimes less, depending on where you find it. I'll put the link for the Sicilian rose of Nerella Mascalesia in there as well.

And then I would be remiss if I didn't shout out one of my favorite local roses here from tres sabores in St. Helena in the Napa Valley, Julie Johnson, who is the owner and winemaker and a mentor of mine, she makes her Ingrid and Julia rose, which is a blend of Zinfandel and Petit Syrah. And one of the wonderful things about all of Julie's wines at Tres Sabores is that they are a certified organic grower.

They use very sustainable practices in making their wine.

And this one is interesting because the color is very pale, but because the grapes that are in there, Zinfandel and Petite Syrah, it is a little bit more concentrated in flavor than you're expecting when you go for that first taste. And I love to be surprised by wines, right? I love to think it's going in one direction and then have it take me somewhere else a lot of times.

That's part of the exciting thing about trying different wines.

So this one's a little bit more in the style of Provence but it is from California and Tres Du Bois Winery is where Michael and I actually make our Sol Otto our Sangiovese. They're kind enough to let us custom crush or use space there, so we're there regularly. We're big fans.

It's the first wine club I ever joined about 15 years ago and one day when she stops running in a million different directions, the amazing Julie Johnson's gonna be a guest on the podcast, so tune in for that one. I hope this was helpful and I'm excited for you to start your own journey and see what you love.

And do me a favor, when you do, send me a note, let me know and I'll try.

So there really is quite a spectrum of what can be how it came to be, the price point, the color, the style, and I'm just excited for you to explore and find what gets you excited. Whether you are looking for a patio sipper or a more serious for pairing purposes.

If you're not already following me on Instagram at Nikki Lamberti, go ahead and give a follow up and also follow us on Sollevato Wines. That's S O L L E V A T o Wines.

Check out my highlight bubble on the Sol Ovato Wines Instagram and you'll see a video of our bottling day from this week.

And make sure if you're not receiving our emails or not already a member with us, visit Sollevato wines.com while you're waiting for the and the Petite Syrah to come out later this year. We have a beautiful Grenache light red as well as our Sangiovese are both available.

And as always, be sure to use the discount code podlistener for 10% off your order. Whatever you do between now and our next time together, I hope that you sip well. You.