In Houston, it’s pink wine, no matter the season.
The calendar might be (slowly) flipping toward fall, but you’d never know it here in Houston. The mercury pushes triple digits in August, and September still sizzles. And if you’ve been to the Original Greek Festival or Southern Smoke Festival in early October, you know that’s a sundresses-and-shorts affair.
As sun-soaked Houstonians look for something to sip as they sit outside on the hill at Miller Outdoor Theatre or lounge poolside, there’s one drink that not only fits the bill for our sweltering summer, but all year round.
“Houston is secretly, or not so secretly, a rosé city all year long,” says June Rodil, a master sommelier who’s also the CEO and partner of Goodnight Hospitality. “Our version of sweater weather still involves patio lunches, Gulf seafood, spicy food, barbecue, and a very real need for something chilled and refreshing.” But it’s more than that, she muses.
“[It’s] Houston’s food, and honestly, Houston’s personality,” she says in an email. “Rosé is one of the great translators at the table. It can handle heat, herbs, smoke, salt, citrus, spice, and richness without taking over the conversation. In a city where dinner might be oysters, classic Euro dishes, Viet-Cajun crawfish, tacos, grilled fish, barbecue, or a cheese board, rosé makes sense far beyond summer.”
Her fellow master sommelier Guy Stout, who runs his own wine label, agrees.
“It’s the perfect drink,” he says. “Most of the great rosés are made from pinot noir and grenache. [They’re] refreshing, and that’s what we need in the heat. And we have so much heat for so long. I do a roasted chicken, and I’m, ‘I’ll have a rosé with it.’ It’s beautiful.”
Despite what the name may imply, rosé is made from red grape varieties. The wine’s pink hue comes from the winemaking process itself, which limits the juice’s contact with the skins during maceration. After the grapes are picked and crushed to release their juice, the liquid sits with the skins, turning darker the longer the skins are in contact with it. For traditional red wines—think cabernet or pinot noir—the skin and juice can sit together for days. With rosé, it’s usually only hours before the skins are removed from the juice, which is left to ferment into wine.
Pour up. Drink.
Rosés are made all over the world, from all sorts of red grapes. But, according to Rodil, it’s unhelpful to think of rosés as pink versions of your favorite red wine. Instead, she suggests thinking about what you like in your reds and finding it in a rosé.
“If you love softer reds like pinot noir or gamay, look for rosés made from pinot noir, gamay, or zweigelt,” she says. “They often give you that pretty red-fruited, lifted, graceful quality. If you love Rhône reds, grenache-, syrah-, mourvèdre-, or cinsault-based rosés can have more texture, spice, and savory character. If you like bolder, more structured reds, do not be afraid of darker rosés like Tavel, Spanish rosados from garnacha, or tempranillo, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo from Montepulciano, or Bandol from Provence.”
Count Pappas Bros. master sommelier Steven McDonald as part of the Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo fan club. “That’s a super fun category,” he says. “[People] might know the Abruzzo region for Montepulciano for the reds and then Trebbiano or Pecorino for the whites. Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo is almost a crossover between chillable reds and rosé.”
McDonald is getting at something that both Rodil and Stout express: rosés can do a lot of things and do them well. They’re usually served chilled and can handle being everything from the star of the show to a supporting player.
“I have five brothers,” says Stout. “When I pull out a pink wine, and they look at me like, ‘What are you doing? Where’s your Cabernet?’ And I say, ‘Hey guys, this is a starter bottle.’”
Its strength lies in its versatility. “Rosé can be the thing you open for a casual Tuesday, the bottle you bring to a dinner party, or the wine that quietly does the most work on a complicated table,” Rodil says. “It can be the first glass, the last glass, or the glass that gets everyone to relax a little. Honestly, that range is the reason I never get tired of it.”
It’s also one of the reasons she made her own. June’s Brut Rosé is regularly featured on the menus of Goodnight Hospitality’s restaurants, including March, Montrose Cheese & Wine, and Rosie Cannonball. “The goal was to make something joyful, dry, refreshing, and restaurant-worthy, but still affordable enough that people could take it home and drink it on a Tuesday without guilt,” she says.
McDonald has a couple of sparkling rosés on his recommendation list, too. André Clouet rosé is from a village called Bouzy, located in France’s Champagne region. He calls it “one of the most classic, pleasing, consistent rosé Champagnes I’ve ever had.” He also likes a sparkler from the Savoie region, Bugey-Cerdon. “There’s a little sweetness to it, but it’s like some exotic berries, and it’s a little fizzy, a little sweet,” he adds. “It’s like Gatorade.”
Restaurants around the region are known to carry rosé, a wine known for its versatility.
Beyond sparkling wines, Stout points folks to Domaine Ott, one of Provence’s premier winemakers. “It’s historically been one of the greatest rosés on the planet,” he says. That history comes with a price tag that can climb above $50 a bottle. Bargain hunters still seeking quality can look for the winery’s second label, By Ott. Usually priced around $25 per bottle, it’s an excellent introduction to Provençal rosé.
For those who want to explore deeper: Wines from Bandol are “a little like the River Oaks of Provence rosé,” Rodil says, offering more structure and depth. Her recommended picks include Château de Pibarnon, Domaine de Terrebrune, Domaine de la Bastide Blanche, Château Pradeaux, Domaine du Gros Noré, Domaine La Suffrène, or Domaine de la Tour du Bon.
No matter which rosé you go hunting for, McDonald, Rodil, and Stout all say there’s one out there perfect for your taste and for whatever Houston dishes out.
“[Rosé] also has a little bit of trickster energy, which feels very Houston,” says Rodil. “Our weather can be the Loki of climates. One second it is blazing hot and humid. The next, it is somehow patio-perfect, and then suddenly we are pretending we own sweaters or are preparing for a gully-washer. Rosé can shape-shift in the same way. There are bright, mineral, citrusy rosés that feel made for summer humidity, and there are darker, more structured rosés with enough texture and depth for cooler nights, richer dishes, and actual sweater weather.”
When that weather (finally) arrives, you can bet you’ll find a rosé to go with it.
