6 rosés that will prove the clichés wrong
Rosé has a strange reputation. For some wine lovers, it remains associated with summer aperitifs, ice cubes, bottles without much personality and glasses served ice-cold by the pool.
And yet, reducing rosé to that would mean missing out on one of the most exciting parts of what is being produced today. Just as with reds and whites, there are simple rosés, but also terroir-driven rosés, gastronomic rosés, original cuvées and even alcohol-free alternatives that play the freshness and complexity card with real conviction.
Here are six bottles that prove rosé deserves far better than its clichés.
1. "Rosé is just an aperitif wine"
Château d'Estoublon Rosé 2023
Some rosés are made to accompany a few olives. Others can hold their own perfectly at the dinner table. Château d'Estoublon Rosé clearly belongs to the second category.
From the Baux-de-Provence, this rosé plays on elegance, precision and balance rather than simple freshness. It pairs beautifully with Mediterranean cuisine, grilled fish, roasted vegetables, herb-infused poultry or a slightly more refined summer meal.
A rosé that serves as a reminder that pink wine can be so much more than an aperitif.
2. "All Provence rosés taste the same"
Domaine Sainte-Marie Côtes de Provence Rosé Tradition 2024
Provence is sometimes a victim of its own success. By constantly associating the region with pale, fresh, easy-drinking rosés, it is easy to forget that not all Provençal rosés tell the same story.
With its Tradition cuvée, Domaine Sainte-Marie shows a different side of Provence rosé: accessible and fresh, but with enough substance not to disappear after the first sip. This is exactly the kind of bottle that works just as well at an aperitif as with a salade niçoise, summer cuisine or grilled fish.
A Provence rosé without excessive pretension, but with genuine precision.
3. "A rosé can't be gastronomic"
Roseblood Rosé d'Estoublon Magnum 2022
The magnum format already sets the tone: here, rosé is not simply conceived as a terrace bottle. Roseblood Rosé d'Estoublon Magnum operates in a more ambitious register, with a genuine dimension of sharing and table presence.
This is the kind of rosé you can serve at a long summer lunch, alongside Mediterranean cuisine, fine poultry, grilled fish or herb-based dishes. The magnum also brings a festive quality that goes beyond mere bottle effect.
A rosé that fully embraces its premium side while remaining easy to understand and to share.
4. "The best rosés only come from Provence"
Kanonkop Kadette Rosé 2025 and Tabalí Pedregoso Gran Reserva Rosé 2024
Provence remains a major reference, but it does not hold a monopoly on interesting rosés.
With Kanonkop Kadette Rosé, we head to South Africa, to the Stellenbosch region. Kanonkop is best known for its reds, and that is precisely what makes its rosé interesting: you sense an estate-driven approach, with a wine that is not simply chasing lightness.
With Tabalí Pedregoso Gran Reserva Rosé, we travel to Chile's Limarí Valley. Here again, the rosé takes on a different expression: more unexpected, more rooted in a distant terroir, with a freshness that does not attempt to copy the Provençal model.
These two bottles make one simple point: a great rosé can come from Provence, but it does not have to.
5. "Rosé is always light and lacking personality"
Paso a Paso Las Criollas de Don Graciano Clarete 2023
This is perhaps the most original bottle in this selection.
Clarete is not a classic rosé. It is a style of its own, somewhere between rosé, light red and wine of real character. With Paso a Paso Las Criollas de Don Graciano, we leave behind the usual codes of pale and delicate rosé for a more singular, more free-spirited and more surprising expression.
This is an ideal bottle for the curious, for those who enjoy going off the beaten track, or for wine lovers who think they have already seen everything rosé has to offer.
A rosé? Yes, in part. But above all, a bottle that refuses to fit neatly into any category.
6. "A great rosé experience has to involve wine"
Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Rosé – Cuvée LYSERØD 0% Alcohol
Not every rosé pleasure has to come from wine.
With the Cuvée LYSERØD from Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company, the proposition is different: a sparkling non-alcoholic drink built around tea, freshness and aromatic balance. The idea is not to imitate wine, but to offer a genuine gastronomic alternative for those who want a festive, elegant and alcohol-free experience.
Serve it as an aperitif, at brunch, with light cuisine or simply when you want a beautiful bottle to share without opening a wine.
A modern way to expand the territory of rosé.
So does rosé deserve its bad reputation?
Not really. As with every colour of wine, there are very simple rosés, but also more ambitious, more original and more gastronomic bottles. It all comes down to choosing the right style for the right moment.
A Provence rosé for a summer lunch, a magnum for a large gathering, a Chilean or South African rosé to venture off the beaten track, an Argentinian clarete to surprise the wine lovers in your life, or even an alcohol-free alternative to shake up the conventions — rosé has far more to offer than most people think.
Discover our full selection of rosé wines and find the bottle that will prove your own clichés wrong.
