This is the last article about this year’s Annual Largest Blind Tasting of American True Rosés in the World and as I have done the past five previous years, I thought I would end with some general impressions and this year’s top rosés. But first, here are the remaining last three flights of the tasting:

2021 Rodney Strong Pinot Noir Rosé, Russian River Valley, CA: Retail $25. A beautiful Provençal color with a lovely nose of wild strawberry and minerality. The palate is fruity, tart, balanced, just absolutely delicious. I would love to go on more about this wine, but I would rather drink it. Outstanding. 96 Points.

2022 Youngberg Hill Pinot Noir Rosé, Willamette Valley, OR: Retail $40. Light to medium pink with intense melon fruit and orange peel on the nose. A bit round initially with good fruit (peach). The acidity finally catches up on the finish, this is quite good, just a tad wonky initially, but very nice. Excellent. 91 Points.

2022 Duck Pond Pinot Noir Natural Path, Willamette Valley, OR: Retail $20. Medium color with a bit more orange than pink. And plenty of fruit on the nose along with an herbal aspect that is fairly rare in rosé (Oregon?). The palate is fruity, even rich, slightly overpowering the acidity at times, but the tartness battles back every time. Fantastic. Outstanding. 93 Points.

2021 Smith-Madrone Rosé, Spring Mountain District, Napa Valley, CA: Retail $30. 67% Cabernet Franc, 33% Merlot. Dark, probably closer to a red than rosé. A bit darker fruit here as well, with a medicinal aspect on the nose. There is some fruit here, but it seems to be more of the Kool-Aid-type than the fresh berry fruit route. It is fine, I guess, but it certainly is not a “typical rosé”. Very Good. 87 Points.

2021 Clif Family Winery Grenache Rosé, Mendocino, CA: Retail $30. Really, really light in color, causing me to wonder if it were actually a rosé. Classic Pinot rosé nose with some strawberry and rhubarb. It comes off as a bit sweet which covers up the fruit and acidity, which is too bad. Still? This has an audience. Very Good. 89 Points.

2021 Benziger Family Winery Rosé, North Coast, CA: Retail $32. Could not find varietal composition. A medium pink with orange highlights. Cap’n Crunch crunchberry on the nose a go-go, which was tough to get past. It is noticeably sweet on the palate, too, with that same vibe of sweet children’s cereal. Interesting. Very Good. 88 Points.

2021 Pellegrini Family Vineyards Rosé of Pinot Noir Olivet Lane Vineyard, Russian River Valley, CA: Retail $40. Medium color with a wild strawberry and a bit of funk on the nose (I love the funk). The palate is fruity, but not overly so, there is some tartness, but it struggles to maintain a presence. Above-average finish. Very Good. 89 Points

53 bottles of pink ready to be chilled down.

2022 Rodney Strong Pinot Noir Rosé, Russian River Valley, CA: Retail $25. Medium, lovely pink with a ripe, fruity nose of fresh strawberry and cherry. Really fruity, on the verge of Jolly Rancher with a hint of sweetness, but the acidity makes it work. Even well. Excellent. 90 Points.

2021 Quivira Wine Creek Ranch Rosé, Dry Creek Valley, CA: Retail $25. 70% Grenache, 11% Counoise, 9% Mourvèdre, 5% Petite Sirah, 5% Primitivo. Light in color with a heavy orange tint, the nose is quite sweet with elements of cherry and peach. The palate is fruity, yes, but completely dry, with balancing acidity and a well-above-average finish. Quite nice. Excellent. 92 Points.

2021 Old Zin Vines Primitivo OZV, California: Retail $15. Light in color, but brilliant and beautiful, I get some wet tea leaves on the nose with a bit of blackberry, even. Good fruit, even great on the palate with wonderful balance, this is pretty fantastic.  Excellent. 92 Points.

2021 Spicewood Vineyards Grenache Rosé, Texas: Retail $25. Medium to dark color with a bit of a salinity-driven, mineral nose with the fruit hard to come by. Dry, with some suppressed fruitiness that eventually comes through on the finish. This comes off as a bit heavy, but it is fine. Very Good. 88 Points.

2021 Be Human Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé, Horse Heaven Hills, Columbia Valley, WA: Retail $18. Light orange-ish pink color. The nose is a bit off the beaten track with not much fruit and even a nutty caramel thing going on. The fruit is also subtle on the palate, but the tartness is on point. This is a bit older and lovely. Outstanding. 93 Points.

2021 Purple Star Rosé, Columbia Valley, WA: Retail $20. 70% Mourvèdre, 30% Syrah. Fairly light with another sweet nose, and a well-balanced palate. The fruit is quite subtle but paired with a near perfect level of tartness. Excellent. 91 Points.

Getting chilly (hopefully).

For those that have never done it, tasting 53 rosés blind might sound “fun” but it is actually pretty difficult. First, there are only a dozen or so descriptors for the color pink. Sure, you could get fancy and introduce foreign words or tap into Crayola, Behr Paint, or nail polish color names, but, well, I’ll just say that is not my style.

Here are a few ways to describe “pink” but they’re in French….

As it did the last couple of years, it took a toll on my teeth. Swishing around all that acid in your mouth really challenges the gums and chicklets. Four years ago, my teeth hurt for a solid four days after tasting through 68 wines twice (I stupidly pre-tasted all the wines right before the tasting). Ouch.

This year, I decided not to try all the wines twice. Still, after tasting 53 high-acid wines, the teeth and gums go into a bit of a revolt.

Lots and lots of wine left over.

Some general observations:

• I ran a couple of correlations and I found once again that there was no correlation between when the wine was tasted and its score (in other words, there was no apparent advantage to occurring early or later in the tasting; r=  -0.02). On the other hand, this year there was potentially a negative correlation between quality and price, in other words, as the price went down, percieved quality went up, but it was a fairly weak correlation (r=  -0.19). (Statisically speaking, number geeks don’t start getting excited about correlations until  r> +/- 0.3 and we must remember that correlation does not prove causation.)
• For the first time in the last seven years, this year saw a slight decrease in the quality of the wines (my average score dipped almost a full point). While certainly, some wines were “better” than others, all the wines but two fell at least into the “Very Good” category, with more than 3/5 achieving “Excellent” (40% at 90-92 points) or “Outstanding” (20.7% at 93 points and above).
• I contend that “True Rosé” can age as well as any well-made white wine, but I did think that it would be fairly easy to identify the older wines (two wines were from 2020, 25 from 2021, and 26 from 2022), but that was certainly not the case. Although, there were a higher concentration of  “Outstanding” wines from the 2022 vintage wines (15 from 2022, 11 from 2021).
• Although still dominated by California (35 wines), four states were represented: Oregon (11 wines), Washington (four), and Texas (three).
• At big tastings such as this, even when spitting, the alcohol eventually starts to have a bit of an effect–there were much more conversation and general hilarity by the end of the tasting.

Thanks to H-E-B for, er, “supplying” the bags for the tasting.

Many thanks to those who attended the tasting and offered their comments and expertise!

Here are my top-six wines from the tasting:

• 2022 Silver Trident Pinot Noir Folly Rosé, Sonoma Coast, CA ($25)
• 2021 Rodney Strong Pinot Noir Rosé, Russian River Valley, CA ($25)
• 2022 C.L. Butaud Pa Pa Frenchy Rosé, Texas ($18)
• 2022 Lucia Pinot Noir Lucy Rosé, Santa Lucia Highlands, CA ($30)
• 2022 Alma de Cattleya Rose of Pinot Noir, Sonoma County, CA ($26)
• 2022 Stephen Ross Pinot Noir Rosé, Edna Valley, CA ($25)

And here are another five that I found to be Outstanding:

• 2021 Be Human Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé, Horse Heaven Hills, WA ($18)
• 2022 Duck Pond Pinot Noir Natural Path, Willamette Valley, OR ($20)
• 2021 Stephen Ross Pinot Noir Rosé, Edna Valley, CA ($25)
• 2021 Rocky Pond Winery Stratastone Double D Vineyard, Columbia Valley, WA ($30)
• Pellegrini Family Vineyards White Pinot Noir Olivet Lane Estate, Russian River Valley, CA ($40)

As you can see, there are a ton of fantastic rosés out there, many that can be had for a bargain (the average suggested retail this year was an even $27, which was $2 higher than last year). It should also be pointed out that both the 2021 and the 2022 iterations of the Stephen Ross Rosé made my top five (so maybe reach out to them: Stephen Ross).

That’s it for this year’s Largest Blind Tasting of American True Rosé! My next “big” tasting is this fall, with American Pinot Noir.

Flights 1-2        Flights 3-4     Flights 5-6     Flights 7-8     Flights 9-10

An alphabetical listing of all the wines tasted can be found HERE.