The Top Twelve Rosés from the Eighth Annual World’s Largest Blind Tasting of American True Rosés

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 seven years, I thought I would end with some general impressions and this year’s top rosés. But first, here are the remaining two flights of the tasting:

*2022 Balverne Pinot Noir Forever Wild, Russian River Valley, CA: Retail $28. A brilliant pink in the glass, but decidedly on the lighter side of rosé in color. Classic nose of red fruit with hints of melon and citrus.. Mostly strawberry on the palate though with great acidity and balance. Excellent. 92 Points.

2023 Troon Vineyard Ascendant Rosé, Applegate Valley, OR: Retail $30. Very Responsible Bottle (482g; 17oz). I could not find any information about this wine on line. Lacking any real “pink” this is, at least in color, more of a slightly dark (ish) white than a rosé. Herbal (mint, basil) more than fruity both on the nose and the palate. Even with some time, the fruit just was not there, still, I like it. Very Good. 88 Points.

2023 Merriam Vineyards Pinot Noir Rosé, Russian River Valley, CA: Retail $30. Responsible Bottle (523g; 18.4oz). A light pink in the glass. Quite shy as not much coming from the nose or the palate. There is a touch of fruit, I guess, on the palate, and some acidity, but really not expressing much. Very Good. 87 Points.

*2022 Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir Rosé Avant Garde, Carneros, CA: Retail $30. Very Responsible Bottle (470g; 16.6oz). More orangethan pink, but clearly light, with a rather closed nose. Some cherry? I guess. Really provençale in style, OK fruit, good acidity. Fine. Very Good. 89 Points.

All 64.

2022 Silver Trident Pinot Noir Apollo’s Folly Rosé, Sonoma Coast, CA: Retail $35. Very Heavy Bottle (732g; 25.8oz). Another wine that I really liked last year (96 points) but has dropped of significantly. More orange than pink, but plenty of color. The nose is quite muted and the palate is on the verge of “interesting” with a caramel, oxidative note. The palate is, again, rich and a bit oxidative but not much fruit. Very Good. 88 Points.

*2022 King Estate Pinot Noir Rosé, Willamette Valley, OR: Retail $25. Responsible Bottle (538g; 19oz). Medium to dark with a rather odd nose. Acetate? Kerosene? The palate is not much better, but there is some fruit and decent acidity, but still that kerosene aspect persists. Good. 86 Points.

2023 Covenant Red C Rosé, California: Retail $35. Very Responsible Bottle (500g; 17.6oz). “A blend of Grenache, Pinot Noir, and Syrah.” Light in color with a bit of melon and sweet, ripe strawberry on the nose. Quite floral, even on the verge of overly, with decent fruit and a hint of sweetness on the palate. Very Good. 88 Points.

*2022 Rodney Strong Pinot Noir Rosé, Russian River Valley, CA: Retail $25. Very Responsible Bottle (472g; 16.6oz). Light to medium color with a nose that has a bit of an off aroma, hard to place. The palate is better with good fruit and balance. But that nose. Very Good. 89 Points.

Note: Wines with an asterisk (*) were second bottles from last year’s tasting.

Getting chilly (hopefully).

For those that have never done it, tasting 64 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 64 high-acid (hopefully) 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 that for the first time, there was a weak negative correlation between when the wine was tasted and its score (in other words, the wines later in the tasting were scored somewhat lower; r= -0.34). I hope that was just a coincidence. On the other hand, this year there was no apparent correlation between quality and price (r= -0.07). (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.)
This year saw a slight increase in the quality of the wines (my average score rose about a half a 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” (36% at 90-92 points) or “Outstanding” (26.5% 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 (six wines were from 2021, 28 from 2022, and 30 from 2023), but that was certainly not the case. Although, there were a higher concentration of “Outstanding” wines from the 2023 vintage wines (4 from 2022, 13 from 2023).
Although still dominated by California (42 wines), four states were represented: Oregon (15 wines), Washington (two), and Texas (five).
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.
Our dog, Mailly, after 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, particularly Kat René (The Corkscrew Consièrge) and Becca Castillo (My Vino Rules).

Three wines appeared on the lists of all the writers at the tasting:

2023 Clif Family Winery Grenache Rosé, Mendocino, CA ($30)
2023 Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir Rosé Avant Garde, Carneros, CA ($32)
2023 Sangiacomo Wines Vin Gris of Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, CA ($36)

Another nine wines appeared on the majority of the writers’ lists:

2022 Acquiesce Grenache Rosé, Lodi, CA ($35)
2023 Acquiesce Grenache Rosé, Lodi, CA ($35)
2023 Emery Grant Pinot Noir Rosé, Anderson Valley, CA ($25)
2023 Lange Rosé of Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, OR ($29)
2022 Pisoni Family Vineyards Lucy Rosé of Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands ($24)
2023 Pisoni Family Vineyards Lucy Rosé of Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands ($24)
2023 Shannon Family of Wines Mother Vine, High Valley, CA ($38)
2023 Tongue Dancer Pinot Noir Rosé de Ville, Russian River Valley, CA ($30)
2022 Tongue Dancer Pinot Noir Rosé, Sonoma Coast, CA ($25)

Here are my top-six wines from the tasting:

2022 Acquiesce Grenache Rosé, Lodi, CA ($35)
2023 Clif Family Winery Grenache Rosé, Mendocino, CA ($30)
2023 Tongue Dancer Pinot Noir Rosé de Ville, Russian River Valley, CA ($30)
Three scored at 96 points.
2023 Lange Rosé of Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, OR ($29)
2023 Sangiacomo Wines Vin Gris of Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, CA ($36)
2023 Shannon Family of Wines Mother Vine, High Valley, CA ($38)

Three scored 95 points.

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

2023 Acquiesce Grenache Rosé, Lodi, CA ($35)
2023 Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir Rosé Avant Garde, Carneros, CA ($32)
2023 Pisoni Family Vineyards Lucy Rosé of Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands ($24)
2021 Smith-Madrone Rosé, Spring Mountain District, Napa Valley, CA ($30)
2022 Tongue Dancer Pinot Noir Rosé, Sonoma Coast, CA ($25)
2022 Ron Yates Grenache Rosé Farmhouse Vineyards, Texas High Plains ($20)

The 94 point wines (I screwed up here; I did not include the Smith-Madrone in the photo and instead had the Emery Grant, which I scored at 93).

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 $28.53, which was $1.50 higher than last year). It should also be pointed out that three of my top 12 wines were made by James MacPhail of Tongue Dancer Wines (so maybe reach out to them: Tongue Dancer Wines).

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 1-3 Flights 4-6 Flights 7-9 Flights 10-12 Flights 13-14

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