HELLO! And welcome to something that I hope will become a yearly post – mostly because we had so much fun doing it! This official taste test took place on a Saturday afternoon after I dragged Ryan to 15 different liquor stores in search of 10 different bottles of rosé under $25. When I was choosing the wines, I tried to keep them in the same price range, and chose wines that I had heard a bit about and found to be fairly easy to track down. I also tried to keep it to only 2019 bottles, but had trouble finding some of the ones I definitely wanted to try from 2019! So there are a few here that are from 2018 as well. Next year I will be meticulous about this!

I had all of the bottles of wine chilled and ready to go, and then we picked at random and poured out a taste for everyone at the same time. Naturally, the wines in the beginning of the tasting were judged a bit more harshly 😂 and we definitely got more lenient as we went. I made a chart and had everyone take notes/make comments on which bottles were their favorite, what they tasted like and the rating out of 10 for each as we went. You’ll see that I’ve shared some of these comments for each bottle, as well as our overall thoughts.

Something that is also important to note is that overall, our rosé preference is one that is slightly dry, fruity and not bitter. We tended to prefer the ones that did not have much of an aftertaste and something that you could theoretically drink all day, on a hot summer one.

Mi Mi en Provence Grand Reserve 2019 – this was the very first bottle we opened, and I think we hated it the most. There was nothing “rosé” about it, this tasted like sauvignon blanc and not a good one. Mi Mi also had the most alcohol taste to it, it was very dry and after the end of our first tasting we all agreed it was like drinking rubbing alcohol. Dad: Tastes awful. Dry and not fruity and heavy alcohol taste. 1/10

Whispering Angel 2018 – this wine tasted like flowers to me. It wasn’t really sweet and had that dry, white wine taste to it– but if you added a handful of weeds and crushed them up in it. We wouldn’t turn our noses up at this one, but probably wouldn’t buy it again. Mom: Not sweet enough for me. Drinkable, but that’s it. Nice name and bottle. 4/10

Hampton Water 2019 – this was the one I was most excited for! I had seen this quite a bit in my research before starting this project and read a lot of great feedback! I loved the label, the bottle was cute and we all agreed that it was a great name for a rosé. I actually really liked it on the initial taste but hated it a week later when I tried to have another glass of it. (Not sure if that was because it was a week old, but I couldn’t even take a second sip because it was so bitter.) As per everyone else, we all agreed that this one was pretty fruity and light and very drinkable. Ryan: Nice balance, not too sweet, not too dry. Very crushable. 7.6/10

Minuty 2019 – we thought this was nice for a glass or two, but impossible to drink it all day. It was not too fruity and not too bitter. It was juicy, but not sweet and had a notable aftertaste. Dad hated this one a lot, and whined about it. Mom: Kind of harsh for a wine, and I’m a bourbon drinker. I’m all about no aftertaste and this failed. 6/10

Gerard Bertrand Cote Des Roses 2019 – this was my favorite by a landslide. It had a super clean finish, it was fruity and dry but not bitter and definitely drinkable all day. It was easy to sip, very refreshing, and would be delicious over some ice. We loved this and if I was bringing rosé to someone’s house, this is what I’d buy. Not to mention the bottle is the cutest! Ryan: Smoooooth as a baby’s bottom. Best finish. 8.3/10

Black Box Rosé 2018 – Ry picked this one because he felt we needed to include a boxed wine. Overall we thought it was “not bad for a box, I guess.” It was really fruity and sweet, tasted like drinking juice, and it smelled awful. Dad hated it, drew a throwing up smiley face on the chart and said it tasted like butter and made him sick. Jess: Boxed wine is FUN, but I can already feel the headache from this one 5/10

Notorious Pink Grenache 2019 – We loved this. It was Mom’s overall favorite and high up on the list for everyone else too. Notorious Pink felt like the light at the end of the tunnel! It’s sweet, but not too sweet, juicy and had no aftertaste whatsoever. This one was a real crowd pleaser. I noted that I would have loved to have this one in a glass with some ice (as opposed to our plastic cups.) Matt: I love it when you call me BIG POPPA! √+ Not too sweet. Best yet! 🙂

Finca Wolffer Rosé Wine 2019 – I don’t remember hating this one, but my notes are showing otherwise. It was apparently very fruity and juicy, but did not have a clean aftertaste. Ryan deemed it “not crushable” and we all liked the start, but hated the finish. Dad: NO!!!! Too much fruit, not enough alcohol. After taste terrible. 4/10

Vanderpump Rosé 2018 – Overall we really liked this one! It fell somewhere in the middle for everyone, not the best, not the worst. It was kind of dry, not too sweet and had a very mild finish. This one definitely passed the “rosé all day” test. Which is shocking because it’s a ~celebrity wine,~ and a good one at that! Ryan: Crushable. Sneaks up on you!! Very smooth and could be dangerous. 7/10

Wolffer Summer in A Bottle 2019 – this was our very last wine to try and as you can imagine we were all pretty tipsy by the time we got to this one. But it was delish! We all really liked this one. Dad deemed it “winner winner, chicken dinner” and Ryan noted that it was very “smoooooooooth.” We felt this one was dry, yet juicy but had a very slight aftertaste. Matt: I’m wasted. It’s dope. √+ and one huge smiley face.

***After all was said and done, I crunched some numbers (LOL) and added up everyone’s official numerical score for each bottle and divided by 5 to come up with the group rating. The results are as follows!!!***

Third Place: Notorious Pink Grenache 2019 (8.06 average)

Second Place: Wolffer Summer in A Bottle 2019 (8.50 average)

First Place: Gerard Bertrand Cote Des Roses 2019 (8.66 average)

I will also tell you that I was in bed and asleep at 8pm after this full day of drinking wine and haven’t had a sip of rosé since!!!! It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it. I hope you guys found this post somewhat helpful! And even if you didn’t I will probably still do it again next year because it was such a FUN day.

Let me know if I missed any of your favorites – I’ll be starting a list for next years tasting and would love some input! Also, who are my rosé lovers?! Let me know and you juuuuuust might be pulled from the bench for participation next summer!

with love, jak