This wellness magazine’s misleading advice on rosé is infuriating wine experts

葡萄酒行业内部人士去疯狂,发帖愤怒responses to the post andnew reelsto counter the misinformation. As I write, the post has received 681 comments, most of which can be summarized as “worst advice ever.” (It’s not the only rosé controversy of the week, by the way. Seemy other storyabout the viral trend sweeping TikTok of infusing a glass of pink wine with jalapeño peppers.)

The most astounding thing about this is that Real Simple’s bad tip seems to have come from an actual wine professional. The post is linked to a2019 articleby Betty Gold, “This Mind-Boggling Sommelier Trick For Buying Rosé Might Be Secret Genius” that features an interview with Christopher Hoel, the founder of wine advisory firm Harper’s Club and a curator for Martha Stewart’s wine club.

Hoel, the supposed expert, tells Gold what can only be described as a flat-out lie: “Darker rosés tend to be more mass produced and thus forth the maceration time is more difficult to control and manage yielding darker colored rosés.” (I’m not even going to address the grammar in that one.)

We shouldn’t be surprised. This rosé-color myth has persisted for a long time. And its proliferation is easy to trace.

Many people associate dark rosé with low-quality, sickly sweet wines like Sutter Home White Zinfandel, and pale rosé with Provencal imports like Whispering Angel. Although the colors of those wines have nothing to do with their respective qualities, it’s easy to see how folks confused correlation for causation. Those barely-pink Provence wines have become so popular in the last decade, crowding wine-store shelves and Hamptons beach parties, while sweet White Zin is completely passé. No wonder people started assuming paler is better.

For a refresher: To make rosé, you take red grapes and let the grape juice steep with its skins. The shorter that steeping time, the less color the juice will absorb — leading to a lighter-colored rosé. The longer the steeping time, the darker the wine will be. (Eventually, if you keep it going for several days or weeks, you’ll end up with red wine.)

The length of maceration, and the resulting color density, is completely unrelated to whether the wine ends up sweet, or tastes good at all. A deep-magenta rosé can just as easily be dry — that is, sugar-free — as one that’s the color of pale salmon flesh.

In fact, some of the best rosés you can buy come in shades of ruby, mauve and crimson. This is even true of wines from Provence, the pale-wine motherland. Take the rust-colored rosé of Provence’sChateau Simone, which some consider to be the greatest rosé on the planet. The amber-colored rosato from Spain’s Lopez de Heredia has acult following, and it’s as serious as a red wine. (As proof of its ageability, the current release from the winery is the 2010 vintage.) Pretty much all rosés from the southern French region of Tavel are dark in color; look for the beautiful bottlings of Chateau Trinquevedel.

Here in California, there’s a plethora of deliciously dark pink wines. Irecommendedthe zesty Zin Gris from Calistoga’s Storybook Mountain Vineyards in a piece last year, and stand by it. Recently I tried a terrific, nearly-orangerosé of St. Laurent, an Austrian grape variety, made by winemaker Shalini Shekhar under her Ottavino label. Other excellent local examples include theBroc Love rosé(made primarily from the Valdiguie grape), which comes in both bottles and cans, and thePrima Materia rosé, an Italian-inspired blend of Barbera and Aglianico.

Of course, many light rosés are tasty too. But just remember: Never judge a wine by its color. Now go tell your friends.