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In Houston, it\u2019s pink wine, no matter the season.<\/p>\n
The calendar might be (slowly) flipping toward fall, but you\u2019d never know it here in Houston. The mercury pushes triple digits in August, and September still sizzles. And if you\u2019ve been to the Original Greek Festival or Southern Smoke Festival<\/a> in early October, you know that\u2019s a sundresses-and-shorts affair.<\/p>\n As sun-soaked Houstonians look for something to sip as they sit outside on the hill at Miller Outdoor Theatre<\/a> or lounge poolside, there\u2019s one drink that not only fits the bill for our sweltering summer, but all year round.<\/p>\n \u201cHouston is secretly, or not so secretly, a ros\u00e9 city all year long,\u201d says June Rodil<\/a>, a master sommelier who\u2019s also the CEO and partner of Goodnight Hospitality. \u201cOur version of sweater weather still involves patio lunches, Gulf seafood, spicy food, barbecue<\/a>, and a very real need for something chilled and refreshing.\u201d\u00a0But it\u2019s more than that, she muses.<\/p>\n \u201c[It\u2019s] Houston\u2019s food, and honestly, Houston\u2019s personality,\u201d she says in an email. \u201cRos\u00e9 is one of the great translators at the table. It can handle heat, herbs, smoke, salt, citrus, spice, and richness without taking over the conversation. In a city where dinner might be oysters, classic Euro dishes, Viet-Cajun crawfish, tacos, grilled fish, barbecue, or a cheese board, ros\u00e9 makes sense far beyond summer.\u201d<\/p>\n Her fellow master sommelier Guy Stout, who runs his own wine label, agrees.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the perfect drink,\u201d he says. \u201cMost of the great ros\u00e9s are made from pinot noir and grenache. [They\u2019re] refreshing, and that\u2019s what we need in the heat. And we have so much heat for so long. I do a roasted chicken, and I\u2019m, \u2018I\u2019ll have a ros\u00e9 with it.\u2019 It\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite what the name may imply, ros\u00e9 is made from red grape varieties. The wine\u2019s pink hue comes from the winemaking process itself, which limits the juice\u2019s contact with the skins during maceration. After the grapes are picked and crushed to release their juice, the liquid sits with the skins, turning darker the longer the skins are in contact with it. For traditional red wines\u2014think cabernet or pinot noir\u2014the skin and juice can sit together for days. With ros\u00e9, it\u2019s usually only hours before the skins are removed from the juice, which is left to ferment into wine.<\/p>\n Pour up. Drink.<\/p>\n Ros\u00e9s are made all over the world, from all sorts of red grapes. But, according to Rodil, it\u2019s unhelpful to think of ros\u00e9s as pink versions of your favorite red wine. Instead, she suggests thinking about what you like in your reds and finding it in a ros\u00e9.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you love softer reds like pinot noir or gamay, look for ros\u00e9s made from pinot noir, gamay, or zweigelt,\u201d she says. \u201cThey often give you that pretty red-fruited, lifted, graceful quality. If you love Rh\u00f4ne reds, grenache-, syrah-, mourv\u00e8dre-, or cinsault-based ros\u00e9s can have more texture, spice, and savory character. If you like bolder, more structured reds, do not be afraid of darker ros\u00e9s like Tavel, Spanish rosados from garnacha, or tempranillo, Cerasuolo d\u2019Abruzzo from Montepulciano, or Bandol from Provence.\u201d<\/p>\n Count Pappas Bros. master sommelier Steven McDonald as part of the Cerasuolo d\u2019Abruzzo fan club. \u201cThat\u2019s a super fun category,\u201d he says. \u201c[People] might know the Abruzzo region for Montepulciano for the reds and then Trebbiano or Pecorino for the whites. Cerasuolo d\u2019Abruzzo is almost a crossover between chillable reds and ros\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n McDonald is getting at something that both Rodil and Stout express: ros\u00e9s can do a lot of things and do them well. They\u2019re usually served chilled and can handle being everything from the star of the show to a supporting player.<\/p>\n \u201cI have five brothers,\u201d says Stout. \u201cWhen I pull out a pink wine, and they look at me like, \u2018What are you doing? Where\u2019s your Cabernet?\u2019 And I say, \u2018Hey guys, this is a starter bottle.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Its strength lies in its versatility. \u201cRos\u00e9 can be the thing you open for a casual Tuesday, the bottle you bring to a dinner party, or the wine that quietly does the most work on a complicated table,\u201d Rodil says. \u201cIt can be the first glass, the last glass, or the glass that gets everyone to relax a little. Honestly, that range is the reason I never get tired of it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also one of the reasons she made her own. June\u2019s Brut Ros\u00e9 is regularly featured on the menus of Goodnight Hospitality\u2019s restaurants, including March, Montrose Cheese & Wine, and Rosie Cannonball.\u00a0\u201cThe goal was to make something joyful, dry, refreshing, and restaurant-worthy, but still affordable enough that people could take it home and drink it on a Tuesday without guilt,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n McDonald has a couple of sparkling ros\u00e9s on his recommendation list, too. Andr\u00e9 Clouet ros\u00e9 is from a village called Bouzy, located in France\u2019s Champagne region. He calls it \u201cone of the most classic, pleasing, consistent ros\u00e9 Champagnes I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d He also likes a sparkler from the Savoie region, Bugey-Cerdon. \u201cThere\u2019s a little sweetness to it, but it\u2019s like some exotic berries, and it\u2019s a little fizzy, a little sweet,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s like Gatorade.\u201d<\/p>\n Restaurants around the region are known to carry ros\u00e9, a wine known for its versatility.<\/p>\n Beyond sparkling wines, Stout points folks to Domaine Ott, one of Provence\u2019s premier winemakers. \u201cIt\u2019s historically been one of the greatest ros\u00e9s on the planet,\u201d he says. That history comes with a price tag that can climb above $50 a bottle. Bargain hunters still seeking quality can look for the winery\u2019s second label, By Ott. Usually priced around $25 per bottle, it\u2019s an excellent introduction to Proven\u00e7al ros\u00e9.<\/p>\n For those who want to explore deeper: Wines from Bandol are \u201ca little like the River Oaks of Provence ros\u00e9,\u201d Rodil says, offering more structure and depth. Her recommended picks include Ch\u00e2teau de Pibarnon, Domaine de Terrebrune, Domaine de la Bastide Blanche, Ch\u00e2teau Pradeaux, Domaine du Gros Nor\u00e9, Domaine La Suffr\u00e8ne, or Domaine de la Tour du Bon.<\/p>\n No matter which ros\u00e9 you go hunting for, McDonald, Rodil, and Stout all say there\u2019s one out there perfect for your taste and for whatever Houston dishes out.<\/p>\n \u201c[Ros\u00e9] also has a little bit of trickster energy, which feels very Houston,\u201d says Rodil. \u201cOur weather can be the Loki of climates. One second it is blazing hot and humid. The next, it is somehow patio-perfect, and then suddenly we are pretending we own sweaters or are preparing for a gully-washer. Ros\u00e9 can shape-shift in the same way. There are bright, mineral, citrusy ros\u00e9s that feel made for summer humidity, and there are darker, more structured ros\u00e9s with enough texture and depth for cooler nights, richer dishes, and actual sweater weather.\u201d<\/p>\n When that weather (finally) arrives, you can bet you\u2019ll find a ros\u00e9 to go with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Houston, it\u2019s pink wine, no matter the season. The calendar might be (slowly) flipping toward fall, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-410748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rose_-_The_Finn_bkozxs.jpg\"\/)
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