Good Rosé Wine for a Wine Tasting
If you’re looking for good rosé wine for beginners, you’ll love these reasonably priced bottles. Perfect for a tasting party or to enjoy on your own, these bottles of rosé (including a Whispering Angel dupe!) are a great place to start.
It’s almost pink season after all!
Best Rosé Wines for Beginners
Good rosé can be hard to navigate. But I recently hosted a rosé wine tasting party for my girlfriends! It was super fun and was a good excuse to explore a variety of pretty pink wines.
These are the 5 bottles of inexpensive rosé wine that I used for my tasting that I think you and your friends will love too! Whether you’re hosting a wine tasting or just want to find a new bottle of rosé to try, these are my picks!
Related: 5 Favorite New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
Like any wine, there are tons of flavor profiles but with rosé, they literally can be very bad to OMG I need an IV drip of this.
Some rosés are sugary and sweet while others are very dry. I know that my favorite rosés are usually from Provence (usually on the drier side). I think these bottles offer a good variety for you to try.
I’m definitely not a wine expert (which becomes quite clear as you read on) so what I like, others may not. Because ultimately, the best rosé wine is the one you like the flavor of the most.
These wine-tasting cards are a great way to keep track of any wines you try!
1. Gerard Bertrand Gris Blanc
Thanks to a hot tip by my friend and fellow rose lover, Tori (you’ll love her rosé printable!), I learned there is a Whispering Angel dupe!
This Gris Blanc from Gerard Bertrand is delish! They also make a Cotes des Roses rose that is way pinker and a little bit sweeter.
This Gris Blanc is really light in color, dry with a really nice finish and is right around $13. That’s my sweet spot right there. I have another bottle of this chilling in the fridge as we speak!
This is, for sure, a new favorite!
Gerard Bertrand Gris Blanc | $13
2. Kim Crawford Rosé
When I saw this bottle of rose at the grocery store the day before my party I bumped another from the tasting list and decided to include this one.
Kim Crawford makes my favorite Sauvignon Blanc so I had to know what their rose was like! This one has notes of watermelon and strawberry. I liked this bottle.
It wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting. The prices for Kim Crawford can vary depending on where you buy it so keep that in mind when looking for this wine!
I’m not sure if this rosé is as easy to find as their other wines, but I sometimes get the best price at the grocery store when I buy 6 bottles or Costco (but I don’t see it there all the time).
Kim Crawford Rose | $15
3. Summer Water Rosé
Although I love the label and have tried this bottle several times, Summer Water has never been my favorite. It’s not bad. It’s from the central coast of California so it has a different flavor profile than I am typically drawn to.
It’s a pretty color and on the dry side with a little acidity that makes it great to drink on a warm day which is why some people think its the best summer rosé.
Where Can I Buy Summer Water Rose?
Every time I post a photo of a bottle of Summer Water I get asked where you can buy it! People want to try this wine! I purchase mine through Winc.
So if you are having friends, over, they’ll probably be excited to taste this one. If you aren’t looking to buy wine online, you can also find Summer Water at most Whole Foods!
There is a ‘where to buy summer water‘ page on their site that tells you where else you can find it and it’s a lot more spots than I thought!
Winc has tons of other great rose wine to try! I’ve really enjoyed the Sauvetage, the Ruza cans (you know I love canned wine!) and I fell in love with the 2017 Funk Zone Rose.
I enjoyed that bottle a few days after my tasting and was bummed I hadn’t included it! (It’s what I bumped for the Kim Crawford).
I’m not sure if they have it year round but you can sometimes sign up for the Summer Water Societe where you can set up automatic deliveries of Summer Water right to your home through summer.
Summer Water | $18
4. Cocomero
This Cocomero also comes from Winc. This bottle isn’t always available, it comes and goes. This was my least favorite of all the wines. For no real reason.
This might have been sweeter than the others? I do remember getting red fruity notes (berries and watermelon) but the label is sort of guiding you towards watermelon, no?
Full disclosure: None of these bottles were terrible. Taking good notes on wine, when you’ve been drinking all the wine, is not the best idea I’ve ever had. I may add to this post as I have these wines again to update you on what flavors I pick up on and how they made me feel.
I have a star on my note card next to my favorite (Gris Blanc) but I wrote “dry” by all of them.
Also, I used this delicious bottle to create a yummy Rosé Lemonade cocktail.
Cocomero | $13
5. Miraval Rosé
This bottle of rose from Miraval was more expensive ($26) than I wanted to spend but I have been wanting to try this one forever. The bottle makes it seem so special. Plus this wine brand is currently being fought over by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt so…
This one is also from Provence so I expected to really like it. It was just ok from what I remember… I noted notes of berry and flowers on my tasting card and that it was really dry. This was the 5th wine we tried, did I even know what dry was anymore?
Much like Whispering Angel (more on that below!), Miraval has released a lower-priced wine, Studio by Miraval. It’s $16. I have not tried it but I’m sure it’s very similar to the Miraval.
I love how these bottles look. But they really throw off my wine storage. I know they probably wanted to stand out but I don’t love it.
Miraval | $22
My favorite rosé from this list: For me the big takeaway from this tasting was the Gris Blanc! I was glad I didn’t fall in love with Miraval since it was even more expensive than my fave Whispering Angel.
So I may have failed you with detailed tasting notes and why each bottle was delicious. I can tell you, though, that the gals I had over to drink them had different favorites which goes to show that determining what the best wine is, is really subjective.
I think these 5 bottles or less is a great base for a rosé wine tasting. Whether you’re sipping with friends or trying these on your own, I’m sure there is at least one bottle here that you will love!
So put on my Rose and Rap playlist, sit back and enjoy some pink wine. P.S. rose always tastes better on a patio…
Honorable Mention
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention Yes Way Rosé. You can find it at Target for about $13. It has a well-designed bottle, it’s a little bit sweeter than I normally like but not so much so that you don’t want to drink it.
It’s an easy drinker, great for a group of people where you might not know their wine preferences and just plain fun to drink! If you could only pick one place to go to get all your pink wines, go to Target. The prices are reasonable (10% off if you buy 4) and they have a lot of the trendy brands.
A few more rosés to consider
Since the intent of my tasting party was to find new-to-me rosés, I didn’t include my favorites. But I think you should at least know about those also.
I think the best-tasting rose is Whispering Angel. It’s from Provence but runs about $25 a bottle. For me, that’s on the higher side so I don’t buy it very often.
My goal in this tasting was to find the best cheap rosé, that I like just as much but that is more affordable.
Since this post was originally written, Whispering Angel came out with The Palm by Whispering Angel (I think they changed the name to The Beach). It tastes almost the same but has a $15 price tag. It’s my new go-to. It’s a great one to serve a crowd and many different palettes seem to like it.
They also have a more expensive version called Rock Angel. YUM! But pricey.
Rosé is something that puts a smile on people’s faces. That’s why I made these printable wine labels for when my friends are having a bad day. A wine gift is always welcome.
You can see how I set up the party, and had tasting cards to use, for our blind tasting if you head over to this wine tasting post.
And, if you’re really into rosé, you definitely need to make Rosé Cupcakes. Because, yum.
A note: You may notice that these bottles of rosé are already opened…and you would be correct. Sometimes, after you start drinking good rosé, your best-laid plans fly out the window…
I had intended to take photos of these before I even set up for the party but life happened, and no photos. Whoops.
Wine cocktails
Browse my full wine cocktail recipe collection or check out these stand outs:
- Coke and Rosé is a thing and you need to try it.
- Rosé Lemonade
- Sauvignon Blanc Jello Shots
- Champagne Christmas Cocktails to Make for the Holidays (and beyond)
- Pear Sangria with White Wine
- Rosé Sangria Recipe
I knew you’d love the Gris Blanc! I’ve got to try a couple of these myself. Yay for summer sipping!