Long before your social media feed started shouting about Rosé All Day, rosé was integral to daily life in the south of France. I’m not talking about the sweet white zin that gained popularity here at home in the 1970s; I’m talking about beautifully made wines that, due to a short period of time that the juice sits on the skins, are pink.

Today the grocery store wine aisles are packed with rosé wines from all over the world, but it wasn’t always so. How did this happen? Movie stars set the stage, sipping the pink stuff while vacationing in Provence or sailing around the French Riviera. Tout naturellement, Americans wanted to mimic their idols. The wealthy started to have rosé in their glasses all the time, relaxing in the Hamptons and sipping what they called “summer water.” Then rappers were pouring it on naked women in their music videos, and rosé became a coast-to-coast sensation. But it was actually Instagram that launched the rainbow of rosé into a household name. Photographing far better than clear white wines and densely colored reds, we now had a wine that glimmered and caught the eye no matter what the subject of the post was. Suddenly we needed everything to be a soft shade of pink! Millennial pink became the color of a generation—the first to have a color attached to it. Bro-sé made it cool for “real men to drink pink,” and off pink wine shot into megastardom. Now it is EVERYWHERE and is everyone’s wine: gay, straight, man, woman, rich, poor. No matter how you drink it, poured from fancy bottles or slurped out of cans, we know you can’t get enough rosé.

And lest you’re one who thinks trendiness has an inverse relation to excellence, know that the quality of rosés produced beyond Provence has also grown—including in New Mexico. Far from one-note, rosé can be made from many varietals, and many wineries make several versions, releasing them in spring in preparation for the summer boom.

Spring in New Mexico is like having tea with the Mad Hatter: sunny and warm one day, frigid with sprinkles from the sky and a dash of crazy-making wind on the next. The other day, I sat outside and drank a glass of rosé while shivering intensely simply because the sun was out for the first time in a week. Which is all to say: You don’t have to live someplace with picture-perfect spring weather in order to celebrate the official start of one of my favorite times of year—rosé season!

VARA Winery & Distillery
New Mexico Rosé

Laurent Gruet and his nephew Sofian Himeur, both born in France’s Champagne region, have a legacy of great winemaking, so it is no surprise that they would create a beautiful rendition of rosé right here in New Mexico. The duo first worked together at Gruet Winery and are now core members of the team at VARA Winery & Distillery, also based in their adopted hometown, Albuquerque. Made from a blend of 70 percent cabernet sauvignon and 30 percent refosco, the VARA New Mexico Rosé has bracing acidity and is full of personality. It reminds me of some of the incredible, quirky, charming rosés from Hungary. Sipping on a glass of this prismatic pink wine while taking a hot bath or putting up your feet after a long day battling the wind gives you a chance to escape the howling dust storm outside. Perhaps you can close your eyes and pretend that it is the famous mistral blowing through Provence. Somehow this provincial fantasy, with a glass of locally made rosé in hand, makes New Mexico’s gritty spring winds a little more tolerable.

📍 Multiple locations

La Viña Winery
Obsequio

Made from the granddaddy of New Mexico grapes, the mission, this wine shows lovely dainty florals on the nose with lots of citrus notes on the palate. It reminds me of the magical moment when northern New Mexico fruit trees pop into bloom, creating a canopy of beauty overhead and filling the air with perfume. Michael Dominguez, a New Mexico native working with New Mexico State University on researching the mission grape, dreamed up this gem for the sole purpose of highlighting the history of New Mexico winemaking and the obsequio, or gift, that it is. This magenta-pink wine is made by La Viña Winery winemaker Guillermo Contador, and shows the grape’s uniquely musky profile cultivated under Dominguez’s direction at the Teardrop Vineyard in Tularosa.

📍 4201 NM 28, Anthony, 505-882-7632

Jaramillo Vineyards
Desert Rosé

When suggesting local wines, I usually lean dry because I want to remove people’s association between sweet wines and New Mexico. This slightly sweet Desert Rosé from Jaramillo Vineyards is an exception. Made from a fifty-fifty blend of tempranillo and barbera grapes, it has ripe strawberry and tea rose on the nose with a distinctly peachy palate. On the lighter side of the rosé rainbow, this wine is lovely on its own, with a nice acidity to balance the hint of sweetness. It is also a perfect choice for wine spritzers! Mix equal parts Desert Rosé and sparkling water, add a squeeze of sweet mandarin orange, and you have the perfect pairing for Easter, Mother’s Day, or any spring brunch. This wine is just what you need for those days when the bright spring sun is blazing but the chill in the air keeps the wine in your glass cold.

📍 Tasting room: 114 Becker Ave, Belen, 505-859-0684

Luna Rossa Winery
Rosé

Most of the time, the spring storm that the weather app predicts simply doesn’t ever hit—but then again, sometimes it does. Maybe the surprise is a treat, an extra ski or snowshoe day this season, or maybe it is a stress, your apricot trees dropping their fragile blossoms and your just-starting-to-bud grapevines threatened by a late freeze. Luna Rossa’s Rosé, with its hot-pink shimmer, is made from zinfandel grapes and is expressive and alluring. Its ripe berry aroma carries onto the palate with a supple, soft finish. This wine is surprisingly perfect for either après-ski or hanging your head in disbelief. It also happens to pair perfectly with the pizzas served at the Luna Rossa Winery & Pizzeria in Las Cruces.

📍 Deming tasting room: 3710 W Pine St, Deming, 575-544-1160
📍 Winery and Pizzeria: 1321 Avenida de Mesilla, Las Cruces, 575-526-2484

Vivác Winery
Mirabal Reserve

The chokecherry is a curious fruit. It is too tannic to really enjoy on its own, not to mention the gigantic seed stuck in the middle, and yet it is cultivated and encouraged to grow throughout northern New Mexico. Why? you might ask. Because it is an excellent fruit to make homemade syrups, tinctures, and wine from. Grammy winner and Taos Pueblo native Robert Mirabal will tell you stories of his grandmother’s chokecherry wine with a glimmer of nostalgia in his eye. It is because of these fond memories that he teamed up with the winemakers at Vivác Winery (where, full disclosure, I am a co-owner) to make a rosé from sangiovese blended with chokecherry. The salmon-colored Mirabal Reserve Rosé has great acidity, showing floral aromas with citrus notes and minerality on the palate. Despite being ever present on the nose, the unique distinction of the cherry doesn’t add sweetness but rather offers a depth to the wine that reminds us of when the lilacs bloom and the warmth of the sun stretches into full, beautiful spring days.

📍 2705 NM 68, Dixon, 505-579-4441

Michele Padberg
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Michele Padberg, a native New Mexican, is an advanced sommelier, international wine judge, and co-owner of Vivác Winery. A member of the Circle of Wine Writers and the Association of Wine Educators, she was a contributor and editor for the e-book The New Normal in the Wine World. She has been working in the wine industry for more than twenty-three years. Find her at michelepadberg.wixsite.com/winefirst.