Rosé Is Still the It Girl of Spring
Why Europe’s pink wines still set the mood, and why California’s Central Coast belongs in the conversation
By Jamie Knee
Rosé with a view. Global wine travel with Petite Wine Traveler.
If rosé is still the it girl of the season, it is because spring gives her the perfect stage.
Spring arrives in color and light. Gardens bloom. Afternoons soften. The table begins to move outdoors again. Rosé feels made for that moment, all brightness, freshness, and easy charm in the glass. If there is one wine that knows how to catch the season at its prettiest, it is rosé.
Rose has been having her day for many years now! https://petitewinetraveler.com/modern-rose-wine/
A Global Rosé Mood
As a global wine presenter, I spend much of my time traveling between regions, tasting, speaking, and watching the wines that are shaping the conversation worldwide. I am always looking for the bottles, places, and categories that are making a splash. Some shift perception, while others quietly remind us why they have held our attention for so long. Rosé does that every year. It returns not only as a seasonal favorite, but as a category with real range, international momentum, and enduring style.
It is also one of the categories I return to often in my presentations. This is because it so clearly shows how one style of wine can express itself differently across regions, cultures, and landscapes.
What Rosé Does to a Table
I have always loved what rosé does to a table. It relaxes things and suggests a slower afternoon, a better view, a meal that leans toward seafood, vegetables, herbs, and conversation. Rosé is one of the few wines that feels equally at home at a polished hotel lunch or a garden aperitif. It also works perfectly on a yacht deck or a Thursday that simply deserves a little more glamour.
And while rosé is often treated as a seasonal mood, it is also a serious global category with real breadth.
Jamie Knee, Petite Wine Traveler, International Wine Judge, CMB, with rosé wine.
A Competition Worth Watching
That was reinforced again this year by the 2026 Rosé Wines Session of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. The event brought together 50 international tasters to blind evaluate nearly 1,100 rosé wines from 33 countries in Cirò, Italy. Having judged and participated in international wine events such as Concours Mondial de Bruxelles on several occasions over the years, I always watch its results with particular interest. This is especially true in a category as expressive and internationally revealing as rosé. This year’s session confirmed what many of us already know instinctively: Europe continues to set a very high bar.
France Leads the Conversation
France, unsurprisingly, dominated the conversation. French rosés posted a 42 percent increase in medal winning wines compared to 2025. In addition, seven Grand Gold Medals were awarded overall. Provence once again affirmed its status as a global benchmark, collecting 74 medals, including three Grand Golds. Languedoc Roussillon showed strong momentum, and the Loire turned in a particularly elegant performance ahead of hosting next year’s session in Anjou Saumur. The Rhône also stood out, including the France Rosé Revelation for RS Rosé 2025 from the Vermeersch family.
Lavender Fields in Southern France
Provence and the Art of Rosé Living
And of course, Provence remains the place so many people picture first when they think of rosé done beautifully. Pale in the glass, luminous in the sun, and effortlessly chic at the table, Provençal rosé feels made for seafood towers, salade niçoise, grilled prawns, chèvre, aioli, and anything brushed with olive oil and herbs. It is not only a wine, but a way of life.
The Loire in Spring
The Loire offers a different kind of spring mood. There is often more delicacy there, a lighter hand, a freshness that feels perfectly suited to goat cheese, spring vegetables, river fish, and picnics that wander into late afternoon. Rosé d’Anjou, which also made a strong showing this year, brings a softer and more playful side of pink to the table.
Rhône Rosé With More Sun
The Rhône, by contrast, can feel sunnier and more generous, ready for Mediterranean food in all its colorful, unruly glory. Think grilled lamb, ratatouille, charred peppers, tapenade, and rosé with enough presence to hold the meal while still keeping the mood light.
Italy’s Rosé Seduction
Italy, meanwhile, made the story even more seductive. The host country held a strong position and won the International Rosé Revelation 2026 with Talamonti Rosé 2025 from Abruzzo. That feels exactly right to me. Italy has always understood that wine belongs at the table, and rosé there feels especially alive with food. Abruzzo gives us mountain freshness and Adriatic brightness at once. It is the kind of place where I want rosé with brodetto, grilled scampi, crudo, little fried things, and long seaside lunches that drift lazily into evening.
European Rosés
Beyond the Usual Rosé Postcard
Spain, Portugal, and Romania also turned in compelling performances, which only deepens the point. Rosé is no longer one aesthetic, one origin story, or one shade of pale pink. It can be savory, floral, quietly mineral, delicately fruited, or softly textural. It can feel coastal and saline, or orchard toned and structured. That breadth is part of what keeps the category so alive.
California’s Central Coast in Pink
And yet, for all my affection for Europe’s rosé wardrobe, I would be remiss not to say that we have some truly lovely examples much closer to home.
Here on California’s Central Coast, rosé can be every bit as alluring, particularly when made from Grenache or Pinot Noir. Grenache rosé often brings the lifted red fruit and graceful ease I love so much in spring. It is beautifully suited to al fresco lunches, charcuterie, strawberries, burrata, and anything kissed by the grill. Pinot Noir rosé, especially from our cooler coastal pockets, can feel more precise and quietly chic. It is just the thing for salmon, spring peas, Dungeness crab, or an elegant lunch with a sea view.
The Luxury of Rosé
That, to me, is the luxury of rosé at its best. Not extravagance for extravagance’s sake, but adaptability with style.
A great rosé knows how to move through a season. It begins at spring lunch and follows you into summer. Rosé can flatter a table without overwhelming it. It works with oysters, tomatoes, grilled fish, soft cheeses, olives, Mediterranean vegetables, picnic fare, or simply a very good mood. Rosé can be dressed up or left blissfully alone.
Why Rosé Still Resonates
In my work across wine regions globally, I see again and again that the wines people remember most are not always the most complex. They are the ones most deeply tied to a moment, a place, and a feeling. Rosé understands that instinctively.
I also think rosé has held onto her it-girl status because she understands something modern drinkers want: beauty without heaviness, pleasure without pretension, and quality that still feels playful. In that sense, rosé is not just a wine trend. She is a lifestyle cue.
Drink me outdoors. Enjoy me with friends. Drink me before the evening becomes too serious.
Sparkling rosé and rosé cocktail with a view in Dubrovnik, with Jamie Knee, Petite Wine Traveler.
A Final Glass of Pink
So yes, I am watching Europe, and yes, I am paying attention to competitions like Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. This competition continues to spotlight serious quality through an international blind tasting lens. But I am also happily drinking pink close to home, especially when California’s Central Coast reminds us that we, too, know how to make spring taste beautiful.
Rosé is still the it girl of the season.
And honestly, why shouldn’t she be?
Through Petite Wine Traveler, I write, speak, and present for the global wine and travel industry. I also partner with destinations, wineries, and hospitality brands to tell stories that bring people closer to place through culture, beauty, and the glass.
