I’ve heard it over and over - “I don’t drink rosé…it’s too sweet.” But, that’s not always the case.

Unfortunately, rosé wine’s reputations got ruined in the 1970s with wines such as Mateus, Lancers and especially White Zinfandel. Those are the stereotype rosé wines. And, yes, they were more like strawberry soda pop (hence its popularity). Not that there is anything wrong with strawberry soda or that style of white Zinfandel, it’s just that not all rosé wines are sweet. In fact, most bottles of rosé wine being sold today are not actually sweet.

While our brain naturally associates fruit aromas and flavors with sweetness, they are often not directly associated with each other when it comes to wine. Many rosé wines have aromas and flavors of tropical fruits (pineapple, mango) and red fruits (strawberries, cherries, cranberries, raspberries). These wine flavors and aromas may be processed and interpreted by your brain as being “sweet.” But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is sweet.

For a wine to be sweet, it must have sugar in it. In the wine world, it’s referred to as residual sugars (RS). That is, natural sugar from the grape’s juice that is not converted to alcohol during fermentation. But, most wines on the store shelf are “Dry” meaning they have a very small amount of residual sugar (1-10 g/L RS).

Today you can find a lot of very nice dry rosés being produced around the world. So try a dry rosé. They are actually not sweet. Cheers!