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was with the desire to bring the warmth and richness of life there to the Hamptons. It was pretty clear then that not many Americans knew what rosé was. Now more than half the wine we sell there is rosé.” André Balazs rosé is made from grapes grown in the heart of the Hamptons by Roman Roth, the German-born winemaker for the Wölffer Estate Vineyard, who producedwhat probably was Long Island’s first dry rosé in 1992, the year he arrived on the South Fork.
    “It was a terrible year, cold and wet,” he says of his first vintage. “We couldn’t really get the grapes ripe enough to make great red wines. So I said, let’s make a rosé.” Founded by the bon vivant and equestrian entrepreneur Christian Wölffer in 1987, the Wölffer Estate Vineyard comprises fifty-five acres of some of the most expensive real estate in America. (He died in 2008 at the age of seventy after being hit by a powerboat while swimming off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.) Since Roth’s first vintage, rosé’s share of the production has grown larger and larger each year and is now a specialty of the estate. “At first we had to force people to taste it,” Roth says. (I can’t help imagining Roth and Wölffer, with their German accents, cornering visitors at the vineyard. “Ve must insist you try our rosé.”)
    “To me,” Balazs says, “rosé isn’t just a wine but almost a lifestyle, something which involves friendship and leisure and a specific way to enjoy a meal. It’s totally casual but supremely sexy. It’s just more robust and fun than white wine.” Michael Cinque, the proprietor of Amagansett Wine and Spirits, describes its appeal rather more prosaically. “Most white wines have too much acidity on hot days to reveal much fruit. Rosés have acidity but also berry flavors and cassis.” Cinque recently hosted an informal tasting of ten rosés, including bottles from Provence and Long Island, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the 2009 Channing Daughters Cabernet Franc rosé, also from Long Island, took second place, with the Wölffer Estate in third.
    The Wölffer rosé is leaner and racier than those from Provence, which may in part reflect the cooler climate of eastern Long Island. Southern France has a longer, hotter growing season, and the rosés typically have a heavy dose of Grenache, a fleshy, low-acid red grape. For Balazs, who loves the French style, Roth picks the grapes later, creating a riper and more voluptuous wine thanthe Wölffer rosé, something a little more like Château Minuty or Domaines Ott. The latter is widely regarded as the gold standard of rosé, the rich coppery nectar in the vaguely amphora-shaped bottle that costs as much as a good bottle of Bordeaux. Ott was my introduction to dry rosé. I first recall encountering it at a beachside restaurant in the Côte d’Azur and downing several bottles with my friends over the course of a very long lunch to wash down the amazing fish soup and langoustines. Our table hung over the beach and extraordinarily good-looking, half-naked people kept walking past, and it’s quite possible that I would have appreciated a jar of Night Train in that context, but I can honestly say I have seldom enjoyed a wine more. Domaines Ott has long been the gateway to drinking pink for many visitors to southern France or St. Barts, and for many remains
the
rosé (although in fact it’s actually three rosés, made at three different properties). Whether it’s worth more than twice the average price—about $40—is an open question, though for some buyers that’s part of its appeal. Recently, an even more expensive rosé has appeared on the market, from Château d’Esclans, a relatively new venture created by Sacha Lichine, son of the legendary Alexis Lichine, along with Patrick Leon, the longtime winemaker at Château Mouton Rothschild. Like Balazs, Sacha drank rosé on the Côte d’Or as a young man while vacationing with his father. After Alexis died in 1989,