How rosé became the most obnoxious drink in America

How rosé became the most obnoxious drink in America

Some wines beg to be sipped by the fireplace. Others are best poured alongside a succulent white fish or a juicy red steak.

But rosé? As the trending hashtags profess, the pink drink — made with less grape skin contact than red wines — is for “all day.” Millennials are guzzling it by the caseload, lured by its photogenic hue and the breezy poolside lifestyle it promises.

Nothing sums up that obsession better than Midtown’s new Rosé Mansion, a summer-long pop-up that celebrates the pour in all its ’grammable glory. In its 14 rooms, visitors can learn about the history of rosé and its many different varietals. But, more importantly, they can take selfies: swinging from chandeliers, bathing in a tub of pink rose petals and posing in a giant gold throne — all while swilling their favorite wine for the general-admission price of $45.

Georgia Reyes-Lou at the Rosé Mansion.Courtesy of Georgia Reyes-Lou

“I drink it all year-round,” Georgia Reyes-Lou, a 33-year-old influencer from Queens, tells The Post. Her glittery Kate Spade handbag — shaped like a rosé bottle — was a big hit at the mansion on a recent weeknight. “But when I first saw rosé, I wanted it because it was pretty.”

Good looks have helped rosé overcome its once-bad reputation: Until recently, it was considered the gauche pink-headed stepchild of the wine world, conjuring hangovers of too-sweet white zinfandel. But today, it’s a top seller at restaurants and liquor stores, and a $258 million industry, according to Nielsen.

And that staggering statistic only counts the wine itself — not rosé’s many spinoffs, including Brosé (Citizen Cider’s rosé-colored cider for bros), canned spritzes, gummy bears, nail polish, cupcakes, doughnuts, chocolates, you name it. There’s also frosé, rosé’s frozen offshoot, offered everywhere from Midtown’s trendy Skylark rooftop bar to Taco Bell Cantina, the upscale-ish version of the drive-thru spot on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. (“If Taco Bell serving rosé isn’t the nail in the coffin on this trend, I don’t know what is,” quips Leanna McMillin, a 31 year-old Bronx resident and co-host of the local arts and culture show “Saturday Morning Live.”)

Beyond rosé’s crushable color, millennials’ mania for the drink is driven by its accessibility, explains Tyler Balliet, one of the co-founders of the Rosé Mansion. “You can go into a store, get a bottle of pink wine, and … you know what it’s gonna taste like,” he tells The Post. Plus, he adds, it’s affordable. The average cost of a bottle of rosé this year is $12.38, according to wine database Vivino.

But while the wine itself is cheap, the culture surrounding it isn’t. Patrons of June’s third-annual Pinknic rosé festival on Governors Island paid $115 — which didn’t even include wine — for the honor of sweating amid sculptural pink backdrops. But attendees of the event say it was all worth it for the vibes.

Rosé fans sip away the afternoon at Governors Island’s Pinknic.Stefano Giovannini

“Pink is an attitude,” Klodiana Kastrati, a 21-year-old Bensonhurst resident and recent college grad, tells The Post.

“It’s pretty like me,” adds Sherod Lewis, 30, who lives in Bed-Stuy and works as a publicist.

That aspirational attitude is what artist manager-turned-winemaker Alexander Ferzan tapped into when he and his three business partners, including social-media personality the Fat Jewish, created White Girl Rosé in 2015. The brand’s arch label was an instant hit. “We’ve grown hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of percents every year,” says Ferzan. As he sees it, they’re quenching millennials’ thirst for fun without exclusivity. “We’re just giving people what they want. Not all heroes wear capes.”

Rosé-colored glasses may be what the people want, but wine experts have some reservations. Although Max Rohn, the general manager of Wölffer Estate winery in Sagaponack, is thrilled to see rosé take off in the big way that it has — they’re currently looking for more land on Long Island to grow grapes, he tells The Post — he’s getting sick of the “frivolous” reputation its culture is steeped in.

“The expressions [such as “rosé all day”] and the pool floats and things like that,” he says. “I think people will get tired of [it].”

So out-of-control is the pink marketing shtick that some fans of the blush stuff fear the party may soon be over.

Gennaro Pecchia, host of the foodie radio show “Men Who Dine,” likes a nice, dry glass of rosé from time to time, but worries that its superficial trappings may lead to its own demise.

“Rosé has been knocked around like it’s a sock in a dog’s mouth,” says Pecchia. “At this point you have to wonder, ‘Would rosé even drink rosé?’”

There’s also concern that the outsized demand for rosé is affecting its quality. Producers want in on the rosé trend so bad, they’re willing to break the law just for a piece of the pink pie: In early July, French investigators announced that 10 million bottles of cheap Spanish rosé were illegally labeled “produced in France” and “bottled in France.”

Taco Bell Cantina’s blended frosé drink.Taco Bell

“The more wine you make, the harder it is to control,” Chad Walsh, a sommelier at Agern Restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, tells The Post. He believes that the societal obsession over “that specific, salmon-colored rosé” — rather than the wine’s taste and complexities — has forced winemakers to take shortcuts, such as sneaking in additives that tone down the red color in wine.

But Ferzan insists that the growth in the rosé market is a positive thing overall, because it gives people a seat at the wine table who might have been intimidated to try it before. In his perfect world, rosé would be as ubiquitous as Bud Light — and it may just be on its way. A couple of months ago, Anheuser-Busch InBev, which owns Budweiser, bought a minority stake in Ferzan’s company, Swish Beverages.

“You don’t have to be a leathery old man who likes blue-cheese-stuffed olives to enjoy wine,” he says. “Rosé broke down that barrier of entry.”

Additional reporting by Suzy Weiss

The Pinknic rosé festival.Stefano Giovannini
Every which wé

Plain rosé is good and well, but these wacky riffs are Instagram gold.

Pop of pink

Courtesy of The Skylark

Feeling hot and bothered? The “Frozen Angels” ice pops on Skylark’s special “Rosé Your Way” menu offers a chill blend of coconut rosé sangria and Whispering Angel rosé. $10 at Skylark, 200 W. 39th St.; 212-257-4577.

Bowled over

Roman Dean

Detox and retox simultaneously with this superfood frosé bowl made with berries, watermelon, granola, honey and, of course, rosé. $20 at Loco Coco, 835 Lexington Ave; 212-888-9900, Loco-Coco.com.

Golden hour

Courtesy of Pinch Chinese

Toast to the high life with this “Rosé Gold” cocktail mixed with sparkling rosé, elderflower liqueur and Peychaud’s bitters and topped with rose-scented gold flakes. $15 at Pinch Chinese, 177 Prince St.; 212-328-7880.

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