Why the Hamptons won’t have another ros\u00e9 drought this summer
We drink so much rosé out here in the Hamptons that California winemakers have to amp up their production for summer.
They first heard about our supply issue in 2014, when we got so collectively drunk that we ran out of rosé weeks before Labor Day.
Everyone remembers the trauma that year — when the Great Rosé Shortage wreaked havoc on the Hamptons. It was basically our version of the oil shortage of the ’70s, except it caused more panic.
That year, staring down completely empty shelves at multiple wine stores, emergency austerity measures were enacted at my home. Houseguests for the remainder of the summer were directed to show up with no fewer than six bottles from the city. Yes, even if they were taking the train or Jitney out.
Fool me once.
After that rosé crisis, I started stockpiling — vowing never to be caught short again.
Last March, still scarred years later, I was in Santa Barbara at Magerum’s tasting room over-buying cases of Riviera rosé to ship home. I explained that in the Hamptons, after once being left high and dry, I was no longer taking any chances.
Much to my surprise, they told me they had read the 2014 headlines and received multiple distress calls from Hamptonites prepared to spend any amount of money to have emergency rosé shipped east.
The same thing was happening in Napa Valley. One wine producer told me recently that his winery got the same frantic calls in 2014 — and still does.
That drought prompted them, and many other winemakers there, to start producing not only more rosé to feed the Hamptons’ demand but expensive rosé — even $50 bottles, a high price for a traditionally inexpensive category. He also told me wineries that never produced rosé actually started doing so in an effort to get in on the Hamptons’ action.
To understand the amount consumed here, you first must know that rosé is part of the Hamptons culture. We drink it on the beach, we drink it at lunch and dinner, and OK, I’ve seen bottles opened over scrambled eggs. It’s like water for us. It is weaved into the social fabric of the Hamptons life.
Wölffer Estate Vineyard, the local Hamptons winery, doesn’t just sell rosé; it has made drinking it an event. What started years ago as quaint, lightly populated nights of music and rosé on the vineyard has exploded into hot-ticket, outdoor rosé extravaganzas, where the mark-up on a normally $31 bottle of Grandioso is steep — $54 to drink it there. And yet, cars are lined up waiting to park. Watching everyone guzzle rosé those nights, it’s clear that the winery is basically printing money thanks to our habit.
Wölffer produces approximately 80,000 cases of wine per year on Long Island, 75 percent of which is rosé. Most years, they run out of one of their newer rosés, Summer in a Bottle, during the season.
While I’m certain I’ve seen my friends here consume close to 80,000 cases, the winery told me only 20 percent is sold retail at the winery’s properties. The rest is wholesale on the island, in the city and up and down the East Coast.
I guess it should come as no surprise that rosé sales were up 50 percent globally in 2018. That’s why I am fully stocked already for this summer — with upstairs rosé in the fridge and an auxiliary stash in the basement. I am prepared to ration to make it last.
Well, maybe not.
Wherever you buy your beach-season rosé, heed this warning: Buy in bulk. Now. And have California on speed dial just to be safe. You never know what will happen come August.
