Popular Grocery Store Rosés, Ranked Worst To Best

Whatever the question, there's a good chance rosé is the answer. What to drink for an easy after-work drink? Rosé! What about for the perfect wine to pair with different types of meals? Yet again, rosé. As a rather young wine-producing and drinking country, the United States has developed a deep fondness for all things rosé, and the trend is only growing.

Rosé has become the go-to for casual drinking occasions, according to the IWSR. Because there has been an influx of celebrity rosé brands as well, the upward trajectory of the wine is an interesting one. Global consumption has increased by 23% over the last 20 years (via Rosé Wines World Tracking).

The festive pink wine is most often the product of grape juice that has had some contact with their skins during a soaking process, known as maceration. The longer the juice mingles with the skins, the deeper the color. Since it can be made in a range of styles — from full-bodied and sweeter to light and bone dry — there truly is a rosé for everyone. After just one stroll through the wine aisle at your grocery store, you may be overwhelmed by the rosé options. To help make your next trip a little easier, we've rounded up the top grocery store rosés and ranked them from worst to best. Keep reading to see which made it to the top of the list!

With its famed boxed format and underwhelming flavor profiles, Franzia doesn't have the strongest reputation. Unfortunately, the brand's Sunset Blush wine only drives this point home. Whether you drank the wine in college (after stripping the bag from its cardboard packaging) or just grab it as an affordable everyday wine, there's a chance you've had an encounter with the brand.

The Sunset Blush rosé is a headscratcher. Who knew wine could have aromas of strawberry drink mix? But that's exactly what Franzia's Sunset Blush brings to the table. Two sommeliers mentioned Franzia Sunset Blush has aromas of the ubiquitous Valentine's candy hearts along with Strawberry Nesquick (via Thrillist). A 5-liter box is around $15.

If all else fails and you have no other options, this rosé may be drinkable at the end of a long evening when you're too tired to notice it tastes like strawberry powder.

As Walmart's private wine label, Oak Leaf Vineyards quenches the thirst of time-crunched wine lovers across the country. With the brand's white zinfandel, it's clear what it was going for — bold, fruity, with some discernable sweetness on the palate. However, wine lovers who demand a bit more from their bottles should keep looking.

Zinfandel is a grape that can be made into a variety of styles and is often overlooked because of its reputation (via Halleck Vineyard). White Zinfandel is the name for the rosé made from the grape and is often vinified in a sweeter, simpler style of wine.

It's not fair to judge a wine by its grape, but if you were to pass judgment on this bottle, it'd be okay. It's not exciting enough to consider on your everyday wine run. It's not bad enough to totally ignore, but because of its lack of concentration and intensity, this is an all-around forgettable wine. It's only $3, but you'd be better off saving up for a slightly more expensive bottle instead.

This salmon-colored wine is, according to Main & Vine, full of red berry, citrus, and aromas of melon. There may also be some nutmeg and clove in there, for good measure. That sounds refreshing, but its true taste comes nowhere close to matching expectations. Instead of ripe and juicy fruits, this wine smells more of cough syrup and baby aspirin (via Trust The Devil You Know).

That's not to say you'll hate it, but if you prefer crisp rosé with discernible fruit notes, this may be hardly acceptable. If you can somehow muster up the courage to try this wine, keep in mind that it's a semi-dry wine, so there will be a bit of residual sugar, which is important when pairing with food.

This bottle is around $5-7 and will pair well with spicy dishes, like barbecue ribs or spicy chicken wings. If you do want to eat this with food, it might help to make the wine a bit more enjoyable. However, the food can't hide the true soul of this wine, which is severely lacking in any real dimension.

Chances are, you've seen a bottle of Yellow Tail, either at your local grocery or wine store or maybe in your fridge. The Australian brand has taken over the market as an affordable go-to for rather straightforward wines.

The rosé, which the brand has vinified from syrah, comes with a crispness of juicy strawberries and some other red fruit like cherries and raspberries, as well as some nice acidity to help lift the fruit notes. Yellowtail rosé is certainly meant to be an approachable one — you'll spend $7-8 for a bottle you can bring to a BBQ and save until the end when no one's paying attention to what they're drinking. That's not to say it's bad, but it's a little boring. There's some generic fruit, like the aforementioned strawberries and cherries, but it's not a wine that brings any intensity or complexity. One Vivino reviewer even referred to this as "confusing to the palate."

It also doesn't have a lingering flavor, which is something you want from a tasty wine. If you were playing Smash or Pass with this wine, it'd be an easy pass. 

Gallo is another brand that makes it difficult to find out more about the wine's detail. Some pink moscato is made by mixing white moscato with red wine (or a natural red colorant). Since the moscato grape family is so vast, red moscato grapes are sometimes used to make wine, while pink moscato is made just like any other rosé.

But if you'd rather breeze past the nitty-gritty, the most important thing to note about Gallo Family Vineyard's Pink Moscato is that it is sweet. It's crossed the line from semi-dry to semi-sweet, which means it will be full of sweetness on the palate and pair well with spicy dishes and desserts like strawberry cupcakes.

A total of 1,149 Vivino users have given this wine an average of 3.7 stars as of this writing, which is rather formidable for a wine you can pick up nearly anywhere. At around $4.99 a bottle and only 9% ABV, this is an affordable bottle that will keep the party going, instead of giving you a buzz right away. However, it's on the more generic side, with the sugar dominating the palate and pushing out any distinct fruits that might have been.

As the top-selling wine brand in the United States, Barefoot doesn't have much to be concerned about (via Statista). The wine is cheap at around $5.99 per bottle. It's also accessible and sold in most places where wine and liquor are sold — but is it worth picking up? Well, that depends on how much you like syrupy sweet wines because that's exactly what this bottle of Barefoot Pink Moscato is. There might be some fruit notes or complexity in there, but they're drowned out by the mouth-coating richness. If, however, sweet wine is your thing, then you may very well find this enjoyable. There is a wine for everyone!

The positives of this wine lie in its accessibility. This is everywhere, so if you're grabbing groceries, rest assured that you can find this wine and grab a bottle. It received 4.5 out of 5 stars from more than 100 Target reviewers, so there's clearly something to love about this wine.

Sweet and slightly generic are just two descriptors for Sutter Home White Zinfandel. But... the brand deserves some props because it created the White Zinfandel style of rosé that is beloved in the United States today. While White Zinfandel is the name of a rosé made from the Zinfandel grape, it's also a specific style of slightly sweet wine that typically features in-your-face notes of strawberry and raspberry. Historically, it was often a simpler style of wine without tons of layers to pick up on. Today, some producers are making interesting and more nuanced White Zinfandels — unfortunately, this isn't one of them. If you're seeking a complex style of wine, this wine and its style will leave you disappointed. If, however, you need a crowd-pleasing wine and don't have a big budget to spend, this might be your go-to. The Modesto Bee even recommends it as a budget-buy award-winning wine.

We won't go as far as to call it delicious, but it's not absolutely horrible, either. It has something consumers flock to and it has staying power. (Could it be the $5 price tag?) Sutter Home White Zinfandel also gets bonus points because it is available in a few different size formats like mini, twist and go, and a magnum size.

19 Crimes wines are all themed around criminals who were banished to Australia starting in 1788. The bulk of their featured criminals are figures from history... and then there is Snoop. He's also plastered on a red bend, but the rosé is worth mentioning because it's available in most grocery stores, and how many wines can you think of that feature a rapper?

This rosé is Zinfandel, Grenache, and some Pinot Noir. At 10.5% alcohol, it's on the lighter side, making it the perfect wine to bring to a picnic and just casually sip on while regaling friends with stories of your week. There is some residual sweetness with this wine, but it's balanced by a good amount of acidity, so it won't feel like you're licking a Jolly Rancher. Instead, you'll pick up notes of some ripe strawberry and raspberry while also getting some aromas of rose. It might get a higher ranking if it solved its identity crisis; it wants so badly to be a bolder, higher-alcohol rosé. However, it's too sweet to be as refreshing as it wants to be.

One Total Wine reviewer described the $10 wine as "sweet as candy," which is ironic considering we said it's not quite Jolly Rancher-level. What it has going for it is that it's an easy-drinking wine that has some nice fruit aromas. For something deeper, richer, and more complex, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Josh Cellars is known as an affordable, easy-to-find wine brand. Its rosé is vinified in a light, crisp and refreshing style with notes of white peach, juicy strawberry, and notes of nectarine. This is a wine that pairs well with seafood because it has a nice lightness to it that won't overwhelm fish or garlic prawns, for example. The Josh Cellars website describes this wine as acidic, but a review from Vinepair actually lists this as the opposite. This wine is not nearly as acidic as you might expect from rosé, and for that reason, it doesn't rank higher. It is a medium-bodied wine, which means it will feel a little heavier in the mouth than some other super-light rosés.

Sweeter rosés are pretty popular in the United States, so if you're looking for something sweeter, you'll want to keep looking. Overall though, this wine — which you can find for around $13 — is easier drinking indeed. It should be noted that Josh Cellars won Wine Enthusiast's American Vineyard of the Year for 2021, so the winery is known for its stellar reputation. This rosé just so happens to be a more mediocre display.

La Vieille Ferme is a mega-wine brand packaged to look like a smaller producer. That's not necessarily bad considering you can buy a bottle of La Vieille Ferme rosé for around $9 from Amazon. It's owned by Famille Perrin, which also owns Miraval and several other well-known wine brands. Considering Famille Perrin has its hands in many different types of wines, it would be shocking to learn that this rosé is just okay. It is vinified from Cinsault, Grenache, and Syrah into a beautiful pale peach color. The rosé is easy-drinking — nowhere near heavy and certainly not too light that it gets lost on the palate. It's bone dry, so with no sweetness, you notice the aromas a bit more... except there are none to be found. It's fine to call this a simple wine, but "boring" might even be more appropriate. You'll have to search high and low for any hint of fruit, and if you find some, it might be strawberry and melon. Reverse Wine Snob even detected a whiff of tomato plant.

Maybe it's a bit unfair, but we had higher expectations of this wine because it comes from a French producer.

New Zealand-based producer Kim Crawford has been all over lately. The brand even partnered with the U.S. Open for more visibility of its minimally designed bottles (via 2 Paragraphs). Its rosé is certainly intriguing — a sommelier on Natalie Maclean's website gave it a 90/100 for its vibrant coral color and aromas. While strawberry is a common aroma to find in a simpler rosé, this one also has notes of grapefruit and some watermelon. The wine itself is made from Merlot.

We love that this Kim Crawford rosé is bone dry ... especially since it's one of the few on this list to make that claim. Where it falls short is transparency. For around $17.99, it's difficult to find detailed information about the wine on its website. As a general rule, the more transparency a wine brand provides, the better. Kim Crawford has vineyards in two parts of New Zealand — Hawke's Bay and Marlborough. However, there's no indication of which plots where these grapes come from. If this bottle were about $5 or $6 cheaper, it wouldn't really matter, but it's something we can't look past. This is a good rosé with a dire need to share some more information about what makes it better than a $10 wine.

Grocery chains, such as Kirkland's and Whole Foods, have gotten into the wine game with their own lines in recent years (via SevenFiftyDaily). For this reason, it only makes sense that Target decided to try its hand at the wine business with its California Roots line. It's a medium-sweet wine that is made from a blend of several grapes — Zinfandel, Syrah, Merlot, Grenache, and Muscat. Considering there are quite a few grapes included, the chance of picking up any super specific fruit notes is very unlikely, but Target suggests you look out for notes of fresh berry and citrus flavors. It made its way onto our list because it's only $5 and somehow manages to taste like a more expensive bottle.

If you're looking for a truly sweet wine, this bottle may disappoint you, but we know there are some dry(ish) rosé lovers out there! For those of you who find yourself steering away from super sweet wines, you'll likely enjoy this. It will pair well with plenty of summer dishes, but Target recommends it with a spicy shrimp dish. You can rest assured that on your next journey to Target, a solid bottle of rosé is just an arm's distance (and 5 bucks) away.

The rosé market is overloaded with light, dry rosé and heavier, sweet rosé, but there's a gaping hole for a wine that provides some overlap between the two. Dark Horse Rosé is a slightly fuller-bodied rosé that's still dry with no sweetness. I Love Wine describes this wine as "edgy" for its red fruit notes and refreshing acidity. This rosé sits under the Gallo conglomerate brand, but it is a distinctly different wine than the others under the company umbrella. It's got bold, yet minimalistic graphics, and the wine itself draws on a level of depth that a lot of the other rosés don't achieve.

This is a rosé worth grabbing, as it's yet another one that will pair with whatever's on your table. It's a blend of grenache, barbera, pinot gris, and tempranillo, providing a distinctly unique rosé experience. We like that it isn't pretending to be something it's not. This is a straightforward California rosé that's refreshing and lively. There's no pomp and circumstance here, and for $8-10, it's a reasonable budget-friendly pick.

For those who want a little sweetness, Stella Rosa rosé ($12-15) brings that and more. Some sweetness, some acidity, and some nice fruits round Stella Rosa out. It's an enjoyable enough wine, but it stands out among other sweet rosés because it has enough acid to help balance the sweetness. This Stella Rosa rosé wine has some distinct juicy fruit notes like strawberry and raspberry, but what's interesting is this rosé also has notes of rose petals. Vivino raters gave this a 3.9 out of 5 stars, indicating that while it may not knock your socks off, it could be a solid pick. It might be slightly sweeter than you expect, so keep in mind this is a semi-sweet wine. So what to eat it with? Stella Rosa suggests pork or red velvet cake, but really, some wines are just meant for chilling and enjoying their own. If you're into sweet wines, this may very well check all your boxes.

This is probably not the wine to taste to get a feel for how rosés should taste, but it is a wine that will please a bunch of palates and fit into a fun occasion with its brilliant pink tone. It is also sold as a magnum, so if you want twice the size for a weekend with friends, it's a great option.

Bread & Butter Wines likes to think of itself as the go-to wine for most occasions. It wants to remove the complication from wine, which is perfect for those who don't know much about wine or simply don't want to — no overthinking necessary.

The brand's California rosé is bright and juicy with notes of strawberry, rose petals, and melon. A dry rosé such as this benefits from acidity and Bread & Butter brings a healthy dose of it. This wine uses a blend of barbera, grenache, and muscat. The muscat adds some floral notes to the blend, while the barbera and grenache add body and structure. Wine crowdsourcing site Vivino currently lists the $15 rosé at 3.7 stars out of 1,491 ratings as of this writing.

This is a nice example of how a California rosé can be a subtle yet impressionable wine that's easy to access. It has a beautiful color, delicious fruit, and a surprising minerality that elevates the wine from boring grocery store wine to something a little more exciting.

As the largest Black-owned wine business in the United States, the McBride sisters have been able to pull off the nearly impossible. The brand has rightfully claimed its chunk of customers in the wine industry. Black Girl Magic rosé ($20) is a dry wine that brings some much-needed nuance to the rosé game. Instead of strawberries (which are nice enough), this rosé has notes of stone fruit, raspberry, and orange blossom. It pairs brilliantly with everything from chocolate-covered strawberries to grilled fish, and it won gold at the 2021 Monterey International Wine Competition.

It's bright, fresh, acidic rosé that's more refreshing than luscious. Some venues have had trouble keeping the wine on the shelf, with customers buying up the stock quickly (via Thrillist). Maybe it's the exciting branding or the quaffable wine, but Black Girl Magic Rosé is a worthy buy... if you can find it!

For a rosé brand that got its start as an Instagram account in 2013, Yes Way Rosé has managed to see tremendous amounts of success in recent years. The brand was originally just a way for founders Erica Blumenthal and Nikki Huganir to share their love of the pink wine (via Forbes).

It's a pretty standard rosé made in the Provençal style made from Grenache and other grapes that's dry and overall easy to drink. This rosé is bursting with notes of strawberry, citrus and stone fruit. Tastings.com referred to this as fruity and juicy with hints of cherry, cedar, and strawberries. This didn't earn a top spot because it's particularly innovative or complex. What it is, however, is what most people want — easy-to-drink, refreshing, juicy and joyful. It is a delightful wine, and for around $13 a bottle, it's a budget-friendly way to transport yourself to the Mediterranean.

Here we have a bottle of Grenache, Syrah, and Cinsault that is so juicy and vibrant that it's got a rose on the bottom of the bottle. This is Gérard Bertrand's Cote des Roses rosé and it should be noted that the winemaker helped to usher in the rosé everyday wave. Since the 1980s, the Languedoc producer has aged rosé in oak (via The Drinks Business).

This rosé is a beautiful golden-pink hue and is bursting with aromas of citrus, currant, and watermelon. It's reminiscent of a watermelon candy that has been stripped of the syrupy sweetness you love to hate. At around $15 per bottle, it provides enough value to make it well worth its price tag.

We've rated this rosé highly on our list because it's balanced and refreshing with subtle fruit notes and refreshing acid. You could eat this with some shellfish, seared or fried fish... It screams summer. If you aren't able to travel to the South of France this summer, at least you can grab a bottle, gather some friends (and some fish!) and enjoy a bottle from the underrated wine region.

It's often said if you spend just slightly more for your wine, you will be rewarded with a much better bottle. There is no better example of that than Chateau d'Esclans Whispering Angel. The Provençal rosé is pure proof that there are some real gems in the $20-25 price range. It is a rosé made from Grenache, Cinsault, and Rolle (which is common in Italy and known as Vermentino) and is dry without a hint of residual sugar. It helps to know what sets it apart from the other rosé on the list and this is one of those factors. It's an elegant wine that works is light enough that it's not offensive on its own, but also works well when paired with a salad, meatballs, bread, and cheese...anything, really.

It takes just one sip to see why this is a top-selling rose. Wine Enthusiast aptly describes it as harmonious and we couldn't agree more.