S.W AND RICH HERMANSEN
Staff Writers
wine@lbknews.com
Our recent discovery of the next new thing in wine turned out to be ancient news by social media standards. We selected a bottle of the 2024 Ile de Conas RosOrange from a display at Trader Joe’s in Sarasota Florida. Having written about “orange wine” earlier, the orange cast of the wine looked interesting and, for $7.99, worth a try. We sampled the bottle and found the taste pleasant and refreshing, befitting a late summer wine. We returned and bought a few bottles. The wine expert Freddie at the Trader Joe’s on South Tamiami Trail told us that the RosOrange wine was enjoying a wave of popularity. We thought that we had made an interesting find and searched for more information on the wine.
The RosOrange blends Rosé from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France with extended white grape skin contact (Örange) wine. Extended skin contact during fermentation gives a white wine depth, and the fresh Rosé adds floral aromas and sweet fruit tastes. The Alcohol By Volume (ABV) percentage in this wine of 12.5% suggests that fermentation has reduced residual sugars to the level of a typical dry wine. The sweetness comes mainly from fruit flavors. The Languedoc-Roussillon region is transitioning from cheap red wines to the lighter white and Rosé wines popular in the Provence and Southern Rhône wine regions to the east. This shift seems promising in light of the increasing demand for lighter wines in France and worldwide.
Grapes in the RosOrange wine are native to southern France: Grenache, Cinsault, Vermentino, and Grenache Gris. The Macabeo grape, also known as the primary white grape Viura in the Rioja region of Spain, adds a touch of spice. Winemakers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region have access to a rich palette of white and red grapes.
After our “discovery” of this next big thing in wine, we realized that wine writers in the UK had scooped us by a long margin. Writing for the venerable Guardian newspaper in Manchester UK, Hannah Crosbie had more than a month earlier reported the Rosé-Orange wines best new thing as old news. In her review, she featured several Rosé-Orange wines other than RosOrange. (Incidentally, the Guardian is asking for well-deserved $5/week support for its honest news coverage
An April 2025 review of the RosOrange wine by Jack Marshall of the Lancashire Post (UK, established 1886) mentions unveiling of the RosOrange wine at Aldi stores during 2024. We missed the leading edge by a year or so.
We do hope readers will remember our timely report of blue wine early in its ascendency and before it became decisively passé. We may not win the race to report wine trends first, but we think that Rosé-Orange wines will outlive the end of summer and enjoy a long run as the next best thing,
S. W. Hermansen has used his expertise in econometrics, data science and epidemiology to help develop research databases for the Pentagon, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Agriculture, and Health Resources and Services. He has visited premier vineyards and taste wines from major appellations in California, Oregon, New York State, and internationally from Tuscany and the Piedmont in Italy, the Ribera del Duero in Spain, the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale in Australia, and the Otego Valley in New Zealand. Currently he splits time between residences in Chevy Chase, Maryland and St. Armand’s Circle in Florida.
Rich Hermansen selected has first wine list for a restaurant shortly after graduating from college with a degree in Mathematics. He has extensive service and management experience in the food and wine industry. Family and friends rate him as their favorite chef, bartender, and wine steward. He lives in Severna Park, Maryland.
