Like crocuses popping out of the sun-warmed earth, Wölffer Estate Vineyard‘s annual spring release of their flagship rosé, Summer in a Bottle, is the symbol around these parts that the fun season is nigh. This year, though, they’ve got a little extra to toast to.
It’s the 10th anniversary of the pink that launched a thousand pinks (easily!) and to honor it, this year’s bottle offers an entirely new design for this year only.
Designed with a smattering of irreverent pain-splatters added to the flora and butterfly design of the original bottle, the new wash of colors are meant to represent the nine different grape varietals that comprise this year’s vintage: 52% merlot, 17% chardonnay, 8% cabernet sauvignon, 6% cabernet franc, 6% pinot meunier, 5% Cayuga, 2% syrah, 2% gewürztraminer and 2% riesling.
The brand started almost by accident in 2013, inspired by a piece of artwork created to show off their Gold Label rosé, then quite unofficially nicknamed “Summer in a Bottle,” printed in a fundraiser program for the Group for the East End. But it was so lovely, winemaker Roman Roth and his partners, siblings Joey and Marc Wölffer, had a moment of lightning striking: Why not make a wine and actually call it Summer in a Bottle?
They started with 1,500 cases, wondering if any would sell. Not only did the delicious pink liquid inside the gorgeous bottle easily sell out, but from then on summer sippers were, and still are, clamoring for it. Now, tens of thousands of cases are put out annually to quench the thirst for it, and it’s launched a smattering of other like bottlings, including a brand new white-grape centric Summer in a Bottle, a Provençal-sourced version, as well as the non-alcoholic Spring in a Bottle.
Arguably, it changed the way wine drinkers perceived Long Island rosé and launched a whole drink-local campaign in the region (why buy rosé from the South of France when we can drink perfectly gorgeous stuff made right here in our back yard?). Things to ponder over a bottle paired with a dish of locally caught seafood.
The 10th anniversary 2023 Summer in a Bottle sells for $27 and can be found at Wölffer’s Sagaponack tasting room, and in pretty much every single wine shop up and down the north and south forks.
