(Jen Carlson/Gothamist)
This week the NY Post ran an alarming story about how a French winery is facing a rosé shortage, and is in fact on its "last few containers" of the pink stuff. This news was reportedly broken to Ed Burns, to his face and without warning, at a party in the Hamptons. But it's a tale we've heard before...
Last year we saw a similar story play out, when we witnessed one local Hamptons woman, Mitzy, react to similar news of rosé supplies running dangerously low. "God help us all," Mitzy whispered into a conch shell. But God can't help Mitzy, or any of us winos.
Let's try to make sense out of this, though. Why are there even rosé shortages anyway? We turned to Mike at Village Wine Imports, the company behind VRAC, which has blessedly brought boxed rosé to a liquor store near you.
Mike says that most companies stop importing rosé early, "so as not to have stock going into winter, when people aren’t drinking it, and customers want current vintage….so companies like mine don’t want to be stuck. We generally stop import around June/July." But in more recent years, as rosé has become more popular, "this has changed and we are now keeping stock longer….but Labor Day is perhaps the next line companies have drawn for last import."
On top of an import stop date, "the other variable is that sales have been through the roof, so supply is in most likelihood running out. Also, 2014 was not an especially large crop….further adding to the shortage."
As for VRAC, Mike believes they'll be good for the season—"I have enough stock to take us until at least Halloween/Thanksgiving, perhaps longer. We had predicted and planned for an increase."
