Good news for those who find safety in numbers when choosing a wine: rosé is moving up in national sales figures, recently bumping Cabernet Franc from 10th place as a category! I know—Cabernet who? But still, rosé is gaining popularity because it’s inexpensive and easy to understand. Except when it isn’t.

Castello di Amorosa 2017 Morning Dew Ranch Rosato ($39) I demand to speak with Castello winemaker Peter Velleno about this outrage: a $39 rosé wine. And to call a Pinot Noir a “rosato,” of all things! Velleno just laughs, saying, “Well, we call it a rosato because, yeah, we call it whatever we like.” More seriously, Velleno explains that this, their first rosé effort from the Morning Dew Ranch, is more expensive than some others because it’s made from some of the best grapes on the property. The ranch was planted by Williams Selyem co-founder Burt Williams as a learning experiment in differing combinations of Pinot Noir clones and rootstocks.

Just opened and poured, the aroma is freshwater spray on a rocky coast—Superior, not Sonoma—along with bits of strawberry ensconced in ice cream, and maybe, if it’s not just the pale hue suggesting it, the aroma of a pale pink tea rose. Fermented and aged in concrete eggs, the wine suggests pink cotton candy—and good rosé Champagne—but is actually quite dry.

Stewart Cellars 2017 Sonoma Mountain Rosé ($28) There’s more than one way to skin a red grape. There’s nothing wrong, officially, with making a rosé wine by adding a little red to white, and while that’s not how this wine is made, the technical sheet does state that it contains some Pinot Gris, a white grape variant of Pinot Noir. This mandarin orange–scented wine also evokes pink grapefruit with its tooth-lashing rations of zesty acidity. Too bad this crushable blush doesn’t come in cans, but they bottled a whole lot of 375s, so you can pick up picnic-size splits next time you’re in Yountville.

Sidebar 2017 Russian River Valley Syrah Rosé ($21) This Syrah rosé is just a slightly deeper pink than the Pinot rosés above. Yet this wine can’t escape the smoky, savory notes of the Syrah it’s made from, even if it shares some qualities like bracing acidity and pink grapefruit flavor with the Pinot rosés—straight out of the bottle it’s got a bit of matchstick to it. “There’s nothing like spring or summer lunch with a bottle of rosé at home,” winemaker David Ramey says, “and it sparkles in the sunshine.” I would put it in a decanter, and it will sparkle all the more.

‘It’s a hand sell.” That’s the phrase I’ve heard so often applied to the business of selling Syrah, a varietal wine that has roots in the Rhône river valley in south-central France, enjoys a stellar reputation as fine wine as far afield as Southern Australia and which is made to world-class standards right here in the North Bay. Folks need a helping hand to sell it, even then? This weekend, the Wine Road lends that hand.

The Wine Road is a marketing association whose members include many, but not all, of the wineries in the Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley and Alexander Valley viticultural areas, as well as a good number of lodgings. By popular demand of some of their member wineries, on May 18 and 19 Wine Road debuts Esprit du Rhône, “spirit of the Rhône,” to join their popular roster of events that includes Winter Wineland, Barrel Tasting weekends and Wine & Food Affair. The compact weekend kicks off with a walk-around wine tasting at Longboard Vineyards on Friday, May 18, from 6-8pm. It’s an intimate setting where the winemakers are pouring and talking, so it’s limited to 100 ticket holders.

On Saturday, get out on the open Rhône road: Wine Road tells me that some 30 wineries have each pledged to have three Rhône-inspired selections on offer. While all of the major grapes that are grown in the northern Rhône, such as the red Syrah and the white Marsanne, and the southern Rhône, where Grenache and Mourvedre dominate, were discussed in official California viticultural reports in the early 1880s, many of these grapes were only utilized in Central Valley jug wines or in field blends with Zinfandel until the 1980s.

Participating wineries include notable Rhône specialists Donelan Family Wines, Frick Winery and Sanglier Cellars; notable in their absence are non-members but Rhône-heavy Unti and Quivira. But a few newer tasting rooms on the scene fill in the gap, including Green Valley Syrah growers Kobler (longtime suppliers to Pax and Donelan) and Leo Steen.

Danish sommelier turned winemaker Leo Hansen, who is said to make three separate Chenin Blancs in three different types of concrete egg, may seem like an odd roommate with Hart’s Desire, the easygoing, Zindandel-heavy family winery that he’s shared a Healdsburg tasting room with since late last summer, but they’ve got a kind of synergy going, according to winemaker John Hart’s daughter, Shea Siegel, who’s running the bar on a recent afternoon while Hansen’s busy in the cellar. As for selling Syrahs like Hansen’s pepper-scented, plush and polished Sonoma Mountain Syrah, Siegel says it’s more than a hand sell at first, indeed: “I have to do a little more arm twisting, and make them feel it’s safe.” Then it sells out.

Esprit de Rhône, May 18–19. $40 one day; $65 both days. 707.433.4335. www.wineroad.com. Leo Steen Wines, 53 Front Street, Healdsburg. Open Friday–Monday, 11am–4pm. 707.433.3097.