Dallas-based Rose Gold Rosé wine makes a pandemic pivot to retail expansion

This is Casey Barber’s third act. After working as a nurse in her 20s and staying home with three young children in her 30s, she was ready for a new challenge: wine.

Barber, now 43, fell in love with rosé after trying it for the first time in the south of France two decades ago. It became her favorite drink, but at the time, good rosé was hard to find in the States. Now, you can’t go to brunch or have drinks on the patio without stumbling across a bottle of pale pink wine. And if you eat and drink in D-FW, there’s a good chance one of those bottles is Rose Gold, the rose label that Dallas-based Barber launched in 2018.

“I had a desire to create something that my friends and I would love to drink,” says Barber. This is a good Provence rosé with a traditional taste profile and a classic salmon pink color.

Casey Barber from Dallas owns the Rose Gold Rose wines.(Rose gold rose)

Without a background in wine, Barber picked up on in no time. She researched and spoke to people in the industry who walked her through the process of starting a wine business if you don’t own a vine or a castle. Eventually she allied herself with Les Maîtres Vignerons de Saint-Tropez, a winery with a prestigious stable for Provence roses.

The grapes – a 50/50 blend of Grenache and Cinsault – are grown 80 kilometers northwest of the coastal city, and the wine is made and bottled in Saint-Tropez. Rose Gold is called the Appellation d’Origine Protégée, a strictly regulated French certificate that confirms its origin and quality.

“That was very important to me,” says Barber, as well as the lifestyle element of the brand. “I wanted to canalize the Côte d’Azur and make people feel like they are on the coast.”

She worked with the winery to determine the taste and style, balancing minerality and acidity, with flavors and aromas of white flowers and fresh red fruit. It’s easy to drink alone or with a meal, and Barber says the wine’s freshness goes perfectly with seafood and cheese, while its weight allows it to stand tall alongside heavier dishes like red meat, pork, and charcuterie.

Casey Barber from Dallas owns the Rose Gold Rose wines.(Rose gold rose)

After Barber officially launched the brand and found a local dealer, he had wine to sell. With no staff or dedicated salespeople, she loaded her car with cool boxes and drove to her favorite restaurants, hoping to find space on overcrowded bar shelves. Little by little, the restaurants began to include their wine on their menus and they quickly ran out of their first vintage.

According to Barber, Rose Gold has grown 180% year over year since debuting in 2018 and is now available on 150 wine lists in D-FW and 230 across Texas. But that rapid expansion ran into an obstacle when the pandemic disrupted Barber’s primary sales channel.

“I built this brand in restaurants, but if your wine can’t be sold in a bar or restaurant because they’re closed, that’s a problem,” she says. Like so many other companies, it turned and focused on retail. Rose Gold is now sold in major grocery stores like Tom Thumb and HEB, and sales have expanded to nine more states.

Barber’s original goal was to cook something tasty for her and her friends. The fact that so many others have been drawn to their brand is just the icing on the cake. Rose Gold is currently in its fourth vintage and will launch the fifth vintage next spring.

“The wine category has exploded and it’s fun to watch,” she says. “Ten years ago it was difficult to find rosé wines on wine lists and in grocery stores. Today you can find many of them from all over the world. “

Rose Gold sells for $ 21.99 at Tom Thumb, Albertson, Pogo, and more. rosegoldwine.com.

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