Rose Wine substitute

Best substitute

Dry white wine (Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, unoaked Chardonnay)

Use the same amount as the rose wine you are replacing

Best for risotto

Close match

Behaves almost identically in the pan because rose and white wine have the same acidity, the same alcohol and the same lack of tannin; what you lose is the faint strawberry and watermelon note and the pink tint.

Other rose wine substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Light red wine, diluted
Different taste
3 parts wine to 1 part water, so 6 tablespoons wine plus 2 tablespoons water for ½ cup rose
Pinot Noir, Beaujolais or Valpolicella diluted this way lands close to rose in strength and delivers the red fruit rose is missing, but you gain some tannin and a great deal more colour, so a cream sauce will go a murky mauve.
What changes
Best for
tomato-based dishes, braises, sausage and pork, risotto where colour is welcome
Use this when the recipe wants rose's fruit rather than its lightness. Avoid it for anything creamy, delicate or white, and avoid heavy reds like Cabernet or Shiraz entirely, because their tannin concentrates as it reduces and turns the sauce bitter and drying.
3Dry vermouth (blanc or extra dry)
Different taste
Use the same amount
Fortified, so it holds its shape better through a long reduction than table wine does, and it brings a herbal, faintly bitter aroma of wormwood and citrus peel that rose does not have.
What changes
Best for
pan sauces, shellfish, chicken, risotto, vegetables
The convenient weeknight answer, since an open bottle keeps for months in the fridge and you do not need to open wine you were not planning to drink. The herbal note usually reads as sophistication in a French or Italian dish rather than as a mistake.
4White Zinfandel or pink Moscato
Different taste
Use the same amount but cut other sugar in the recipe
Also pink, but these are made sweet on purpose, roughly the sweetness of a soft drink in the case of some pink Moscato, so a savoury sauce made with them tastes noticeably sugary and can reduce to something sticky.
What changes
Best for
glazes, poached fruit, sangria, sweet-and-sour sauces
This is the sneaky trap in the rose aisle: a lot of what is sold as blush wine is sweet. If it is what you have, use it, but remove any sugar or honey from the recipe, add an extra squeeze of lemon, and reduce it more gently since sugar scorches.
5Dry cider
Different taste
Use the same amount
Similar acidity and a similar light body, with orchard-fruit flavour standing in for berry fruit, and slightly less alcohol, so it does not concentrate quite as much when reduced.
What changes
Best for
pork, chicken, mussels, cabbage and root vegetables, braises
An underrated swap that is genuinely good with pork and shellfish. Make sure it is a dry cider rather than a sweet one, and let the fizz settle before you measure or the pan will foam over.
6Stock plus vinegar, or white grape juice plus vinegar (alcohol-free)
Different taste
Savoury: ½ cup stock plus 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar. Otherwise: ½ cup white grape juice plus 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
Replaces the liquid and the sharpness, but not the aromatic lift, since alcohol is what carries volatile smells out of the pan, so the result tastes rounder and more broth-like and less bright.
What changes
Best for
alcohol-free cooking, risotto, braises, pan sauces
Rose is one of the easier wines to replace without alcohol, because its flavour is subtle to begin with. Add the vinegar off the heat rather than boiling it, which keeps it fruity instead of harsh, and taste before adding all of it.

What is Rose Wine?

Rose Wine is Rose wine, also spelled rose and sold as blush wine, is made from red grapes whose skins are left in the juice for only a few hours instead of days, so it takes on colour and a little berry flavour but almost none of the tannin that makes red wine grippy.

Cooking tips

Rose is doing a white wine's job in your recipe, not a red wine's. Its contribution is acidity to cut fat, alcohol to lift aromas, and a whisper of berry fruit. What it deliberately does not bring is tannin, colour or body, which is why swapping in a big red is a mistake and swapping in a dry white barely registers.
Check the label for sweetness, not the colour. Provencal and Spanish rosado are bone dry, Italian rosato is usually dry, and American blush wines such as White Zinfandel and most pink Moscato are sweet. A recipe that says rose wine almost always means a dry one, and the sweet versions need you to pull sugar out of the recipe to compensate.
Do not reduce rose hard. Its charm is delicate and mostly aromatic, and boiled down to a quarter it just tastes acidic and vaguely stewed. Add it, let it bubble for a minute to burn off the raw alcohol, then move on to stock or cream rather than trying to concentrate it into a glaze.
A darker Provencal or Tavel style rose has a herbal, almost savoury edge from Grenache, Cinsault and Mourvedre that is genuinely nice with lamb, fennel and tomato. If your bottle is very pale and delicate, save it for shellfish, chicken and risotto instead.
An open bottle keeps about three days in the fridge before it goes flat and metallic. If you opened a bottle for dinner and want to cook with the rest later in the week, freeze it in an ice cube tray; two cubes is roughly a quarter cup, which is the amount most pan sauces want.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use red wine instead of rose?

You can, with two adjustments. Choose a light, low-tannin red such as Pinot Noir, Beaujolais or Valpolicella rather than Cabernet or Shiraz, and dilute it about 3 parts wine to 1 part water. Expect the dish to look considerably darker and taste more savoury and grippy, which is fine in a tomato sauce or a braise and wrong in anything pale or creamy.

Can I just leave it out?

Usually yes, more comfortably than with most wines, because rose's flavour is subtle. Replace it with the same volume of stock and add a teaspoon of white wine vinegar or lemon juice off the heat so the dish keeps its brightness. The exception is a dish where rose is the named feature, such as a rose-poached fruit or a rose risotto served pink, where the colour and the wine are the point.

Does it matter that the rose I have is sweet?

Yes, quite a lot in savoury cooking. Sweet blush wines can carry as much sugar as a soft drink, and reducing that in a pan gives you a sticky, candied sauce. Use it anyway if it is what is in the fridge, but remove any added sugar from the recipe, finish with extra lemon, and reduce over medium heat rather than high so the sugar does not scorch.

What kind of rose is best for cooking?

The cheapest dry one you can find, ideally from Provence, the Rhone, Spain or Italy. Cooking destroys the fine aromatics that make an expensive bottle worth drinking, so there is no benefit in using a good one. What does matter is that it is dry and that it is not oaked, since oak tastes woody and bitter after reduction.

Is rose wine the same as white Zinfandel?

Both are pink wines made from red grapes, so in that sense yes, but White Zinfandel is specifically the sweet Californian style and most of what recipes and wine lists mean by rose is dry. If you are shopping for cooking, look for the words dry, sec, rosado or rosato and avoid bottles that emphasise how easy-drinking and fruity they are.

Related substitutes

More alcohol & vinegars substitutes

Rose Wine substitute

Other rose wine substitutes

2Light red wine, diluted

3Dry vermouth (blanc or extra dry)

4White Zinfandel or pink Moscato

5Dry cider

6Stock plus vinegar, or white grape juice plus vinegar (alcohol-free)