Olga Raffault is best known for red Chinon from the Les Picasses vineyard, an incredibly long-lived, classic expression of limestone terroir through a Cabernet Franc lens. Their most undeniably joyous wine, however, is this rosé. This annual favorite is in fact one of the best examples of a rosé that manages to be delicious enough for drinking on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and also complex enough that it can elevate a meal.

The fruit for this beauty comes from sand and gravel soils, which give the wine tons of accessible juiciness and a crunchy bite of minerality. It's very aromatic on the nose and beautifully fresh on the palate — pretty fruit, hints of stone and herbs. The finish is long and refined. Though 2023 was not without its challenges, this is one of the Loire's best houses, and this bottling is a great example of consistently outstanding quality year after year by an estate where careful, skillful farming is inherent to every vintage.

It's a straight-up banger and you don't need to spend a bunch of time thinking about the wine to enjoy it: it offers plenty of simple pleasures in fruit and freshness. But if you stop to pay attention, or pair it with, say, fresh fish and vegetables off the grill seasoned with some fresh herbs, you'll begin to see the depths within as it brings out your meal's layered flavors and textures.

And while you'll love this rosé now for the bright fruit and zestiness, it will actually last, picking up complexity over the course of months or even a year in the cellar; it's amazing now with spring and summer produce, but it will be great, too, when the fall harvest starts to come in. Of course, the wine will be long sold out by then, so if you want to have enough wine to last you through the summer and beyond, act now.

Olga Raffault, Chinon Rosé, 2023 $23.99