Cannabis and Rosé: The Ultimate Pairing Guide

Photo by Ekaterina Molchanova

Shouting out your bubbly brand and the substance of your blunt was a wealth flaunting hook of many a song that shifted intoxicant culture as we know it. In today’s dimension, legal states let you grab both of the essentials for this party, sometimes on the same block. Now that stigma is rapidly decreasing, you can do it with style.

Like a quality dispensary with all grades of cannabis, often from many origins, a proper wine outlet carries many types of rosé wine, as they can be made from most red wine grapes. This delicate range of pink-to-magenta shades comes from the red grape skins mingling with the pressed juices for the first 12 hours off the vine.

Identical to cannabis, the terpenes present in each grape varietal determine the notes we taste and smell in finished products. The pairings are truly only in their genesis, and the possibilities are endless.

Côtes de CBD

Provence, where many rosé wines come from, and their grenache grapes rich in geraniol and linalool lend a floral air to wines that thankfully come in many price points. Considering the innate drinkability of Provence rosé, CBD may be its best pairing option, owed to its hangover quelling ability. Miss Grass ZZZ Hemp + Herb Mini Pre-Roll Joints do it especially well with their complementary calming lavender, just like Côtes de Provence’s linalool on the nose.

Rosato and Gelato

Picture it, Sicily, 2020: After global cannabis legalization, you're at a lovely beachside bar with stark white cafe tables, littered with wine glasses of various degrees of condensation peppered fullness surrounding one of Edie Parker Flower's dreamy tabletop lighter-ashtray combos. Instead of dozens of cigarette butts, a beautiful golden fumette rests against the side, one Sherbinski’s Bacio gelato preroll lazily snaking its powerful pungency into the salty air.

Today we are moving further and further away from binaries, and this blessing is helping us demystify cannabis’ desired effects. No longer restrained by indica or sativa, we’re understanding how the entourage effect and the whole plant’s composition is responsible for different effects, especially the terpenes.

This is why the Bacio Gelato strain is a great habit-breaker for people entrenched in a love of the cannabis binary. It’s an indica leaning hybrid, with perky pine and enough humulene to give you forest vibes. Wine has its own persistent binary: dry or sweet. Though most rosés are dry, the intense fruity flavors and acidic tang can drift it to the center. Try pairing a deep flavored Italian rosé, like Bonavita Terre Siciliane Rosato, with the pungent richness of gelato, and tear down all of the binaries in one sesh.

Sparkling Citrus Notes

Once you’ve gotten a taste for dry fruits, they haunt your tastebuds and make it hard to order other wines. Sparkling rosés have the added beauty of complex minerality and acidity, more so if one dives into natural rosé wines, which are often effervescent. Orange Cookies is a strain that is shockingly accurate to its name in flavor, dropping whole tangerine vapors right into your brain. Earthy and citrusy, you should smoke a nugget from an Awmoo ceramic water pipe before settling into a glass of Swick Petillant Naturel Pinot Noir rosé.

When it comes to weed and wine, follow your nose. The beautiful variations of both plants are only going to increase as we get more skilled at cultivation, leaving you with even more tasty things to choose from.

Danielle Simone Brand is a memoirist, yogi, and writes articles and essays about parenting, cannabis, yoga, and relationships.