Pink wine is increasingly neither sweet nor still, necessarily. That's demonstrated by our new Ratings of rosé and sparkling rosé (available to subscribers) and by the rosés I tasted at Toast of the Town, a wine show I attended last week in New York.

Rosé has gone a long way toward shedding its association with blush, the sweet, generally simple pink wine that was once all the rage. All but one of the 10 still rosés in our Ratings were deemed to be dry in style by our wine experts; the one exception was on the line between dry and off-dry and was a recommended bottle.

Our experts detected a wide range of flavors in the wines, including those of fruit salad and bell pepper. They also recommended foods to pair with them, including steamed mussels, chicken tacos, and prosciutto wrapped in melon.

Bottles from France, a rosé powerhouse, predominate in our Ratings of still rosé, yet some intriguing rosés on the show floor hailed from some up-and-coming countries for the varietal. Particularly interesting were several Australian entries, from Yalumba and Robert Oatley, that specified their use of Sangiovese grapes; company reps said the varietal helps them create a very dry, very "food-friendly" style of rosé.

I also enjoyed a sparkling California rosé, the $23 Scharffenberger Cellars NV Brut Rosé. Though it isn't included in our sparkling rosé Ratings, more than half the bottles we rate are from California. Among the recommended Californians is one from Korbel that costs considerably less than the Scharffenberger and scored above some much pricier bottles.

Among other highlights of Toast of the Town--which travels on to Washington, DC (May 20), Chicago (June 17), and Miami (September 23)--was the opportunity to taste my first wine made in India. The Good Earth Winery 2008 Basso Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was quite pleasing, which surprised me given India's inexperience in exporting wines and my general disappointment with wines from China, another major nation that's now beginning to share its wines with the world.

Consumer Reports currently has Ratings on around a dozen other wine varietals, with more to come in the coming months. To create the Ratings, which are part of our sensory-testing program, experts conduct blind taste tests of high-quality wines at relatively low prices.

As the editor who coordinates our wine coverage (moonlighting from my main job as Electronics Editor), I plan to write more posts from time to time covering news from our wine Ratings and from wine events I attend.