What I find funny about Rosé wine is most people either love it or hate it.

It’s a homewrecker for sure.

How do you feel about chilled Rosé wine?

Personally, I love it…Especially during the week, it’s an easy drink. It’s crisp, refreshing, and always delights.

Rosé wine is the ultimate porch pounder or couch sipper…

But I get that the #roseallday isn’t for everyone. And not many want to be slotted into the airy-fairy millennial #whitegirlrose brand either (I sure as hell don’t).

The thing is, I find that most Rosé wine haters pop up from a dreaded incident with White Zinfandel (the sickly sweet pink soda wine that disgusts most of us.)

Back in the day, when I was a teenager, I used to babysit for my neighbor Ms. Kitty. I swear to Goddess, every time Ms. Kitty opened the door, she had a death grip on a glass of White Zinfandel with a sad lone strawberry floating around in it.

Ms. Kitty would beckon me to come upstairs with her and sit in her bathroom to “chat.”

I sat on the edge of her tub, awed at how she could drink wine, take curlers out of her waist-long blonde hair without a snarl, and expertly brush on Maybelline fuchsia blush on as she regaled me with stories in her New Orleans drawl.

Then finally, she would always end her stories with how she and Mr. Kitty secretly married at 17 and 18 and ran away from home together.

About ten minutes in, Mr. Kitty would pop his head in the bathroom and ask, “When ya’ gonna be ready, Missus?”

She’d laugh and say, “When you see me downstairs with my pocketbook, Mister.”

After her primping, she’d usher me back downstairs into the kitchen…

…Ms. Kitty would take a chocolate bar out of her secret candy cabinet. She’d plunk it on top of a $10 bill (my payment in advance, thank you) along with a half-full glass of white Zinfandel. She’d wink, and that was my cue…I’d suck down the pink wine and smile.

Then she’d say, “Don’t burn the house down. Don’t try to reach us. Call your momma Alexandra if anything goes wrong. Bye, y’all!”

I proceeded to quasi watch her three children, a pair of Irish twins who never stopped running around and a 13-year-old who read Jane Austen.

Then I’d ponder why her wine was so sweet when the wine I was allowed to drink at family dinner was red and harsh. The mysteries of the universe at 16, indeed.

I have to say babysitting Ms. Kitty’s children was one of my favorite jobs as a teenager. Even if it did involve underage drinking, who’s keeping track? In fact, Ms. Kitty is basically related to me now… Her youngest daughter married my sister-in-law’s brother. So how’s that for full circle?

My wonder years white Zinfandel experience could have turned me into a Rosé hater, but I was always intrigued by the pink drink. Especially since the only time I saw it was at Ms. Kitty’s.

Now older and wiser, I’m of the belief that if you hate Rosé, you just haven’t found the right one for your palate.

But you know, I always come prepared and have I got a Rosé that just might flip you into a #roselover…

Discover Atlantique Cabernet Franc Rosé

I discovered a fabulous French Rosé wine (not from Provence) at 3 Parcs Wine Shop while playing tourist in Atlanta, Georgia. I was instantly sold on it when the shop clerk described it to me.

This slightly effervescent Rosé wine is made from 100% Loire Valley Cabernet Franc grapes grown on prime vineyards of shale and Anjou clay cooled by Atlantic Ocean breezes. The grapes are picked at the end of September after a gentle squishing, and the fermentation process is low and slow.

I like that it’s a budget wine. Atlantique Cabernet Franc Rosé costs just $13 a bottle.

One of the other fascinating things about this Rosé wine is its aged “Sur Lie” for a few months. This means that the wine is left on fine lees, which is the tiny leftover creamy (dead) yeast sediment at the bottom of the barrel after the wine has gone through its primary fermentation process (called “racking”).

This gives Atlantique Cabernet Franc Rosé more complexity and texture. It’s light rosy pink and smells of wild garden roses on the nose.

This wine is packed with fresh red currants, baby strawberries, watermelon rind, a touch of green bell pepper and is vivacious and crisp.

Perfect for sipping on your couch as an aperitif or grilled pork, salads, seafood, or any type of fish dish.

I think you’ll love it too.