Charlie and I once hosted a party centered around a six liter bottle of the aix rosé wine. You could say we love rosé! And all you have to do is look around to know we’re not alone. T-shirts, wrapping paper! (which, I’m not gonna lie, I feel like I need), Instagram accounts…rosé is officially a thing.

I mean, after all, it’s pink, it’s often French, and it’s DELICIOUS. Why wouldn’t you drink it?

Somm hubby Charlie is in the restaurant business, and he spends at least one day a week tasting wines brought around by salespeople. Dozens of wines (I know, he’s got a hard job, right?). And sometime in late winter/early spring, guess what starts showing up? All the pink stuff. It’s time to buy rosé, because spring is rosé season, right?

Wrong.

Right here, right now, I want to dispel the notion that rosé is a warm-weather wine. I don’t want you to miss out on this delicious juice during the cooler months! Please don’t substitute your rosé for big heavy reds or, even worse, pumpkin spice lattes!! Drink what you like, when you like it.

But just in case you need more official convincing… 

Here are three reasons to drink rosé year-round:

1 – You don’t stop drinking white wine during winter, so why stop drinking rosé?

This is Somm Hubby’s No.1 reason. Sure, heavier red wines often make sense when we’re enjoying the richer, hot foods of fall and winter. But we don’t entirely stop drinking chilled drinks, do we? And rosé, because it’s almost like a white wine with an infusion of red, actually stands up better to those heavier foods than white does. (Holiday food, anyone?)

2 – Rosé pairs with almost anything.

Maybe it’s because rosé lives teetering between a white and a red, but a good quality pink wine bridges the flavor gap anytime you can’t quite decide what to drink. Buying a bottle for a table full of friends at a restaurant, all of whom have ordered something different? Steak here, chicken there, a little shrimp, maybe vegetarian? Choose a rosé. Because it’s typically dry but refreshing, crisp and flavorful but without too much complexity, you can pair it with nearly anything on the menu and you won’t go wrong.

3 – It’s super affordable.

Sure, you can spend a boatload on fancy stuff, but why would you when you can get perfectly delicious (and respectable) bottles for under 30 bucks? Heck, you can get great rosé for $15, if you’re paying attention. So if you’re having guests for a holiday party and you need something to make them all happy, on your budget? Pick pink.

And finally, if you don’t believe me, will you believe Martha?