The social distancing drinker

Rosé is the wine equivalent of Abba: fun, nostalgic, unfashionable and oddly satisfying. A chilled rosé in the garden or at the beach on a hot day is the simplest of pleasures.

Rosé is often served with white meats, lightly-spiced dishes and Lebanese or

Greek cuisine, but a rosé can be made with almost any grape, so it is impossible to make generalisations about what matches.

Perhaps the only generalisation that can be safely made when it comes to rosé is that the Provence region consistently makes excellent examples at almost every price point.

Rosé is made by juicing red grapes and then allowing the juice to soak with the red skins in it, for a couple of days. Once the juice begins to turn pink, the skins are removed, and the juice is allowed to ferment to create the wine you drink.

Many fans only drink the palest of Provencal rosés, revelling in the snappy, bright acidity of the Provence, but there are plenty of other darker-hued rosés from elsewhere in France and further afield, using grapes such as Grenache, and sometimes called rosé d’assiette — literally, ‘rosé for the plate’ or wines for eating.

The shops are full of rosés at the moment, but here are three excellent examples — the first from Provence, the second from nearby Nimes, and the third from Spain.

M de Minuty Rosé 2019 (€23), available from many independent sellers, is a quintessential Cotes de Provence classic made from Grenache. Relatively expensive, but it is summer in a bottle.

At almost a third of the price, Aldi’s Costieres de Nimes 2019 (€7.49) from the southern Rhone area, is a bargain taste of the Mediterranean made with a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault.

Last up is Ros Rosé Lynne 2019 which is a dry, fruity wine made by an Irish woman in the Spanish region of Navarre, and sells for €17 in O’Brien’s.