La Vie en Rose

In Jamie Ivey's delightful sequel to Extremely Pale Rosé, he attempts what seems the impossible—running a successful rosé bar in France. French friends laugh heartily and say it’s the silliest idea they’ve ever heard! Why, the customers for bars are mostly men and rosé is seen a woman’s drink; not to mention, it’s a seasonal drink and his trade will vanish come September! Then as if that wasn’t enough, bars make their money from food, rosé isn’t meant to accompany food. It’s flat out preposterous. But Jamie looks at the entire scheme through rosé tinted glasses, and the idea proves irresistible. In spite of everything, rosé sales are booming in France and the sales of reds and whites have grown stagnant. If Jamie can just find that perfect bar, in a pretty square, and chalk up a daily selection of different rosés, the bar could be a great success.

In a charmingly misguided journey that takes Jamie from Aix to Uzés and from Cannes to Juan Les Pins, he visits some of the eccentric yet wise vingerons from his previous journey and discovers what the French attitude to rosé really is. Are gnarled old men discarding their pastis and sipping pale rosé? Is it just a myth that the French don't drink rosé with food? Are the young the real reason for booming sales? Before he knows it, he has found the perfect bar hidden in the hills of the Luberon, and will do it up over the winter months. For all who enjoyed Extremely Pale Rosé, and envied Jamie’s candidly hilarious adventures, La Vie En Rosé is the perfect second glass.