ROSE IS SUCH a happy word. When the world seems bright, it's said to be viewed through rose-colored glasses. When people are cheerful, they tend to give off a rosy glow. And when the word is used for wine, it conveys pure palate pleasure. In fact, that's all most rosé drinkers really want. They're not looking for complexity and nuance, but sheer deliciousness.

Rosé also offers the seduction of color. That's what my friend Kate from California likes best about the wines. "I love the shades—the peach, the salmon, the pink," she said. "And rosé is also one of the most versatile wines with food. It can go with seafood or Mexican or a steak."

Sales of rosé have soared in recent years as more and more wine drinkers succumb to its charms. Recent export figures for rosé from Wines of Provence, a consortium of more than 600 rosé producers, reflect wine drinkers' growing obsession with the pink wine: Last year, exports of Provençal rosé to the U.S. were 40% higher than the year before.

But with so many wines crowding the shelves—generally organized by color—it's hard to know which wines are made strictly for profit and which ones are produced in a true love of rosé. No wonder rosé drinkers tend to rely on the same stock qualification, most often requesting "a wine from Provence."

Though Provence is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of rosé, pink wines are now made almost everywhere. Harmon Skurnik, president of Syosset, N.Y.-based wine importer and distributor Michael Skurnik Wines, has seen the rise of the rosé frenzy firsthand. Ten years ago he had three or four Provence rosés in his portfolio; today he carries 50 rosés from all over the map—from Italy to California and Hungary.