Wine on ice

While I'm no wine connoisseur (or I guess connaissuese would be more correct) I like to drink wine and living near California wine country for most of my life means that I know a little bit about what I like and don't like. In fact, one of the reasons I was particularly excited about living in Avignon was its location smack dab in the middle of Côtes du Rhône country. In my experience, rosé wines are considered only a step up from white zinfandel on the quality spectrum, that is to say, not so good. However, when it's 35C (95F) and higher most days, a glass of cold (emphasis on the cold) rosé goes quite nicely with a meal or an evening on the patio. It seems to be the most popular summer drink here. But the way the french drink it struck me as peculiar...

I have been accused of being a snob or even "outfrenching the french" but I refuse to put ice cubes in my wine! Here, however, it seems to be the norm, the expectation even. Servers in restaurants bring you a bowl of ice cubes to add to your glass, if you are invited for a drink in a french home ice cubes are dropped directly into your glass without question. At first this seemed shocking to me for a couple of reasons: 1. As someone from a family with perhaps some culinary and oenological snob-like tendencies, this practice violates one of the main purposes of drinking wine; it dilutes the flavor! 2. Again maybe somewhat snobbish, but this is always something I viewed as low-class - a bit trashy, something people do when they don't know any better, something you'd expect of say, your 19 year-old cousin in college, not an adult. 3. Building upon the first two reasons, the French are viewed by Americans as not just connoisseurs of anything wine related but wine worshippers. The French are also known by Americans as the people for whom the word "snob" was invented - to see the french expect that rosé be served with ice has just blown all my former beliefs to shreds. Confident in my snobbish self, I have thus far carried on with my refusal to drink wine with ice cubes in it except when it is served to me that way or if my only options are to drink warm wine or wine with ice in it. Now however, I'm starting to wonder. The more I drink rosé sans ice, the more I feel that it is slightly too acid, too concentrated somehow, almost as if it is meant to be drunk diluted, with a little bit of ice in it. What to do?