My friends, a wife and husband, both trust fund babies, can afford Bordeaux by the case, so it isn’t a matter of stretching a dollar. I won’t name them because the behavior I am about to report will be considered by many a grave offense against wine, perhaps even against civilization itself.

When the summer heat sets in and their shaded pool on the edge of Sarasota Bay calls to them, they suit up skimpily, collect hers-and-his Kindle e-readers and prepare to loll poolside. An indispensable part of their preparations is to seat a pretty pitcher on a bed of ice and into it slice half a lime. From the fridge come two bottles: one of a good quality club soda and one of a moderately priced rosé. For the sake of argument, let’s say it’s a Crios de Susana Balbo Rosé of Malbec from Argentina. (Forgive me, Ms. Balbo.)

Some of you may wish to avert your eyes as we watch them fill the chilled pitcher half and half with wine and soda, producing a pretty pale pink sparkler some might call a wine cooler. They swear by this concoction. It is marvelously refreshing, they say, and keeps them cool as they read or swim or snooze in the breezy shade. What’s more, they assert that it tickles the nose and the tongue and yields a pleasantly mild buzz, so that it can be drunk without worry over the course of a long summer afternoon.

I am not condoning their behavior. I’m just reporting it.

An editor, writer and online publisher, John Bancroft has reviewed restaurants, books, movies and music for many magazines, websites and newspapers, most recently for the Tampa Bay Times.