Our story began long before we realized it was even our story. Luke and I went to the same high school and college, but we never really ran with the same crowd. Much later down the road, Luke was living in Tupelo, working at La Vino (this will be important later), while I was living in Nashville, working as a nurse. I would visit home frequently, and each time, I found myself needing to make a stop at La Vino. Luke and I would catch up during those brief encounters, and he would spend some time helping me pick wines he thought I would enjoy. I love French rosé—specifically, a very cheap, nothing-special bottle called La Vieille Ferme (or chicken wine) that La Vino unfortunately did not carry. Over the next few months, I would still stop in, and Luke continued to give his recommendations. Then, one day, he told me that the store had just started carrying something and he wanted me to give it a try. It was none other than my favorite little $12 bottle of La Vieille Ferme. If you ask him about this part of our story, he will say that he had the store start carrying it to keep me coming back—little did he know, La Vino was never in the direction I was going when I was visiting home. Unfortunately, that did not immediately spark our relationship. It wasn’t until the night before Thanksgiving 2020 that something changed. I had stopped at the store earlier that day before going to a friend’s house, later that evening (after a few glasses of wine), I messaged Luke to come and meet us out. He came after work, we sandwiched ourselves into Downunder, and the rest was history. We continued to exchange messages over the next few weeks and eventually decided he would come visit me in Nashville that next January. On February 13th, he asked me to be his girlfriend, all thanks to our very favorite chicken wine.