Feature Archives

March 20, 2016 4

MAPPING THE MARKETS OF PETER MAYLE’S PROVENCE

Twenty years ago, my husband, daughter, and I rolled into Marseille on the high-speed train from Paris.  If I recall correctly, the Aix-en-Provence TGV station had not yet been built. We rented a car and drove to Aix-en-Provence, where we would spend several nights before moving to Lourmarin, the small village at the base of the Luberon Mountains.  Peter Mayle country... [...]
March 16, 2016 5

Musings of a Wine Maven

FRANCE WINS THE PLONK TROPHY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THE CAVES COOPÉRATIVES

Let us now continue with our little satire on the transmogrification of The Judgment of Paris into the imagined competition for the best of the lesser wines, The Plonk Trophy, and explain how the French victory, as detailed in "Two Buck Chuck Loses Plonk Trophy to the French," came to pass. It is best summarized in the Provence WineZine (PWZ) interview with French team captain Aimé de Bontemps, conducted shortly after the arbitrator upheld the decision declaring the French as winners. [...]
March 13, 2016 12

Musings of a Wine Maven

TWO BUCK CHUCK LOSES PLONK TROPHY TO THE FRENCH

In 1976, Englishman Steven Spurrier stunned the wine world when the results were announced of a blind tasting he organized in Paris. In the competition of top French red and white wines with California wines Spurrier had, a Cabernet and a Chardonnay from Napa landed on top of the red and white groupings. And, this phenomenal result came from principally French tasters, who comprised seven on the nine person panel. Sacrebleu! I doubt Steven Spurrier, though as deserving as Robert Parker, will ever be inducted into la Légion d'Honneur. [...]
March 5, 2016 6

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food

Wine for Food

I was perusing the rosé section at Total Wine last weekend in search of a bottle to have with my Moroccan harira, a soup I enjoyed when traveling in Morocco in 1991. The thing I love about winter - even here in Tucson - is that the stock of rosé wines is good. But this is also dismaying to me, as people - people who should know better - say [...]
March 4, 2016 4

La Fée Verte Has Her Day March 5th

Ever on the lookout for a good theme to party to at chez nous, I was both surprised and pleased to learn that March 5th is National Absinthe Day. I know just where to find my '60s Peter Max 23” x 36” Toulouse-Lautrec poster, and as the “green fairy” [...]
February 27, 2016 19

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PAGNOL

The Academy Awards, which I look forward to each year, will be telecast Sunday evening, February 28, and this presents me with a confliction, for February 28 is also the birth date of legendary French filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. Seven years ago, on his anniversary, we had a party in his honor at our home with a group of French friends, all admirers of his work. (Could there be a Frenchman who is... [...]
February 21, 2016 6

I HAD AN APPOINTMENT WITH CHÂTEAU BEAULIEU…AND DISCOVERED VILLA BAULIEU

We take the back roads to Lourmarin when we arrive in Provence. Whether we pull into the Aix TGV station or land in the Marseille Airport, we take the D568 a short distance and then head north along the meandering D543 (a favorite of bicyclists, too, making for some ticklish maneuvers occasionally). Between Éguilles and Rognes—on the narrow forested stretch known as the Route de Rognes—we pass by a [...]
February 19, 2016 9

MY OAK TREE GROWS IN THE LUBERON

Thanks to a very generous friend, my family and I own an oak tree in Provence. Nestled in the thickly wooded hills of the Luberon between Lourmarin and Cadenet, is a large organic farm called Les Pastras (which means “the pastures,” in Langue d’Oc, the old Provençal language). There, grows our little tree.

Les Pastras is now under the diligent care of Lisa and Johann Pepin, having... [...]
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