Wine Classification

December 6, 2024 4

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
A Red for the Holidays

For the month of December, I created a fusion dish featuring Mexican, Dutch, Western Chinese, and Moroccan flavors — my Lamb Quesadilla. While obviously not an authentic dish, it is truly delicious and was actually the product of a dream I had. I have discovered that if I go to sleep thinking of what I might want to make for dinner, my subconscious keeps working after I nod off until it comes up with something marvelous. To get the recipe, visit Cocoa & Lavender. (Happily, my subconscious seems to have good taste!)... [...]

September 7, 2024 4

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Feeling Guilty

Today’s wine is outstanding. It is nothing that I expected and yet everything I wanted. And I feel a little bit guilty because it’s a truly fine wine and I served it with a cod cake. Yes, a cod cake. But do trust me that it’s not a “lowly” cod cake; it’s a really wonderful cod cake. In fact, I called them Oh My Cod [Cakes]. You can get the recipe on... [...]

July 5, 2024 6

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Rose | Rosé, The Sequel

Here I am again pairing rosé with rose flavors, even though there is no correlation. Today’s preparation could not be more different from my Chicken Ispahan back in February. While the rose flavor in that dish was front and center, it is incredibly subtle in today’s recipe and I highly recommend that you give it a go. It is Cailles aux Roses... [...]

May 31, 2024 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Voulez-Vous Vouvray?

I found myself in the city of Tours (Loire Valley) for a week without a car; it wasn’t an accident that we were carless — we actually planned it this way. We love spending a week exploring a new town (city). Thus, there were no visits to any number of the beautiful châteaux in the valley or, more to the point of this article, no visits to any Loire Valley wineries. Fear not, though, Les Halles — the incredible market house in Tours — had a wonderful wine store near the main entrance: Les Belles Caves. I got to know the owners pretty well.

Being there, I knew that I would want to write about Loire wines for you, even though they are “off topic.” A note to our die-hard Provence wine aficionados: I did get one very nice and ridiculously inexpensive Provence rosé at the Carrefour our first night, as Les Halles was closed. Oddly, the grocery store had a large selection of wine, but none that I could find from the Val de Loire. A puzzlement.

A recipe I created the week before in Paris, Crevettes au Paprika Doux, needed a good wine pairing. I made it several times during out three-week trip and everyone for whom I made it loved it. It is a wonderful and easy-to-prepare ... [...]

March 1, 2024 3

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
How Could I Forget?

Dining chez Susan and Towny is, well, an incredible treat. Not only due to the exquisite food, mind you, but because of the wine. Whatever I make, they have the perfect wine to pair. And this month’s selection is truly exceptional.

I made something for them which I can make in my sleep. In fact, until I made it for them, I hadn’t even written it down as... [...]

February 2, 2024 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Rose | Rosé

It isn’t often that I have the opportunity to share a very special wine of this ilk. And when that does happen, it needs an incredibly special dish to pair with it. The bottle was a magnum of Château Léoube Singulier and it is, indeed, a singular wine. Susan and I decided this would be a good Valentine’s post, so I created a new dish: Chicken Ispahan, based on a famous Pierre Hermé pastry of the same name. Flavors — perfect for your Valentine — include rose, raspberry, and lychee. You can get the recipe on Cocoa & Lavender... [...]

January 5, 2024 1

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
White and Red, Daube and Wine

I’ve had a couple of firsts recently — the Swiss Fondue last month (see Savoie Faire) and now my first Daube. I knew daubes were generally made with red wine, but Susan introduced me to Patricia Wells’ recipe for a White Daube. Wells suggests that making it with a white Châteauneuf-du-Pape is traditional, but I find that a bit extravagant. Happily, she offered the suggestion to use “any drinkable white without too much oak.” That worked much better for me. However, when pairing with the daube, I did serve both a white and red Châteauneuf-du-Pape and thoroughly enjoyed both. For my version of Wells’ recipe, visit Cocoa & Lavender. For more about the two wines, read on.

If someone were to ask me what my favorite wine is, I would have to say it’s a Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. While I could not bring myself to make the daube with this wine, I knew I had to try pairing it with this wine. I chose an E. Guigal 2019 vintage, and it was at its prime for drinking. The color of golden straw, it has aromas of candied melon and marshmallow, and a complex palate that offers apple compote, orange-fleshed melon, apricot, dried mango, jasmine, and a touch of pineapple with a nice long, citrusy finish. It paired beautifully with the white daube, highlighting the rich beef, vegetable, and mushroom broth... [...]

December 2, 2023 2

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Savoie Faire

Sitting around a fondue pot with friends dipping crusty cubes of bread into velvety cheese is fun. Sitting around a fondue pot with the friends, cheese, bread, and three different Savoie wines is even more fun. Trust me, I know this from personal experience... [...]

November 4, 2023 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Club Med

One thing I love about wines from Provence is that they tend to pair very well with many Mediterranean foods. Like Spanish cuisine, for example. For today’s post, I paired a 2021 Bieler Père & Fils Bandol with an Arroz con Pollo, a cousin to Valencia’s paella. The recipe is one I watched Jacques Pépin cook on television more than 30 years ago… [...]

September 1, 2023 3

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Take Two

In the film world, you often need at least two takes to get a scene right. It is similar with food and wine pairing. This is my second go at pairing my Fish Tacos with rosé.

Take One. The wine I chose for the pairing just didn’t work for my palate. There was no synergy between the wine and food, and the wine almost tasted sour.

Take Two. This wine worked much better and was quite good; the blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Cinsault played nicely off the spices in the tacos. I would love to try them with a Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre blend, too. The Fish Tacos are outstanding (he avers immodestly), and I hope you will try them; the recipe is on... [...]

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