AOP

May 6, 2017 8

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Flight of Fancy

Three wines; flight of fancy or fancy flight? I say it's both.
It has been a good year in Provence… most specifically, in Cotignac. Jeany and Stephen Cronk, founders of Mirabeau en Provence, situated in Cotignac, sent me the full flight of their rosé wines to create food pairings. All three of the wines won gold medals this year: Pure and Étoile received the 2017 Médaille d'Or in Paris and, in addition, Étoile scored an impressive 92 points form the Wine Enthusiast. The Mirabeau Classic won the 2017 Médaille d'Or at the

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April 16, 2017 7

Diary of a Master of Wine in Provence
La Maison des Vins de Côtes de Provence Reopens with Great Fanfare

While Provence has been making wine for over 2000 years, its wine has not always had the fame it has today. Wine needs to reach foreign shores to be recognised, to be drunk by people who will write and praise the wine, to be acknowledged. For 2000 years the wines of Provence have been consumed, largely by locals. During the past 200 years it has been appreciated increasingly by tourists and over the past 20 years, thanks to the boom in rosé sales, it is highly regarded internationally.

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April 15, 2017 11

Château Barbebelle’s Cuvée Madeleine Arrives in New Hampshire

I am psyched to report that one of my go-to rosés from Provence has just arrived in New Hampshire -- for the first time. Château Barbebelle Cuveé Madeleine (2016) debuted in six of the State Liquor Stores just a couple of weeks ago; it sold out quickly in most of the stores but, fortunately, more is on the way.

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April 9, 2017 7

Diary of a Master of Wine in Provence
Côtes de Provence, Prowein, and Coteaux Varois

One region, one new vintage, two countries, three colours, three appellations, three departments, four fairs… Round one of my official tasting season is over, and now is time for a brief retrospective pause to think about them and the rosés tasted. Concentrating on research for my rosé book means that I often didn’t have time to taste all the reds and whites I want to – that is something to look forward to this autumn.

The one region is Provence with three of the four tasting events being for Côtes de Provence, Coteaux Varois and Coteaux d’Aix who together make up 95% of the region’s production, and held, respectively in the departments of Alpes Maritimes, Var and Bouches du Rhône. The fourth event at Prowein, in Germany, was for the three regions together. The two countries were France and Germany.

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April 7, 2017 5

E & J Gallo Quietly Launches Provence Rosé, Fleur de Mer, into the U.S. Market

Knowing that Americans are thirsty for Provence rosé, E & J Gallo has hooked up with Les Maïtres Vignerons de la Presqu’île de Saint-Tropez in Provence to make a rosé for the U.S. market. After introducing two rosés, both produced by Les Maïtres Vignerons, to several test markets in key U.S. areas (e.g., Los Angeles, Florida, and New England), Gallo selected

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April 7, 2017 17

Musings of a Wine Maven
Lord Save Us, Martha Stewart is Selling Wine Again

Never a quitter, Martha has shaken off the debacle of her failed venture with Gallo a decade ago to come back at the unsuspecting wine consumer with a new wine marketing scheme. Unable then to successfully sell her Martha Stewart Vintage label at fifteen bucks a bottle, her name is now attached to a box of six of her favorite selections for $59.99, served up in a wine club framework. Hmmm, if a fifteen buck wine made for her by Gallo couldn’t sell, why then these ten buck finds (introductory price) from California, Spain, Italy and France?

There are at least two rosés from Provence, the region that has taken the U.S. by storm with its immensely popular pink wine

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Photo of food pairing with Rose de Leoube

April 1, 2017 13

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
I’m No Fool!

When I saw a bottle of Château Léoube's "Rosé de Léoube" on sale, I bought it. I'm no fool. Yes, it's a little more expensive than our usual wine purchases, but I have heard from many people how good it is, and I wanted to know firsthand. Let me start by saying that I wish I had bought out their inventory! (So maybe I was a fool after all...?)

The first thing I did after getting the bottle was send a quick note to my Instagram friend Jérôme Pernot - a.k.a. Mr. Léoube - and asked him what he recommended serving with his wine. His suggestion? Roasted chicken

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March 22, 2017 10

CHÂTEAU PEYRASSOL: THE MARC OF SUCCESS

We had a blizzard last this week. Winds were whipping across our house and, at times, it seemed through our early 18th-century home. The day-long storm dumped about a foot of snow by the time it was all over. Temperatures were way below freezing

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March 12, 2017 3

A Third Namesake Wine Joins the Château Margüi Portfolio: Welcome Toscane de Margüi

In early February, at Millesime Bio in Marseille, I had the pleasure of meeting Titien, 14-year-old son of Philippe Guillanton and Marie-Christine Baylet-Guillanton, who, with a little cajoling [...]

March 12, 2017 8

MILLÉSIME BIO 2017: CONVERSATIONS WITH ORGANIC AND BIODYNAMIC WINEMAKERS

“We don’t have fancy booths. We are natural. Authentic, like our wines,” observed one of the exhibitors at last month’s Millésime Bio Wine Fair in

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