Wine Classification

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Those Summer Nights

While summer isn't the only season to drink rosé, it is incredibly refreshing on a hot summer evening... and that is something we know well in Tucson. Sometimes, it is so hot in the evening (lately, our temperatures have been hovering at 115°F or 46°C) that we don't want a full meal - perhaps just apéro with some nice wine, a little cheese, and a few friends. With a bottle of the 2015 Domaine de Terrebrune Bandol Rosé chilling, we invited a few friends over for some wine and cheese. Simple. Casual. Relaxed. Early in the morning, while it [...]

April Frost Damages 25% of Château Vignelaure Vineyard

“We are lucky the damage was not worse,” Philippe Bru, Directeur Œnologue of Château Vignelaure, said of the April 29th frost that hit his vineyard, located in Rians, just north of Aix-en-Provence. “I hear that the Center of the Var was hit much worse, especially around Correns.”
That devastating frost, considered the most destructive since
[...]

IS ROSÉ A SERIOUS WINE?

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUBJECT

“Rosé does not merit serious tasting”

…Such were the recent words of a fellow wine writer, one very knowledgeable about wine, and one whose opinion I respect immensely on
[...]

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
[...]

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.
[...]

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.
[...]

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.
[...]
1 8 9 10 11 12 16
UA-53855671-1