Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food

When, What to My Wondering Eyes Should Appear…

Winery: Les Quelles de La Coste
Cuvée: Pinot Noir
Appellation: IGP Vaucluse, Luberon
Type: Red
Vintage: 2018
Grape Varieties: Pinot Noir
Alcohol: 13%
Average Retail Price: U.S. $27

But Susan and Towny (sans the tiny reindeer)! They did, however, bring a few bottles of wine to enjoy!

Their short, last-minute, late-December visit to Arizona coincided perfectly with a couple of holiday celebrations. For one of those evenings, I created a dish I’d had at a restaurant in Italy more than a decade ago. I scrounged around till I found my notes from 2011; they provided just the right amount of information for me to make Polpettine con le Uve — small meatballs with grapes. It’s presentation, along with its combination of flavors, makes it a wonderful, light main course to pair with today’s wine. You can find the recipe on Cocoa & Lavender.

Susan suggested that one particular wine they brought would pair well with the dish, and she was right! It is the 2018 Pinot Noir from John Malkovich’s winery Les Quelles de La Coste (LQLC).

The color is light ruby red and the nose is very bright with lots of tart red fruit — sour cherries and red currants. It is a light bodied wine with good acidity, which complemented the fat quotient in the food perfectly. On the palate, tart cherry was consensus, and we felt the thyme in the recipe brought out citrus notes, as well. The wine has a long peppery finish with hints of licorice.

We all loved the wine, and it was fun to drink a wine produced by one of my favorite actors. What’s really nice about Malkovich is that he is very involved in the winemaking process, unlike other celebrity winery owners. Now, knowing his affinity and talent for good, high-quality wines, my already-high esteem for him has skyrocketed. Wouldn’t it be fun to uncork a bottle with him?