Articles by Susan Manfull

May 11, 2015 8

THINGS TO KNOW IN PROVENCE: WHAT IS L’APÉRO?

Recently, I told a group of people we are meeting in Provence that “It all begins Sunday evening with l’apéro,” prompting many of those people to sheepishly inquire exactly how Sunday evening would commence.

What is l’apéro?

It is a derivative of the Latin word [...]

April 26, 2015 5

THE 2014 VINTAGE OF PROVENCE ROSÉ IS ON THE SHELVES…AND IN OUR GLASSES

I drink rosé all year ’round. I encourage others to do the same. Pourquoi pas? As regular readers know, I take every opportunity to bemoan the predictable purge of rosés from the shelves of wine stores come the day after Labor Day. [...]

April 21, 2015 5

WHISPERING ANGEL WINS THE BLIND TASTING BUT ALL EYES WERE ON GARRUS

ver the weekend another Provence rosé lover, Cynthia Fenneman, and I invited some friends over for a blind tasting of five Provence rosés. Research for Provence WineZine, of course [...]

April 12, 2015 3

A BARREL TASTING AT THE TARDIEU – LAURENT CELLARS

Tardieu–Laurent is one of the premiere négociants in the Rhône Valley, and their cellars happen to be located in our favorite village Lourmarin. I began to hear about them soon after we discovered Lourmarin in the late-1990s, a few years after Michel Tardieu and Dominique Laurent [...]

February 23, 2015 13

FRENCH LESSONS HAVE TAUGHT ME MORE THAN FRENCH

French Lessons. There they are again on my list of goals for 2015. I shudder to think how many years [...]

February 9, 2015 2

SLEEPY ANSOUIS: ONE OF “LES PLUS BEAUX VILLAGES DE FRANCE”

In most tourist books about Provence, rarely is more than a small paragraph devoted to the charming village of Ansouis. In some popular books—notably Rick Steves’ Provence and The French Riviera—the village is not even mentioned although, remarkably, the old standard Michelin Guide: Provence includes a full page about Ansouis.It’s no wonder this beautiful village is also referred to as “sleepy and “quiet.” (Read: surprisingly few tourists.) Selfishly, I would like to keep it that way, but having spent a week there this past summer, I could see that it was not the somnolent... [...]

February 5, 2015 0

Snow Falls in Provence’s Southern Rhône Valley

Henri Bungener, proprietor of Le Clos de Caveau in the Vacqueyras appellation of the Rhône Valley wine region, reported that 6 inches of snow fell on his vineyard overnight on Tuesday. [...]

February 1, 2015 3

IN THE DEPTH OF WINTER, I UNCORK A BOTTLE OF ROSÉ

The snow is over three-feet deep in some places around our home in coastal New England. The wind is howling, shaking the loose window panes of this 18th-century house and causing a shrill whistling noise. A “Winter Storm Watch” is in effect for tonight, when an additional twelve inches of snow may begin to fall. Even parts of Provence may see a dusting of snow by the end of the week [...]

January 18, 2015 14

YOU KNOW MIRABEAU ROSÉS, BUT HAVE YOU MET THE RED WINE?

Have you ever had a dream that you really wanted to follow? One that tugged so hard at your heartstrings that you resorted to cold showers to quell those feelings? Stephen Cronk did. And, now, after harboring this dream for some 25 years, this handsome man with [...]

January 11, 2015 7

MEET MADAME CÉZANNE

Post-impressionist artist Paul Cézanne, born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839, spent most of his sixty-six years in his beloved Aix and he died there in 1906. He grew up there, studied law at the university, took art classes at the city’s Musée Granet—even won a second-place prize for his painting at that museum—and famously painted nearby Mont Sainte-Victoire some five dozen... [...]

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