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For today’s pairing, I turned back time (with a nod to Cher) to a recipe I that first tasted on Easter Island in 2019. It is a grain-forward dish that is complemented by a plethora of seasonal vegetables. I didn’t officially get a recipe from the hotel chef… just a list of ingredients. I put the rest together myself and recreated his...

When planning our recent trip to Morocco, none of our small group (which included PWZ’s Susan and Towny) had any idea there would be a winery owned by a man from Châteauneuf-du-Pape. But there we were and there he was. Charles Mélia moved to the small village of Ounara — just 20 minutes east of the seaside town of Essaouira — in 1994, and started Domaine du Val d’Argan. 

Earlier in his life, he worked at his family’s vineyard, Château de la Font du Loup (in Châteauneuf-du-Pape) and, after exploring other wine growing areas (Argentina and New Zealand), he settled on Morocco. The climate was perfect for growing Rhône grapes such as Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Muscat, and Roussanne. Sadly, the...

When I looked on the Château Barbebelle website for pairing ideas for the 2022 release of their Cuvée Madeleine Rosé, I was torn between their suggestions for fatty fish — tuna, salmon, swordfish — and the fresh, lightness of ceviche. It brought to mind a sort of hybrid recipe of the two that I have been making...

As we turn our thoughts to spring, there are foods and wines that come to mind immediately. On the food side of things, my mind turns to spring vegetables: asparagus, peas, fava beans. For wine, I find it time to leave the wintry red wines for a while and focus on the crisp, bright, floral whites. That isn’t to say I don’t enjoy a red with a...

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...

In early December last year, Susan, Towny, Mark, and I descended upon Sue and Rodney Tipton at their winery, Acquiesce, located in Acampo, California, in the Lodi wine region. Sue and Rodney are the consummate hosts — they fed us, entertained us, and set up one of the most incredible days of wine tastings that I have ever...

Five months ago, I wrote about a rosé bottled in green glass, and how that was — and still is — unusual for a rosé. Today’s wine, to take this one step further, is bottled in blue glass. The colored glass provides an ultraviolet filter to preserve the wine’s quality as long as possible. I’m glad for this blue glass, as the wine is quite...

The recent publication of Rosés of Southern France is cause for great celebration among casual rosé drinkers and oenophiles alike. Elizabeth Gabay MW and Ben Bernheim have written an engaging and comprehensive book that not surprisingly centers on Provence rosé but it also includes rosés from all other neighboring regions in the South of France. Their depth of...

Susan, Towny, Mark, and I re-zoomed our online dinners again this week. (Don’t you just love bad puns?) It has been been a long time since we have seen each other, even though Susan and I chat frequently on the phone, seeing them via zoom is much better than not seeing them at...

I was in a local, high-end wine store recently, looking (as I am wont to do) for Provence wines. That day, I was specifically looking for a red wine, though my expectations were low as Provence wines — other than rosé — are not generally stocked here in Tucson. The store manager confirmed that he had nothing red, but he had a really highly-rated Provence white for a great price ($21.00!). I took him at his word, without really looking at the bottle, and bought two. Now, I wish I had ...