SO YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND ROSÉ? NEW BOOK BY ELIZABETH GABAY MW OUT IN DECEMBER
Alexis Lichine famously said, “If you want to learn about wine, buy a corkscrew and use it.” Elizabeth Gabay MW, being a fixture in the Provence [...]
Côtes de Provence
NATURAL WINE: LESS IS MORE AND OTHER LESSONS FROM RAW WINE NEW YORK 2017
Natural wines came on my radar a few years ago, probably through the writings of Alice Feiring, one of the first mainstream writers to champion their cause. Feiring is a gifted and [...]
PROVENCE WINEZINE PICKS WINES FOR THANKSGIVING 2017
So you want to add a little French flair to this quintessentially American meal? But a wave of anxiety engulfed you when you remembered that seven years ago, UNESCO deemed French gastronomy to be "a world intangible [...]
Provence WineZine Goes to RAW WINE New York
Today is the start of RAW WINE New York, a two-day artisan wine fair devoted to natural wine. It’s the second year in the Big Apple and promises to be a popular event again—tickets for today sold out three days ago and apparently Monday is now also sold out (although organizers encourage interested parties to check availability at the door…and suggest they may be lucky). About 2300 people attended last [...]
Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food A Goddess in Our Midst
Toward the end of my pairing notes last month, I suggested I might have remembered Rolle being someone softer, fuller, and rounder than its Italian counterpart, Vermentino.
It seems that I was right.
Disclaimer: I only tasted two of hundreds of wines out there that are made with 100% Rolle or Vermentino. Just two. However, they are both highly rated and come from well-respected vintners.
As I tested the Antinori Vermentino twice, I thought it only fair to do the same with the Rolle.
For one [...]
Wine Enthusiast Taps Three Rosés in TOP 100 BEST WINE VALUES OF 2017
We have wine at every evening meal. So, I am always on the hunt for a good-value table wine that does not break the bank to keep in stock. I routinely pour through certain publications looking for new wines for that [...]
2017 HARVEST IN PROVENCE AND SOUTHERN RHÔNE: EARLY AND SMALL BUT WITH GREAT EXPECTATIONS
If you live in the South of France, you would have to be living a cave not to know that the 2017 harvest was [...]
DECODING CÔTES DE PROVENCE ROSÉ
There are still people out there who think that rosé comes from blending red and white wines and others who (seriously) think rosé is made from a single grape variety called rosé. This article focuses on the traditionally dry, fresh, fruit-forward, pale-colored rosés [...]
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
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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