Wine Tasting

June 5, 2026 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Consistency

When a wine comes from the Châteauneuf-du-Pape region, my question usually isn’t if I will like it, but how much I will like it. Today’s wine is a case of “I liked it very much.” I am pretty consistent in my love of wines from this region.

I had the bottle of wine before I knew what I was making, but it seemed that grilled lamb would be good, so I created a recipe for Lamb and Shiitake Skewers which are perfumed with bay leaves and served over a farro-vegetable salad... [...]

Bottle of Hospice de Beaune wine next to a plate of Oeufs en Meurette

April 3, 2026 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Throw Me a Beaune

What to you do when confronted with an exquisite bottle of wine for pairing with food? Do you go as fancy as you can? That is usually my thought. However, Susan and Towny had another idea; go with a simple, peasant dish. And that is what we did on Christmas Eve. Towny and I pulled together a recipe (from looking at several videos online) for Œufs en Meurette or, simply, Eggs in Meurette Sauce. For the recipe... [...]

August 1, 2025 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
C’est Si Bon!

«C’est si bon!» — French for, “It’s so good!” — is the perfect saying for this homophonous vineyard, Clos Cibonne. The wines they produce are quite wonderful, and today I was tempted by their cuvée, Tentations. (See what I did there?) I was looking for a rosé to pair with my Sweet Potato and Scallop Napoleons, and this particular wine seemed promising. You can get the recipe for the Napoleons on... [...]

April 4, 2025 8

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Never Have I Ever

I did something new and different this month. I actually followed someone else’s recipe to the “T.” Crazy, right? It is Pork Belly, Radicchio & Hazelnuts from Polpo by Russell Norman. You can find the recipe on Cocoa & Lavender. I could tell just from looking at the recipe that the dish would be fantastic, so I went out seeking a nice red wine that would pair well with this simple yet flavor-filled and unctuous... [...]

February 28, 2025 7

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
The Weight of Wine

For something new and different, Susan and I tasted this month’s wine together online from across the country (check out our tasting video HERE), and then I made a plan for the menu. It was a really fun way to do this and we hope to do it more in the future.

The menu ended up being for a recipe I have been working on for a while, and I think I finally got it right for this pairing. (See more below.) Lamb Steaks with Olive Sauce... [...]

February 1, 2025 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food A Well-Traveled Tavel

Today’s pairing was a bit tricky. At first glance, my Duck Teriyaki recipe looks like an easy shot. Many rosés pair perfectly with Asian cuisine and that is what I thought, too. But when you examine the teriyaki glaze I created, you will see three different Asian wines in the mix (sake, mirin, and xiaoxing) and, to me, that tends to wreak havoc on a wine... [...]

August 2, 2024 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Judging a Book by its Cover

Speaking with the young and very knowledgeable woman in the wine department of a boutique grocery here in Tucson, I inquired about Rolle wines, as Rolle (a.k.a. Vermentino) has become very popular. She had one Vermentino from Corsica (which I will discuss in a future post) and a rosé that included Rolle. She warned me, “The wine is really good but don’t let the bottle design turn you off.” Okay, I thought, while I do love a good label, I don’t think I have ever been turned away from a wine because of its label... [...]

May 31, 2024 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Voulez-Vous Vouvray?

I found myself in the city of Tours (Loire Valley) for a week without a car; it wasn’t an accident that we were carless — we actually planned it this way. We love spending a week exploring a new town (city). Thus, there were no visits to any number of the beautiful châteaux in the valley or, more to the point of this article, no visits to any Loire Valley wineries. Fear not, though, Les Halles — the incredible market house in Tours — had a wonderful wine store near the main entrance: Les Belles Caves. I got to know the owners pretty well.

Being there, I knew that I would want to write about Loire wines for you, even though they are “off topic.” A note to our die-hard Provence wine aficionados: I did get one very nice and ridiculously inexpensive Provence rosé at the Carrefour our first night, as Les Halles was closed. Oddly, the grocery store had a large selection of wine, but none that I could find from the Val de Loire. A puzzlement.

A recipe I created the week before in Paris, Crevettes au Paprika Doux, needed a good wine pairing. I made it several times during out three-week trip and everyone for whom I made it loved it. It is a wonderful and easy-to-prepare ... [...]

February 2, 2024 5

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
Rose | Rosé

It isn’t often that I have the opportunity to share a very special wine of this ilk. And when that does happen, it needs an incredibly special dish to pair with it. The bottle was a magnum of Château Léoube Singulier and it is, indeed, a singular wine. Susan and I decided this would be a good Valentine’s post, so I created a new dish: Chicken Ispahan, based on a famous Pierre Hermé pastry of the same name. Flavors — perfect for your Valentine — include rose, raspberry, and lychee. You can get the recipe on Cocoa & Lavender... [...]

January 5, 2024 1

Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food
White and Red, Daube and Wine

I’ve had a couple of firsts recently — the Swiss Fondue last month (see Savoie Faire) and now my first Daube. I knew daubes were generally made with red wine, but Susan introduced me to Patricia Wells’ recipe for a White Daube. Wells suggests that making it with a white Châteauneuf-du-Pape is traditional, but I find that a bit extravagant. Happily, she offered the suggestion to use “any drinkable white without too much oak.” That worked much better for me. However, when pairing with the daube, I did serve both a white and red Châteauneuf-du-Pape and thoroughly enjoyed both. For my version of Wells’ recipe, visit Cocoa & Lavender. For more about the two wines, read on.

If someone were to ask me what my favorite wine is, I would have to say it’s a Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. While I could not bring myself to make the daube with this wine, I knew I had to try pairing it with this wine. I chose an E. Guigal 2019 vintage, and it was at its prime for drinking. The color of golden straw, it has aromas of candied melon and marshmallow, and a complex palate that offers apple compote, orange-fleshed melon, apricot, dried mango, jasmine, and a touch of pineapple with a nice long, citrusy finish. It paired beautifully with the white daube, highlighting the rich beef, vegetable, and mushroom broth... [...]

1 2 3 … 7 »