Archive

April 16, 2017 7

Diary of a Master of Wine in Provence
La Maison des Vins de Côtes de Provence Reopens with Great Fanfare

While Provence has been making wine for over 2000 years, its wine has not always had the fame it has today. Wine needs to reach foreign shores to be recognised, to be drunk by people who will write and praise the wine, to be acknowledged. For 2000 years the wines of Provence have been consumed, largely by locals. During the past 200 years it has been appreciated increasingly by tourists and over the past 20 years, thanks to the boom in rosé sales, it is highly regarded internationally.

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April 9, 2017 7

Diary of a Master of Wine in Provence
Côtes de Provence, Prowein, and Coteaux Varois

One region, one new vintage, two countries, three colours, three appellations, three departments, four fairs… Round one of my official tasting season is over, and now is time for a brief retrospective pause to think about them and the rosés tasted. Concentrating on research for my rosé book means that I often didn’t have time to taste all the reds and whites I want to – that is something to look forward to this autumn.

The one region is Provence with three of the four tasting events being for Côtes de Provence, Coteaux Varois and Coteaux d’Aix who together make up 95% of the region’s production, and held, respectively in the departments of Alpes Maritimes, Var and Bouches du Rhône. The fourth event at Prowein, in Germany, was for the three regions together. The two countries were France and Germany.

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March 22, 2017 10

CHÂTEAU PEYRASSOL: THE MARC OF SUCCESS

We had a blizzard last this week. Winds were whipping across our house and, at times, it seemed through our early 18th-century home. The day-long storm dumped about a foot of snow by the time it was all over. Temperatures were way below freezing

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March 12, 2017 8

MILLÉSIME BIO 2017: CONVERSATIONS WITH ORGANIC AND BIODYNAMIC WINEMAKERS

“We don’t have fancy booths. We are natural. Authentic, like our wines,” observed one of the exhibitors at last month’s Millésime Bio Wine Fair in

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February 14, 2017 10

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WINE WRITER: VINISUD 2017

Just over two weeks ago, my husband and I landed in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport where we hopped aboard a TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse or, in English, France’s high-speed train) that sped south to France's eighth largest city

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January 27, 2017 11

TASTING AGED ROSÉS WITH MATTHIEU NÉGREL OF MAS DE CADENET

I’m a relatively new convert to the benefits of aging rosé. Readers can easily find evidence in my earlier writing (see archives) of yours truly snickering at the thought of drinking rosés from the previous year’s

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December 11, 2016 16

MEET JEAN-MARIE QUEF, DIRECTOR AND WINEMAKER AT DOMAINE DE L’AMAURIGUE

Almost a year ago, on New Year's Day, I received an email from Jean-Marie Quef, Director and Œnologue of Domaine de l'Amaurigue. Responding

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October 29, 2016 22

OFF THE VIA DOMITIA
IT ALL STARTED WITH A WHITE CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE

When I attended the Wine Bloggers conference in mid-August in Lodi, California—one of the largest appellations in California and one intricately tied to Old Vine Zinfandel wines—I did not expect to visit a winery dedicated to producing [...]

October 10, 2016 13

SOMETHING NEW IS FERMENTING IN THE LUBERON: THE FIRST HARVEST AT DOMAINE MASLAURIS

Do you ever wonder, as I often do, how people come to do what they are doing? How did an American jazz and gospel singer/former attorney and her French attorney/wine aficionado husband [...]

September 20, 2016 12

DOMAINE SAINT ANDRIEU IS WELL WORTH THE DRIVE UP THE HILL

Deep in the heart of the Var, north of Brignoles, and a wee bit past the tiny predominantly organic village of Correns, there is a long and winding road just off the Grand Rue (also called the D45). Soon after making that turn, on to Le Collet de Recoux, that [...]

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