Rosé can be the perfect match for your turkey and its varied trimmings, especially when it comes from Provence, the birthplace of rosé. With hundreds of years of practice making this wine, it is not surprising that the best rosés in the world hail from this region. Light yet complex, nicely balanced fruit and acidity, Provence rosés are refreshing to one’s palate and versatile enough to go with the myriad foods typically found on the traditional Thanksgiving table. (Keep a bottle chilled for the leftovers, too!) I love Thanksgiving. I am one of those (obsessive) sorts who has a file bulging with Thanksgiving recipes and…

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Okay, Patricia Wells is not really in my kitchen. But her new book, The French Kitchen Cookbook: Recipes and Lessons from Paris and Provence, has occupied a prominent place in my kitchen since I met its author last week in Darien, Connecticut. Wells made a stop at the Darien Library as part of her cross-country book tour to promote her newest entry in to the category of French cuisine cooking. The event, sponsored by Barrett Bookstore, packed the room with close to 200 people. Mostly women and many toting copies of earlier published books, this was an enthusiastic crowd with lots questions that demonstrated a…

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  To learn more about Provence rosé and Château d’Esclans, please read my earlier post, “Château d’Esclans’ Garrus Rosé Bedazzles.” I am grateful to Win Rhoades, proprietor of South Street and Vine in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for his quick lesson in viticulture. Any errors here are not those of Paul Chevalier or Win Rhoades; they are mine (although they may be related to drinking wine while taking notes!)    What could be more fun than sitting in front of six glasses of pale rosé from Provence’s Château d’Esclans? Well, tasting each one with guidance from wine educator Paul Chevalier. That is what my daughter and…

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This morning I received an email from Marc Perrin, from Famille Perrin (the well-known multi-generational wine family from Châteauneuf-de-Pape that is now in partnership with Château Miraval). As readers of Sunday’s TMT post (10/13/13) about Miraval’s grapes are aware, I had written to him but had not received a response prior to posting “The Curious Case of Miraval’s Grapes.” For those of you who are curious, I have answers. A little background: Famille Perrin, according to their website, is “the leading organic wine grower of the Southern Rhone Valley” and, although they produce a range of wines from various estates, they are probably best known…

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Note:  Marc Perrin, partner with Jolie and Pitt to produce and distribute Miraval rosé,  provided answers (after publication) to some of these curiosities.  To find out what he said, please see my updated post (10/15/13).   Back in the spring, readers may recall all the hoopla over the release of Brad and Angelina’s first rosé from their newly acquired chateau in Provence. The Modern Trobadors hopped on the crowded band wagon with a post about the celebrity status of Château Miraval long before the glam couple took up residence and I included a synopsis of our tasting notes wherein we gave their rose, called simply “Miraval,”…

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I was settling into the chair at my desk earlier this week, fully prepared to wax enthusiastically in this post about the merits of visiting St-Tropez any time after August, when the telephone rang and changed the focus of my story. I was all set to grumble about the inconceivable amount of traffic in July and, especially in August when everyone on the continent seems to have set their GPS devices set for the French Riviera. The notorious two-lane D98 becomes a virtual parking lot of vehicles—Maseratis, open-top Ferraris by the dozen, big Bentleys, tiny Fiat Pandas, and camping-cars alike—inching forward en masse toward the…

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“It’s a big wine….it’s a long story.” I bemoaned in my last post that I am not in Provence right now (as I often am this time of year). But, our recent tasting of four rosés from Provence, transported me to that part of the world —tout de suite and without so much as a click of my espadrilles. Ooh la la. That’s what good rosé can do. I landed in the tiny village of La Motte-en-Provence, in the Var, at Château d’Esclans from whence the star of the tasting hails. We had, for the first time, a bottle of the much-ballyhooed prestige cuvée Garrus…

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Château Roubine, from whence the rosé I am drinking comes, is built atop Knights Templar property. In the center of Provence, in the heart of the department of the Var, in the town of Lorgues, lie these vineyards on land once owned by the (in) famous medieval order of the Knights Templar. More on Château Roubine’s refreshing rosé to come, but right now I want to pursue the Knights Templar. This once powerful military order, formed in 1119 and sanctioned by the Catholic church in 1129, is back in the popular press with the recent release of Dan Brown’s new book, Inferno. Knights Templar lore…

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Today I co-posted with David who writes the food blog entitled Cocoa & Lavender. See his blog for one of the recipes mentioned in this post! We always harbor the hope that we will discover a good wine at a really reasonable (read: cheap) price. Who doesn’t? We’ve had some real duds in this quest—wines that wouldn’t even qualify as marinades and went straight down the kitchen sink—and we’ve made some terrific discoveries. The wines from Gascony and its neighboring appellations definitely fall into the latter category. Gascony, to be clear, is not in Provence, the familiar stomping ground of The Modern Trobadors. It lies…

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Château Miraval, summer home of the uber famous Brangelina family, was celebrated among rosé lovers and baby boomer rock and rollers long before the renowned family moved in. Pink Floyd anyone? Readers of a certain age may be able to dust off an old album that was recorded, in part, in this château: Pink Floyd’s legendary The Wall. French jazz pianist Jacques Loussier, who owned the property from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, installed a recording studio in the chateau. Loussier initially recorded his own work and later invited French clients like Maxime Le Forestier and Pierre Vassiliu. In 1979, the popular British…

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