Château de Berne Inspiration 2020, AOC Côtes de Provence is a rosé from deep in the south French countryside. While it's an inland wine, this contrast works perfectly with seafood. So, the fact that The Wilson is serving it up with half a grilled lobster, frites, and beurre blanc is pretty much the perfect way to experience it.
Vins de Provence (Wines of Provence), now where have you read that before? On a lovely bottle of rosé, that’s where. It’s in the south of France, a good wine country, and it’s where France's first vineyard was planted around 2,600 years ago – in a vast, sun-drenched region perfect for growing incredible rosé. Naturally the grapes are still growing strong there today, and there’s a whole lot of history and expertise. You’ll see it marked on the bottle with one of three AOPs (Appellation d'Origine Protégée, or protected designation of origin): Côtes de Provence, Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence and Coteaux Varois en Provence.
Of course, you could fly over there sometime. You could recline and lap up that nice south-Eastern French Mediterranean climate and sample the goods: seafood, wine, cheese, wine, bread, wine and uh… wine. But you can also bring Provence to you – there’s no shortage of good provençal corkage in the US. The region is about to make that fact a whole lot easier to access for you.
This fall, Vins de Provence is partnering with some great restaurants across New York, Connecticut, Chicago, Vermont and California in order to pair each bottle (by the glass, so you don’t need to drink an entire bottle!) to an equally delicious meal. If you’re looking for some mind-bending examples of how wine and food can elevate each other, these places (and pairings) will be well worth a visit. All of the wines come from one of the three appellations (that’s the legally determined and protected wine region) the vineyard is grown on.
