Summer. Provence. Two words that are eternally linked together. One can’t think of this southern French locale without immediately imaging yourself overlooking the sea from a seat on a patio with a glass of rosé in your hand. Well, maybe that’s just me. Being a wine lover, Provence is one of those destinations on my bucket list. A place I plan to spend many lovely, languid, lazy days doing nothing but eating and drinking and watching the world go by. It’s not a wine region that’s garnered much respect over the years, since it’s mostly famous for crafting all shades of pink, which until this decade didn’t appear to be to something that most serious wine drinkers gave much thought to. Rosé was something you drank on your way to “better” more serious wine.
Well, as Francois Millo and Viktorija Todorovska show in their new book, Provence Food and Wine: The Art of Living rosé from this region has been serious all along. Francois has actually written THE French textbook about rose wines, along with several other wine tomes, and is from Provence. (Lucky devil.) Viktorija is a cookbook author in love with the Mediterranean lifestyle (she’s also written books about Puglia and Sardinia) and marries her love of traditional recipes with his knowledge of the region and his amazing eye (he’s also the book’s photographer). Together they bring the joie de vivre of this region right to your fingertips, capturing it’s allure with simplicity and heart.
