One of these days........#Winophiles

Our French Winophiles group this month asked us to share a memory of a vacation in France or a dream of where we would like to visit in France if given the opportunity, and share a wine from that memory or dream.

Now, I haven't had an opportunity to visit Europe but it is definitely on my bucket list and when I do I will absolutely be hitting some wine regions in France.

When our son from Denmark, Dian, came to visit this summer he brought his girlfriend, Helena, and their son, Joyful Jordan, with him.  While we were flying to Frankenmuth to spend the day, Dian proposed to Helena.  I shared that exciting moment with you in this post.

They intend to wait until Dian is finished with University before the wedding.  Helena mentioned that she and her father have often talked of renting a castle in Nice and that perhaps they would use that idea as a venue for the wedding. 

We, of course, would love to attend the wedding and will start saving our pennies so that when the time comes we are in a position to do so.  Should the wedding take place in Nice that would be excellent but if not we still plan on spending a few weeks in Europe, visiting not only Dian and his sister, Zoey, who also became our daughter during her stay as an exchange student but also our German son, Max, and his family.

And Provence, where Nice is located is definitely on the list of places we will be visiting.  I imagine we will make a stop in Paris.  I mean you have to see the Eiffel Tower (I guess) but that doesn't hold the appeal to my as Provence does.  Give me rolling countryside over busy city streets any day of the week.

Provence is known for it's rosé wines.  I have been having kind of a love affair with rosés from France since I discovered them in this group. I never dreamed I would like them since my experience with blush wines prior to meeting the French rosés consisted of cloyingly sweet white zin's.

I spoke last month about Whispering Angel that I truly enjoyed.  I also shared a Domaine Houchart that I served during a seafood boil.  This bottle from La Sangliere was a great hit with a light lunch of a mushroom omelet.  I took a step of faith and tried a sparkling rosé, Delighted, from a Michigan winery, Black Star Farms, and was pleased with the results.

So I was excited to pick up a bottle of Domaine Fourquette when I was at the market a couple of weeks ago.  

I find that rosés pair exceptionally well with charcuterie boards.  I also love the presentation of a charcuterie and love serving them up at cocktail parties.

When creating a charcuterie board I try to offer several options of each component.  

• Cheeses; some hard, some soft and a blue.  On this board you find a pepper jack, colby jack, cheddar, a honeyed goat cheese, a blueberry wrapped goat cheese and a roquefort.
• Meats; salami's, prosciutto, perhaps a paté or smoked sausage. On this board I had hard salami, prosciutto, capocollo and soprasetta.
• Garnishes; I always offer olives and another pickle of some sort, in this case pickled beets, but any pickled vegetable will work. Pickled asparagus is a favorite of mine. I also like to offer a mustard of some sort and a jam of some sort.  I like picking up small jars of specialty mustard and jam or marmalade to have on hand for just this purpose. If you see an onion marmalade it is perfect on these boards.
• Then you need a way to convey all that yumminess to your tummy so make sure you have a nice assortment of bread, crackers and/or breadsticks on the board as well.

Once you know what you want to serve it is just a matter of arranging it so that it is appealing to the eye because we all know that we eat with our eyes first.

Back to my wine choice......of all the rosé wines I have tried, this was my least favorite.  I find that most rosé is very nice to sip with a variety of foods but also as pleasant to sip on it's own without any food accompaniment.

I did not find that to be true of this wine which was very acidic to the point of sour.  I awoke in the middle of the night with heartburn after drinking 2 small glasses of this wine. I won't be purchasing it in the future.

I want to thank Lauren of The Swirling Dervish for hosting this month and Lori of and Jill of  L'Occasion for changing the theme allowing those of us not yet lucky enough to visit France to participate today.

Let's take a look at the others Memories/Dreams

• Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm promises One of These Days . . . . 
• Martin from Enofylz Wine Blog shares Champagne Chronicles Redux; A Week In Champagne, A Lifetime Of Memories. 
• Jeff from Food Wine Click will talk about one of his favorite French Wine Visits - Our Friend, Raymond Boillot. 
• Jill from L’occasion tells the tale of A Château in Provence. 
• Lauren from The Swirling Dervish, is asking Do You Know the Way to Vézelay?