What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Ben: Always a difficult question! Last year, while still working on The Wines of Provence, I walked for five weeks to Santiago de Compostela, with my laptop in the bag. After walking 30 kilometres every day and navigating every part of rural Spain with a heavy rucksack, making it to Santiago was one achievement, but balancing it with a full workload and writing a book took it to the next level.
Elizabeth: I am not a linguist, so being able to tell a joke in French still gives me a thrill (even if my kids still roll their eyes at me over my appalling French). Professionally, I am quite chuffed that I have managed to be part of a movement which has shown the wine world that rosé can be a great wine – not an easy task as so many still ignore the category and do not explore it further.
Which fictional character would you love to share a bottle with?
Ben: I read a book a few years ago whose protagonist retired to a lighthouse in Cornwall after a career in the theatre. The first three or four chapters were simply a description of every wine he paired with his rudimentary meals that mostly involved tinned sardines. I’m not sure we’d have much to talk about, but I’m certain the food and wine would be to my taste.
Elizabeth: That’s a difficult one. I think it’s not necessarily the character that I like the most, or find the most sympathetic, but in a geeky way I would love to try a wine with Sherlock Holmes and see how he might analyse the wine.
What three things do you wish wine lovers knew about Provence?
Ben: Come for the rosé, stay for the red – these really are the wines the region excels at, and the ones where vigneron passion best shines in the bottle, and Provence really does have an in-person charm that a lot of regions lack.
Reality really can live up to the bucolic image sometimes, and when it does, there is no place better than Provence. The light genuinely does have a brightness to it that is challenging to find elsewhere, and the scenery, while not made up of sweeping or breathtaking landscapes, has a real magic to it: oak or pine forests, pristine calanques, striking limestone. It’s a region that shines at a human scale, rather than in wide landscape photos.
That being said, a lot of Provence isn’t quite as picturesque as we might like, but the real gritty humanity adds to its charms. It’s not a fairytale land: there are caravans causing traffic jams at roundabouts, warehouses and supermarkets, campsites and rainy days. There’s a lot of commercial, industrial viticulture that doesn’t live up to the image.
Elizabeth: The region also makes great red and white – not just rosé. The coast is only a tiny percentage of the region and the hinterland is wild and rugged. Salade Niçoise comes from Nice – it is not the universal dish of the whole region; there are truffles and chestnuts in autumn, mountain honey, powerful goat’s cheese and strong flavours.
What are the five places that every wine lover should visit in Provence?
Ben: Chez Bruno restaurant in Lorgues is a classic, and unquestionably encapsulates what makes Provençal gastronomy (and truffles!) so enchanting. Café Gaby café-bar in Lourmarin – the village really does deserve its reputation as one of the most picture-postcard perfect villages in the south, and it’s easy to feel that you’re in a Peter Mayle book for an afternoon, surrounded by lavender fields. There is no better place than La Maison des Vins Côtes de Provence in Les Arcs to stock up on a wide range of wines at cellar-door prices. The Île de Porquerolles is pristine untouched Provence, bright blue seas, and much more peaceful than Saint-Tropez! Lastly, the train from Nice to Marseille. It’s not one place, but it cuts through many vineyards and meanders slowly through vines, with views of striking sea cliffs, and ever-changing scenery. Worth an afternoon just for the sake of it!
Elizabeth: Cassis for the proximity to the sea, the white limestone, the almost 100 per cent white wine production and Bandol for powerful Mourvèdre reds, beautiful old, terraced vineyards and old vintages. Sainte-Victoire – the view of the mountain painted by Cézanne is well known but few climb up into the hills for a different perspective and some great wines at higher elevations. The Massif des Maures has chestnuts, cork production and a growing number of bijoux estates appearing up in the hills. And Saint-Jeannet in the hills above Grasse is making old style wine in glass demijohns.
What’s the most Provençal way to spend a Saturday/Sunday morning?
Ben: In the summer, definitely in the swimming pool. It’s too hot to do anything else, and, especially in public pools, it’s a wonderful place to meet new people. Rosé by the pool, however, is surprisingly absent.
Elizabeth: Villages often have weekend markets – so a browse around a market, meeting friends in market cafés over a glass of wine, coffee or pastis. Socialising is very outdoors-based and communal, whether in the heat of the summer or wrapped up on cold winter mornings. We have spent winter mornings having a glass of wine, or even vin chaud, and fresh truffles cooked with eggs. In summer, there is chilled rosé with a bowl of olives and freshly baked fougasse bread.
If you’d like to learn more about the region, The Wines of Provence by Elizabeth Gabay MW and Ben Bernheim is available here.
