lgsjr – Page 17 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Conn Creek Winery

In Napa Valley, there are some wineries that are very famous for the quality of the wine they make and sometimes for the wine they used to make. Conn Creek may not be the most famous name in the valley, but we would say that it is definitely a winery worth visiting, for newbies and experienced tasters as well.

Conn Creek Winery. Photo courtesy of Yountville.com.

There are a number of reasons for saying this. Conn Creek was established in 1973, prior to the famous Judgment of Paris tasting that established northern California as a winemaking area worthy of international repute. These pioneering wineries, which include the more famous ones such as Stag’s Leap, Mondavi and Chateau Montelena, are worth knowing if only because of the accumulated expertise that only the decades can bring.

It is also one of the earliest environmentally sustainable wineries. They proudly assert that Conn Creek is certified as a “Napa Green” winery. Their website boasts that the original facility was built with 12-inch walls stuffed with 20,000 corks. (We’re not certain what those corks have to do with sustainability, but it’s an interesting factoid.)

Of course, the primary reason to visit is to taste their wines. Here Conn Creek’s philosophy of winemaking in Napa Valley comes into play. For openers, the house specialty is Cabernet Sauvignon, as is true of many wineries in the region. Conn Creek does grow some of their grapes on their own 2½ acres, which is not a lot. The rest of their production comes from sourced grapes from everywhere in the valley. And we do mean everywhere. In their tasting room you can compare and contrast Cabernet Sauvignons from Diamond Mountain, Stags Leap, Chiles Valley, St. Helena, Calistoga, Spring Mountain, Rutherford, Oakville, Atlas Peak, Howell Mountain and Mt. Veeder. What a tour!

What Conn Creek is proudest of is their premier wine, Anthology. This is a made from grapes from all over Napa Valley. Almost every year, it’s a blend, differing each year in the composition. For the most part, they make a Bordeaux blend, plus or minus one or two of the “official” grapes. In 2017 and 2018, they made Anthology from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, but even that was a blend of AVAs. Conn Creek tells us that they have returned to blends, but with fewer varietals.

Part of the display of the single vineyard versions of Cabernet Sauvignon

In the tasting room, there is a display explaining the way that Conn Creek approaches winemaking, with soil samples and explanations of the characteristics of the grapes from each vineyard they source from. Moreover, Conn Creek offers a very interesting course in an area adjoining the tasting room. They call it “The Barrel Blending Experience” (with a little registered trademark sign). After explaining and sampling the different single vineyard wines, the participants are given the chance to create their own blends. For one thing, it creates appreciation of what real winemakers do to get the perfect blend into a bottle. For another, everyone gets to take home his or her own version of Anthology.

For many years, we drove past Conn Creek as we were going somewhere else along the Silverado Trail or up in the mountains. Now we often make a point to stop and see what they have been making, and how their wines have evolved over time.

Evaluating Years

Wine snobs are (in)famous for their adulation of certain vintages. “Ahh, the ’82 Bordeaux” one might croon, while another swoons over 1997 California Cabs. We plead guilty to some of that, because we often try to buy certain favorite wines in years that are reputed to be top-tier or a millésime, as the French say.

However, we have found that many people we know don’t really care about the year a wine was made. There is a certain logic to that way of thinking, especially for those who primarily drink wines from California. The relative equanimity of the climate there, especially compared with wines from areas with more variable weather, such as Burgundy, means that there is less variability in the quality of Californian wines, year over year.

Photo courtesy of Vine Pair.

That is not to say that there aren’t better and worse years in Napa Valley or Sonoma County, for example. 2011 was a stinker, while the following three years were among the best. For the most part, the distinction is only evident in the pricier premium wines. If all you want is something to go with a burger and fries in the backyard, buy a good label and don’t worry about which year it was made.

But if you are on a wine tasting trip, it may be interesting to try to evaluate vintages. Here are a few tips if you want to try.

Develop a sensory memory. Yeah, sure, nothing to it. Some of the greatest experts have trouble with this, so don’t feel too bad if you can’t remember the aroma and taste of the wine you sipped an hour ago, much less days or weeks. Still, if you know in advance that you will be visiting a winery that you particularly like, open a bottle of that wine and really concentrate on the smell, mouth feel and taste. Maybe even write down your sensations and then really try to remember when you are tasting other vintages. Good luck.
Taste a vertical. A vertical is a selection of the same wine from different years, often successive years. This is really the best way to evaluate the differences between years, but is somewhat difficult (or at least expensive) to accomplish. Many of the better wineries have older bottles, called library wines, available for tasting for a fee. Lining up a few glasses with the same wine from different years exposes much about the terroir and the winemaker’s art, and helps tasters to develop their knowledge of wine.
Make your own vertical. You don’t have travel to a winery to have access to a vertical. If you belong to a wine club, you will probably receive the same wine from each year’s harvest. If you put down some of those wines, they’ll be available to open two or three from different years and compare them. It’s a good idea to do this with some friends, since you don’t want to finish two or three bottles yourself and you don’t want to lose some of your most treasured wines.

All of this is for academic or at least snobbish reasons. The point of wine tasting is not to parade your expertise but rather to enjoy what’s in the glass in front of you or if you don’t, to know why. You can look up the consensus opinions on the quality of a certain vintage in a certain locale and adjust your buying – and sipping – accordingly.

Parking, Picnics and Restrooms

In our travels, we have often experienced the excitement of discovering a new winery or a new wine that we had never heard of. In general, we enjoy the beauty of the architecture of many wineries and the sight of endless vineyards never fails to thrill us. Sadly, these wonders can be undermined when a winery doesn’t take care of some basic amenities.

The first of these is parking facilities. If we are visiting in the autumn and winter months, we don’t care as much if the only parking spots available are in the bright sun. But if we’re in Wine Country in July or August, we really appreciate a spot that’s shaded from the sun by a wall or some trees.

For one thing, we are likely to have some bottles we have previously bought sitting in the car. We don’t want them to be cooked. Here are a few tips. Pick up a simple Styrofoam cooler at a drug store or grocery. If you happen to have a mini fridge in your hotel room, buy a few ice packs and put them in the cooler. You can also buy a Styrofoam shipping box from the first winery you visit and put your new bottles in it. Keep it inside the car, not the trunk. Add bottles as you buy them. At the end of the day when you get back to your hotel, bring the bottles with you, leaving the Styrofoam box in the trunk for the next day. (Of course, if you’re tasting near your home, just use the cooler you take on picnics or camping.)

If you don’t have a cooler, put any bottles you buy on the floor in front of the rear seats or under the front ones. This isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s better than leaving your newly bought wine in the full sunshine. This is good practice even in the cooler months, when wine can still heat up in a closed car in the sun.

We love picnics and often dine al fresco back home. A picnic lunch near the vines, with a newly bought bottle of a cool and refreshing Sauvignon Blanc is one of the best ways to maximize the pleasure of a day in Wine Country. But some proprietors don’t like the mess and the critters that show up to share a meal with their visitors. In some jurisdictions, the local elders limit or deny licenses for picnic grounds.

Picnicking at Frank Family Vineyards.

For example, only those wineries that predated Napa County’s restrictions are allowed to have facilities for picnics. Perhaps the best known is V. Satui, in St. Helena, which has a fine delicatessen as well as wines that they produce. Others with picnic grounds that we have enjoyed in Napa Valley are Rutherford Hill and Frank Family.

The wineries in Sonoma County are not so restricted. We particularly recommend Dry Creek, Preston and Chateau St. Jean. In Europe, picnicking isn’t frequently encountered at the châteaux and domaines. But nobody cares if you bring a blanket and make yourself at home by the side of a vineyard or in a churchyard.

Finally, we expect any public location, especially one that serves liquids as a business, to have clean, well-lit restrooms. We don’t insist on showplaces right out of Architectural Digest, but there’s no excuse for not keeping them clean and tidy. Nothing can spoil a tasting visit like a dirty john. We won’t name names, but they know who they are.

Wine Club Deliveries

You’re in a winery and you just adore the wines you’ve been tasting. In fact, you’re quite voluble about it, telling your friends and total strangers just how good these wines are. At this point, the friendly waitperson who has been serving you suggests you join their wine club. Your powers of sales resistance are at an all-time, alcohol-induced low. So you sign up.

We like to think we have stiffer spines than that, but we also know we’ve joined around twenty clubs over the course of time and are currently members of six of them. (It’s a good idea to join for a while and then resign when you have enough from that producer in your collection.) We very much enjoy receiving great wine, even if we have to put some of them down for a few years.

Photo courtesy of The Spruce Eats.

What we don’t like very much is the process we have to go through to get those wines.

For one thing, there are too many deliveries. For example, one of the clubs we belong to delivers six times a year. At the other extreme, another club only wants you to buy a certain number of bottle each year, which we take advantage of each spring.

And then there are the shipping costs. In many instances, the fee for sending you the wines is nearly equivalent to an additional bottle. One thing we appreciate in some clubs is the occasional special deal for reduced rate shipping.

Prior to each shipment, the winery sends you an announcement of the next wines they’ve chosen for their members. We have found that in virtually every selection, there is at least one wine that we don’t particularly want. Most clubs allow you to customize your order or to switch out some wines, but most expect you to buy the same number of bottles, or to spend the same amount of money.

This wouldn’t be so bad if wineries had first rate information systems to serve their members. Sadly, that is not often the case. We have had experience with web sites that are inaccessible, that don’t show all the wines available, that will allow you to add to an order but not subtract, or that simply don’t work. At this point there is no alternative but calling the winery, which especially in these pandemic times means that you leave a message for someone working at home, who may or may not get back to you in a timely manner.

We have also experienced mess-ups on the winery’s side that resulted in our getting the wines we ordered and the wines that were on the original membership shipment list. If the winery is nice, they’ll tell you to keep the wines you hadn’t asked for because it was their error. In other cases, we have had to return the unwanted wines, which is a general pain.

Now, don’t let us deter you from joining one or more clubs you’re genuinely interested in. But no matter how large or famous the winery may be, they’re still small businesses, with the systems and processes that are the weaknesses of all such enterprises. Enjoy your wine, because you probably won’t be too crazy about the process of getting it.

Resorts

It isn’t necessary for us to mention it, but we will anyway: We love Wine Country. The sectors we spend the most time in are in the United States, but we have also gone wine tasting in Europe, Africa and Australia (sadly, not yet in South America). We find the scenery to be beautiful, the food delicious, the people friendly and, of course, there’s the wine.

Meadowood Resort in St. Helena. Photo courtesy of Five Star Alliance.

We have seen a worrisome trend in recent years, beginning in Napa Valley but spreading elsewhere as well. What was once an area dedicated to a very particular kind of agriculture, with a few nice hotels, is being transformed into upscale resorts with wine tasting as a sideline. Now, we have nothing against attractive hotels and try to stay in them as often as we can when travelling. And there’s nothing wrong with golf, tennis, spas and top-flight dining rooms. But when they start crowding out reasonably priced hotels and inns, so that Wine Country becomes the preserve of only those who can afford to stay there, then we have a problem.

Perhaps an even greater issue, as we see it, is that the vibe of Wine Country becomes different. Perhaps 75 years ago, the reason to visit Napa Valley or Sonoma County was to be in the country, buy fresh fruit and maybe do some horseback riding. But for at least forty of the intervening years, roaming through vineyards and tasting wine that have been the attractions there. Even in some of the sleepier parts of Europe or Australia, wine tasting as a weekend or vacation activity has taken off.

Hotel de Pavie in Saint-Emilion. Photo courtesy of All Wine Tours.

By changing the emphasis from wine tasting to spa living or golf, the tasting rooms will attract a different clientele. Instead of couples taking in three or four wineries in a day, there will be visitors who only schedule one tasting a day, scheduled around their tee times or massage appointments. Diners may have glasses of wine at suppertime, instead of a bottle and they may not be as particular about what’s in that bottle. In fact, they may be more inclined to dine at the resort than in the local restaurants. We have already experienced a bit of this in Napa Valley and are fearful it will creep in elsewhere.

Wine tasting has not been an inexpensive avocation ever since wineries discovered that charging for small pours of fine wine was a more profitable proposition than giving it away. But tasting was a pleasure that could be enjoyed by casual tourists as well as connoisseurs with deep pockets. Altering the focus to those who can afford Wine Country resorts will change the way that wineries approach their market.

There is nothing that can be done about this trend. Those who want to open resorts will do so, and those more interested in golf or workouts are free to indulge those pastimes. But those of us who are wine tasting devotees can go about doing what we have been doing. We can, and will, visit, sip, dine, sip some more and maybe stay for dinner. Let’s hope the wineries continue to cater to us.

Darioush Winery

There’s the jewelry store around the corner, and then there’s Tiffany. There’s your favorite diner, and then there’s French Laundry. So there are Napa palaces, and then there’s Darioush.

The entrance to Darioush Winery.

From the time that it opened in 2004, the Darioush “hospitality center” has stood out for its architecture, its wine, its shopping and, to our point of view, its excess. Power Tasting is dedicated to the wine tasting experience. We put the emphasis on tasting wine as a vacation activity and a pleasant avocation. We have found that Darioush places the emphasis on the experience, more so than the wine itself.

Let us hasten to say Darioush does make some very fine wines. Their style runs to big, round, powerful wines. A number of them are based on Bordeaux grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. In our opinion, the strength of Darioush’s list resides in their Rhone grapes: Viognier and Shiraz. At Darioush, the grape is called Shiraz, not Syrah; what animates the Darioush winery is the glory that was once Persia, where the grape originated.

The name of the founder, Darioush Khaledi, harkens back to the great Persian emperor Darius, which not coincidentally is the name of their top-of-the-line Cabernet Sauvignon. The proprietor is an Iranian immigrant to the United States who made his fortune in the grocery business and then entered the world of wine. He built his Persian temple alongside Napa Valley’s Silverado Trail so that it would be noticed.

Tasting at Darioush.

It certainly can’t be missed. Out front, there is a flaming cauldron that heralds a colonnade of pillars topped with Persian-like double sculptures of horses. These lead to a large building made of warm, honey-toned stones. The interior is equally commanding, with more columns holding up a high ceiling and a skylight, over a large, square tasting bar. Scattered around are small rooms and nooks for private seated tastings; these too are furnished in Persian style.

Along the walls and in the corners are items for sale: purses, scarves, knick-knacks and wine-related implements. All of them are exquisite and, as we were told by a Darioush representative, “our clients expect the items we sell to be expensive”.

And that says everything about the winery. Everything about it, including the wine, is designed to overwhelm the visitors’ senses. You are certainly invited to try and enjoy the wines, in the context of beauty, refinement and luxury.

It is notable that the building is called a hospitality center, not a tasting room. The owners say that the experience at their winery is based on the culture of “Tarof”, a Persian word that can indeed be translated as “hospitality” but also with connotations of an emphasis on deference and social rank. You are surely welcome, in the same sense as a visit to your wealthy uncle. You are introduced to many wonderful and precious things, but in the end you feel smaller, rather than enriched.

Sparkling Pointe Vineyards and Winery

There are no wineries on Long Island’s North Fork that are anything like the palaces that have grown up in some parts of California’s Wine Country. The closest is Sparkling Pointe, in Southold. In fairness, the architecture is not palatial. From the outside, the building that houses the tasting room is reminiscent of a mansion in an upscale suburb. The interior is grand without being overwhelming, with widely spaced tables, crystal chandeliers and lively contemporary artwork.

The exterior of Sparkling Pointe. Photo courtesy of The Knot.

However, if you visit on a day with fair weather (which we have been lucky enough to find when we’ve been there) you’ll walk through the tasting room, note the wide bar and allow yourself to be seated on the spacious patio overlooking the vineyards. Ahh, this is wonderful…and it can only be improved by being served some sparkling wine. Which, as the name indicates, is what they make at Sparkling Pointe.

The view from the terrace in front of the vineyards.

Although Sparkling Pointe advertises openly that they use the méthode champenoise, it’s not Champagne, which can only be made in the eponymous region of France. There have been other North Fork wineries that have made wine with bubbles in it, but to our tastes there’s nothing else there that approaches the quality of Sparkling Pointe. We at Power Tasting do not review wines, but rather the wine tasting experience. That said, we find that this winery’s sparkling wines can stand up to those of their California cousins.

All tastings are seated, with service offered from a fairly wide cross-section of Sparkling Pointe’s wines. Flights are available as are individual glasses. There are assemblages of the three Champagne grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. They also make blanc de blancs, blanc de noirs and a rosé.

Of course, each sparkling wine has its own characteristics and each taster will find some that they prefer to the others. We were taken by the rosé, but there’s no reason for us to believe that everyone will agree with us. But, wow, it is fun to have six small flutes in front of yourself and get to make a choice.

Too many Long Island vineyards attract visitors with rock bands, pizza trucks and an overall carnival atmosphere. Sparkling Pointe is all about the wines, so there’s none of that. However, like many Long Island wineries, Sparkling Pointe has a side business as a venue for weddings. For the most part, this shouldn’t affect wine tasters, unless they happen to be there near the end of the day when revelers are beginning to assemble.

To a degree, this problem is ameliorated by a “by reservation only” policy. However, we have never had a reservation and have never seen a crowd at Sparkling Pointe. That may be because of our policy of tasting at Long Island wineries on weekdays, just as we try to do in California. If you know that you will be there on a Saturday afternoon in high summer, a reservation is a good idea.

As is the case with several of the newer North Fork wineries, Sparkling Pointe is showing how dedication and money can help the Long Island corner of Wine Country reach its potential. It’s well worth traveling from New York City, or elsewhere, to be a part of the journey.

White Dessert

A few issues ago, we focused on red dessert wines that you might encounter at some wineries, where they are almost an afterthought compared with the table wines made there. Of course, there are certain parts of the world where dessert wines are the main event and some of those are red: Port from Portugal, vin doux naturel from the south of France, Recioto from Italy’s Valpolicella region and Mavrodaphne from Greece.

In the United States, there are few if any wineries that specialize in dessert wines, and those who do usually make them from white grapes: Reisling, Vidal, Rousanne and sometimes Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. There are many renowned wineries that do have white dessert wines on their lists, sometimes. They don’t have the proper climatic conditions every year to make these wines so visitors won’t always have a chance to try them. As is often the case, if those who come to taste the main production show genuine interest and some knowledge, we have experienced that the server “just happened” to have a bottle of their dessert offering in the refrigerator that could be shared.

Grapes that have been attacked by botrytis, the Noble Rot. Photo courtesy of Vinoble.

Unsurprisingly, California produces the most white dessert wines in the US. But they are also to be found in Washington and New York states. Some are the result of what is known as the Noble Rot, botrytis cinerea, a fungus that attacks the grapes, sucks most of the water out of them and leaves very concentrated sugars behind. Naturally, it takes a lot of shriveled grapes to make even a half bottle, so that’s why producers are a bit reluctant to share tastes. Botrytis doesn’t always occur – another reason it’s hard to find and get a chance to taste these wines, but in the Sauternes region of France it’s routine. A trip to the Bordeaux region is incomplete without visiting Sauternes.

Making ice wine. Photo courtesy of New York Upstate.

Another common way of making dessert wines is to let the grapes freeze. The resulting ice crystals puncture the skins of the grapes, also letting out much of the water when they defrost. In the US and Canada, we call these ice wines. Of course, this requires very cold conditions while the grapes are still on the vines. This does happen in Canada every year, so the Canadians are the world champs of ice wine, mostly in Ontario but also in Québec. These wines tend not to be as sweet and are better at accompanying fruits and cheeses than with chocolate.

Lastly, there are late harvest dessert wines, made from grapes that are left on the vines to dry out. They tend to be a bit raisin-y for that reason. They are more frequently made in Europe than in North America. Late harvest wines are known as Vendage Tardive in France (particularly in Alsace) and Spätlese in Germany. Visitors to those places will surely get a chance to taste their dessert wines, after sampling Reislings and Gewurtztraminers.

Wine tasting in regions that specialize in white dessert wines can overload the senses a bit, but you can be certain to try them. In regions of Wine Country where dessert is not the main reason to visit, tasters need a bit of luck.

Wine Tasting at Parties

Fine wine goes with fine dining. No one serves an ’05 Latour at a barbecue (well, at least no one we know). When anyone is planning a party, in the office or at home, he or she rarely scans the cellar to find the finest. Alas, there are too many people who figure that the beer and the hard stuff are the beverages of choice and, if they serve any wine at all, it comes from one of two jugs – red and white.

Photo courtesy of Zonin Prosecco.

At the same time, there is no reason that the wine at parties has to be plonk. With a little thoughtfulness and a budget just above rock bottom, it’s quite possible to offer a variety of wines that can please both the knowledgeable taster and someone who just wants a pleasant beverage to pass the time.

Here are some tips for potential hosts.

Don’t serve anything you haven’t tasted. Sadly, you can’t always trust the advice of a clerk in a wine store. The wine so highly spoken of may be just the one the store couldn’t get rid of. There are plenty of worthy wines under $20 and even some that are under $15. Wine Spectator and the New York Times generally have issues each year dedicated to available bargains. Use it as a guide.
Plan to serve at least four wines. Why four? If you assume that most people who choose wine at a party will select either a red or a white, there may well be someone who doesn’t care for one of your choices. If there’s only one offering, that person is stuck. If you have two of each on hand, it significantly raises your odds to please most people.

If you find yourself a guest at a shindig organized by a thoughtful host and are confronted by a small array of interesting wines, here are some tips for you.

To begin with, try a little of each wine. Even if you’re partial to white wines, try those and the reds. It shows respect for the hosts and the effort that they put in to please you. It enables you to say, “I’m generally not into big red wines, but that Beaujolais really appealed to me”.
Think of the party as an impromptu tasting. Try to appreciate the wines for what they are, not comparing them to other labels of the same grapes. And if you’re being served something from somewhere you never heard of, think of it as an adventure.
If there’s a wine you find particularly pleasing, don’t hog it. In fact, recommend it to other guests. If nothing else, it gives you something to talk about with people you don’t know. Again, your host will appreciate you talking up one (or more) of the wines served.
Don’t worry about the glassware. If it’s a catered affair the glasses will be of the sturdy restaurant variety. At someone’s home, expect plastic cups. After all, you’re not going to be the one washing up afterwards. Sure, good goblets enhance good wines, but party wine can survive inferior goblets.

Orange

Americans have a lot of difficulty with the word, orange. We’re not sure if it’s two syllables or one or whether the first two letters are pronounced ah, aw or oh. With Orange counties in New York, California and Florida, we’re not even sure where it is. So a discussion on Orange, a city in France’s Rhône valley, ought to start with the pronunciation, which is oar-AHNZH, with the r sort of strangled at the back of the throat and the n stuck in the nose.

The city of Orange has a lot of history. First there were the Gauls. Then when Julius Caesar won his war, some Roman veterans set up what became Orange. The name is based on the Gallo-Roman name for the fort that was there and over time it’s morphed into the color we know as the Syracuse University basketball team. Oh, yes, and that fruit of the same name.

The Roman Theater in Orange, in performance. Photo courtesy of All About World Heritage Sites.

There are no Gallic ruins that can be seen but there is a lot of ancient Rome still in Orange that can be visited and admired. The best known is the Roman Theater, still in use for concerts and plays (in French, not Latin). The seating was restored in the 19^th century, but the stage – overseen by a statue of the Emperor Augustus – is original. The theater accommodates 10,000 people to this day.

There is also an Arc de Triomphe that had been incorporated into the walls of the medieval city and now stands alone in restored glory. The triumph in question was Caesar’s victory over the Gauls, which does seem a bit like rubbing it in.

Orange sits very much in the midst of Provençal Wine Country. Châteauneuf du Pape is the next town over; Beaume de Venise, Vacqueyras and Gigondas are due east, twenty minutes’ drive on small rural roads. There is no shortage of great wine to be had if you’re in Orange.

The market in Orange. Photo courtesy of The Good Life France.

As wine tasters, you’ll certainly take advantage of travelling through the environs of Orange. But be sure to leave time to enjoy this fine little city. It is much more than ruins. Of course, there’s a museum and a cathedral, as there are in virtually every French town and city. But the people of Orange (Orangians? Orangeois? Orang-utans?) live there in leisure and comfort.

We have had the occasion to shop and cook in Orange, due to the pleasure of having friends there. The chickens are plumper and more flavorsome than we’re used to in America. The bread and pastries are indescribable. And they grow more than grapes in the region around Orange. If you manage to be there on market day, make sure to have some apricots, prune plums, figs and an incredible fruit called mirabelles. They put whatever you buy at your local grocery to shame. And for all you know, they could have been grown in an orchard only a few blocks away.

At those same markets, you can find the fabrics, table cloths, herbs, pottery and honey that Provence is famous for. Take advantage of them while you’re there; you never know when you’ll pass that way again.