HIGH SPRING
Grand Aiolis! Gulp Rosé! Garlic Burps!
In 2017, on a car ride from La Cadière d'Azur to Le Plan du Castellet in Provence, a group of twelve of us had eaten so much garlic for lunch at Domaine du Gros' Noré that the entire vehicle became a hotbox of stinging, eye-watering, deeply offensive garlic burps.
I think about that car ride every single time I make an aioli - which is often, and especially right now, because we are smack in the middle of High Spring, my absolute favorite crescendo-ing bit of the 12-week stretch of the seasonal calendar. High Spring is hope. It is green things exploding out of ground that was frozen solid six weeks ago. It is asparagus! Ramps! Spring onions! It is the season when all I want to do is forage upstate + blanch bright vegetables and dunk them in a garlicky, lemony, herb-flecked aioli aside cold rosé, until the sun goes down.
On my Provence trips, a visit to Domaine Gros' Noré and the Domaine Tempier wineries always culminated in a Grand Aioli lunch. After a big tasting of Bandol rouge, blanc, and rosé, we’d be ushered into a big room overlooking the Plane trees and Mediterranean-blue skies, and serve ourselves mountains of boiled vegetables with enormous bowls of aioli.
This past weekend, after a haul at the Union Square Farmers Market I came home with wild ramps, spring onions, almost purpley asparagus, and lots of sweet little Spring greens. I threw together Melissa Clark’s spring pasta for lunch [my partner was hesitant on the addition of yoghurt - but I am telling you - do it!] and for dinner: blanched asparagus, a glass of cold rosé, and my aioli. Our rooftop garden is also finally in full swing - baby Margot ate approximately a quarter cup of compost during repotting - and I threw our first little crop of summer herbs straight into the bowl of aioli. Most notably, tarragon. Loads of it. It makes everything better, especially aioli. I firmly believe it to be the most underrated herb on planet Earth.
You need rosé with aioli. And I know it’s been a minute since my 2017 book on rosé, but I stand by this forever: rosé should be year-round. AND YET- and yet! - there is something so genuinely joyful about cracking one open on the first warm weekend of the year.
Here is the one you want right now:
Château Revelette’s Coteaux d'Aix en Provence Rosé is ‘Provence’s Wild Edge’ on full display - yes it is biodynamic and organic, but in the kind of way where it would be just as acceptable on a midtown Manhattan wine list as it would be in the deep reaches of Brooklyn (both places I love to frequent). It is vibrant with energy, and freshness. I’ve squirreled away a few cases for friends - which you can snag for summer here.
Please also enjoy this photo of the Fischer fam making said rosé in their winery (his shorts!!)…
THE AIOLI recette!!!
(for paid subscribers, full recipe below)
+ a VERY amazingly allocated rosé that I have saved a few bottles of for you …
+ a dirty joke from Lulu Peyraud, the O.G. proprietress / rosé Queen of Domaine Tempier…
A NOTE ON LULU PEYRAUD
Lulu Peyraud was the matriarch of Domaine Tempier. She passed at almost 103 years old. When I first visited her, she was almost a centurian, drinking red wine at lunch like it was milk, and right before her daily exercise - which was, I swear this to you, swinging on a swing set. She swam in the Mediterranean every morning until she was 94. When I asked how far Domaine Tempier was from the sea, she told me that it now took about 20 minutes to drive, but “back in the day, it depended on how far Lucien’s hand was up my skirt.” Lucien was her husband of many years, they had seven children together [many ‘drives to the sea’, I see].
Lulu also told me the below joke, which I will share with paid subscribers because it is filthy and perfect and she told it while 99, drinking said red wine like milk at 2pm, and I will never forget it as long as I live.
(The joke, and the full aioli recipe, and the VERY amazing allocated rosé, below the paywall.)
