Champagne for Breakfast. But Only If You're King.

Favorite tidbit about France before Bastille Day (July 14, 1789):

The King's breakfast before he went hunting consisted of four chops, a chicken, six eggs poached in meat juice, a cut of ham and a bottle and a half of Champagne.

Favorite tidbit about France after Bastille Day:

The Fête de la Fédération (July 14, 1790) was the most prominent of a series of events to celebrate the new state of France. People feasted for four days, drank way too much wine, and ran naked through the streets to mark their freedom.

Ah, France. What's not to love?

Here are a few ways close to home for you to get in the Bastille Day spirit.


WHAT: Bastille Day Tasting
WHERE: BRIX on Broad, 105 Broad Street, Boston
WHEN: Wednesday, July 14 from 5 to 7 p.m.
COST: $0

WHAT: Une Nuit à Paris (with GREAT music!)
WHERE: The Beehive, 541 Tremont Street, Boston
WHEN: Wednesday, July 14 from 5:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.
COST: $20

WHAT: All-Day French-Themed Celebration
WHERE: Petit Robert (Kenmore Square, South End, Needham) and Chez Jacky (Brighton)
WHEN: Wednesday, July 14 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
COST: See menu.


DAILY TIDBIT:

For decades, the Oregon wine industry has been peopled by Francophone winemakers and winery owners. Now, just within the past two years, the tables have turned. Evening Land Vineyards, for example, an Ameri-French operation with a French winemaker and wineries and vineyards in Oregon and California, expanded into Burgundy in 2008. Also, Oregon vintner Scott Wright made his first wines in France in 2008. Wright imports wines from Burgundy in addition to producing his own Scott Paul Wines in Carlton. (Source: The Oregonian)

Keeping It Fresh: Wine + Creativity

Is it hard to write about wine every day in the Boston area?

Hmmm.

It is almost as hard as it is to drink wine every day.

In other words, not very.

That's because -- no matter how hot it is outside or how routine our day-to-day lives seem to get -- Boston restaurateurs (and their marketing minds) have always got their thinking caps on.

They get creative. They throw curveballs. And, if they really want to get us going, it won't cost us the world.

Here are a few of the more unique ideas to cross our desk lately. Click through. Check them out. Notice what sparks your interest.

Then go and toast creativity -- theirs and your own.


WHAT: Sweep Out the Wine Cellar event
WHERE: Troquet, 140 Boylston Street, Boston

WHAT: Sicilian Wine Barbeque
WHERE: Rialto, 1 Bennett Street, Harvard Square

WHAT: Late Night Eats, until 1:30 a.m., between $5 and $7
WHERE: Eastern Standard, 528 Commonwealth Avenue, Kenmore Square

WHAT: Backyard BBQ Wines + Dinner
WHERE: Ashmont Grill, 555 Talbot Avenue, Dorchester

WHAT: Cape Cod Restaurant Week
WHAT: Sandwich Restaurant Week

WHAT: Bastille Day Dinner with live French & jazz music
WHERE: Chloe American Bistro, 23 Main Street, Hudson


DAILY TIDBIT:

The scope of the subject of wine is never ending, so many other subjects lie within its boundaries... It embraces botany, chemistry, agriculture, carpentry, economics -- any number of sciences whose names I do not even know. It leads you up paths of knowledge and by-ways of experience you would never glimpse without it.

-- Hugh Johnson

Recommendation for the Weekend: Rosé, for Good Reason

Today's email is not about an event or a contest or a new place to go.

It's just a recommendation, plain and simple.

A recommendation, that is, to drink some rosé wine.

Why?

Rosés had fallen out of favor there for a while but now they're back.

Big Time.

And they're especially nice for summertime drinking.

They're almost always served with a little chill to them.

They're dry, fruity, and they pair with a variety of foods.

They're made from any number of grapes, such as Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Sangiovese and Syrah, though some are more esoteric. From northern Italy, for example, you'll find a rosatto (synonymous with rosé) made from the Refosco grape, known for producing spicy reds and dark fruit flavors.

Doesn't that sound interesting?

Drinking rosé this weekend is like taming time.

It's a little retro.

But this time around, your taste history will be rewritten.


DAILY TIDBIT:

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic. -- Dave Barry

Wanderlust, with Wine, After Hours at the Gardner Museum

We're always on the look out for events that bridge something we don't know a lot about (e.g. jazz, race car drivers, hedge funds) with that thing we love (DRINKS) more than almost anything else.

Which is why we're giving you a heads-up on this one a full week in advance.

Next Thursday, the Gardner Museum brings the don't-know, such as music from DJ Coralcola, sketching, and talks in the galleries.

And they also bring the do-know, namely cocktails, snacks, and a café menu of both sweet and savory items.

It's called After Hours, and it is one very cool -- literally -- way to spend an evening doing something you don't normally do.

All while doing something you do normally do, like eating and drinking.

The eating: "courtside bites" that cost one little buck each.

The drinking: museum-inspired cocktails like the Madame Gautreau, named for John Singer Sargent's painting, Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast (1882-83), currently part of the Gardner's collection. The cocktail is a blend of sparkling wine, grapefruit and pineapple juice, and a splash of grenadine.

Don't-know + Do-know = 1 Very fun night out.


WHAT: "After Hours" with music, contests, specialty cocktails and $1 courtside bites
WHERE: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway, Boston
WHEN: Thursday, July 15 from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
COST: $12, $5 for students, $0 for members

DAILY TIDBIT:

Learning never exhausts the mind. -- Leonardo da Vinci

Multiply Your Wine Times Ten, at The Capital Grille

Remember when you were a kid and more was ALWAYS better?

More sprinkles on your ice cream.

More fireflies caught in the jar.

More long, free summer days one after another after another.

Then somewhere along the way we got all... responsible.

We scaled back on the sprinkles. We decided just one or two fireflies (if any) was fine. And the string of free summer days has become severely truncated.

Sheesh.

Fortunately the opportunity presents itself every now and again to exercise the more-is-better extravagance once again.

This time it's even about the wine.

The Capital Grille in Chestnut Hill is in the midst of their Master Wine Tasting Event where, for $25, they'll serve you ten (10) different wines.

That is officially too many.

Then again, so were the sprinkles on your ice cream and you could never get enough of those either.

Let more be better.

Again.

WHAT: Master Wine Tasting Event featuring ten wines from California, Italy and New Zealand
WHERE: The Capital Grille, 250 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill
WHEN: Now through July 25
COST: $25 for ten wines


DAILY TIDBIT:

There's something to be said about a glass half full. About knowing when to say when. I think it's a floating line. A barometer of need and desire. It's entirely up to the individual. And it depends on what's being poured.

-- Dr. Meredith Grey, in Grey's Anatomy

ooking Forward to Mid-Week Wednesday. It's Wine Night in Boston.

Not sure what it is about Wednesday nights in Boston this summer.

But restaurants all over town are making it very easy for you to get over the hump.

Here are a few with wine-focused specialties going on for mid-week Wednesdays.

Pick one (or more).

Then plan your route.

And go.


WHAT: Wine-y Wednesdays
WHERE: Gargoyles on the Square, 219 Elm Street, Somerville
WHEN: All evening long.
COST: $15 for three wines off the list, $5 more for snack plate to match.

WHAT: Wine Wednesdays. Focus this week on the Loire Valley.
WHERE: Sel de la Terre Back Bay, 774 Boylston Street, Boston
WHEN: 7 p.m.
COST: $44 for four courses.

WHAT: Wine Wednesdays
WHERE: Rialto, 1 Bennett Street, Cambridge
WHEN: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
COST: $0 for tasting from one bottle of red and one bottle of white.

WHAT: Burgers & Burgundy
WHERE: The Bristol Lounge, 200 Boylston Street, Boston
WHEN: All evening long.
COST: $30 for two half-glasses of Burgundy-ish wines and one Bristol burger

DAILY TIDBIT:

A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure.

-- Czech Proverb

Celebrate the Fourth by Toasting Massachusetts (and Its Wine)

You've probably heard that every United State produces its own wine.

We're not just talking the usual suspects, like California or New York or Virginia.

We're also talking New Mexico, Florida, Michigan and Vermont. Even Hawaii's gotten in on the act.

So this week-end, pour a glass of something patriotically significant to you.

Or -- if you're stuck because your local shop doesn't happen to carry, say, wine from your home state of Missouri -- pour something significantly local.

Look for bottles from these Massachusetts-based wineries. (These are just a few. There are plenty of others -- see the Daily Tidbit for more info.)

And declare your independence from the norm.


WINERY: Travessia
MILES FROM BOSTON: 59

WINERY: Westport Rivers
MILES FROM BOSTON: 57

WINERY: Truro
MILES FROM BOSTON: 109

WINERY: Running Brook
MILES FROM BOSTON: 57

WINERY: Nashoba Valley
MILES FROM BOSTON: 42


DAILY TIDBIT:

For a full list of wineries -- including those that also produce beers, spirits, and fruit-based wines from apples, plums, and others -- check out the Massachusetts Wine & Cheese Trails brochure, offered by the MA Dept of Agricultural Resources.