Chicken and vegetable tagine with southern French rosé

Today, as you’ll probably not need reminding, is le quatorze juillet which marks the storming of the Bastille and the start of the French revolution. These days the French are more likely to head for the beach than onto the streets as it’s a public holiday and the start of the month long summer vacation for many but it’s celebrated with street parties all over France.

Here’s an appropriately modern French pairing, which I enjoyed last week in Arles to inspire you if you want to throw an impromptu party of your own. North African food is very popular in the south of France and I ordered this unusual chicken and vegetable tagine in a Moroccan restaurant called L’Entrevue. Normally a chicken tagine has fewer vegetables but this was more like a cross between a classic chicken and lemon tagine and a vegetable couscous. It also contained chicken livers, an unusual and imaginative touch which went very well with the preserved lemons in the dish.

As it was a sweltering 33°C we automatically reached for the rosé, a pale, crisp dry style from Château Mourgues du Grès in the Costières de Nîmes region around Arles. It matched the tagine perfectly, the slight spiciness bringing out all its delicate fruit. The cuvée is a blend of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan called Fleur d’Eglantine and is available from vivinum.co.uk and Sam’s Wine and Spirits and Morrell in the US

For wine matches for other types of tagine check out Which wine to pair with a Moroccan tagine

Les-Baux-de-Provence and civet de sanglier (wild boar stew)

I went to a great little bistro the other day in St-Rémy-de-Provence called - appropriately enough - Bistro Découverte. It’s run by a very talented young sommelier I used to know in London called Claude Douard who worked for Marco Pierre White and Joel Rebuchon.

As you’d expect, the wine list is awesome but there are also plenty of good local wines to drink at modest prices, several of which are available by the glass. We particularly enjoyed a soft, plummy La Chapelle de Romanin Les-Baux-de-Provence 2003, the unoaked wine of Château Romanin which was a perfect match with the plat du jour, a robust wild boar stew served with a sauce grand veneur (classic French game sauce). Made from the estate's younger vines, the wine was a typically southern French blend of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvdre, Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise with some added Cabernet Sauvignon.

The bistro is apparently well patronised by local winemakers - the legendary Eloi Durrbach of Domaine de Trevallon was sitting on the next door table.