Few foods afford the consistently reliable satisfaction I find in a simple tomato toast. I had my first of the season this week and was reminded that it is one of my great joys of summer. In fact, the promise of delicious, fresh tomatoes for more than one month out of the year made it easy to leave New York for California.. Of course, the bright green chives are only a buck fifty here, and stone fruits in season are unreasonably tasty - and let’s not even begin to compare avocados - but it could have been the tomatoes that sealed the westward deal.

Throughout my childhood, I helped my mother manage a sizable tomato plot in her back garden, and I remember her zeal in bisecting the grotesque, horned green tomato worms we’d find on the vines from time to time; they would ooze green slime after she snipped them in half with her gardening clippers. I learned early, there was little mercy for woodchucks, and clearly none for tomato worms. Most summers of my adult life, I’ve managed to plant a few tomato plants, and again this season I’ve got a handful of plants on the roof and am looking forward to the toasts. So far, we are wormless, with clippers at the ready.

It is fortuitous, or perhaps no coincidence at all, that rosé season corresponds with tomato season, because there’s no better accompaniment to a fresh tomato toast, than a glass of subtly fruity, dry rosé. We’ll be pouring plenty of rosé at our Sunday afternoon tastings over the next couple of months, but this Sunday’s lineup is especially exciting, with three dry pinks made from Cabernet Franc grapes by a few of our favorite producers in Chinon and Anjou. Hope to see you there!

But first…TONIGHT: THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS – French Reds & German Whites –Syrah, Gamay, and Merlot, as well as Silvaner, Gutedel, and a Gemischter Schatz,  - $12 from 4-8pm

SATURDAY, June 23rd: BEAUNE IMPORTS TASTING with special guest RACHEL GOLDMAN – Rachel will share her prodigious knowledge and pour flights of four classically-styled wines from Italy, Spain, and France - $15 from 2-6pm

SUNDAY, June 24th:  LOIRE VALLEY 2017 ROSÉ FLIGHTS – Bernard Baudry, Chateau Soucherie, and Thibaud Boudignon - $15 from 2-6pm

See you soon,

Max