Provence night.

So about a week and a half ago my girlfriend were in the mood to have a feast and our dear Chicago winter had been treating us to some particularly frigid weather conditions so we decided that feasting on some food from the sunny South of France might be just the ticket.
This is what we ended up making: a very simple potato dish that involves baking slices of potato and sticking some rosemary and garlic underneath very simple and savory; another easy dish that turned out to be a new favorite of mine- scallops baked with red bell pepper tomato, thyme, tomato, and garlic; and, just to deviate from the theme, some Pugliese stuffed yellow peppers.
To go with all this I picked out a 2006 Chateau Pradeaux Bandol Rose and, as a back up, a Cotes de Provence rouge from the negociant Jerome Quiot. I figured the rose would be perfect given the fact that all the dishes revolved around vegetables and that we didn't have any substantial meat presence. Instead of finding out if my estimation was on or not we found out that even Bandol rose does not keep well with the fruit totally gone just leaving the acid and alcohol at this point. I have to say, however, that Chateau Pradeaux is a very good producer, so I do not attribute this unfortunate experience to the ineptitude of the producer but simply to the fact that we were drinking the wine about 7 seven months after the intended consumption date.
The aforementioned red was almost equally disappointing with some nice fruit and spice aromas in the nose but the palate seemed like it was not quite yet done: fruit was light and there was virtually no structure provided by tannin or acid- definitely not what I expected...
Anyways, the highlight of the night was surely the scallop dish. I hadn't had scallops in months (maybe even a year!) so I sure was surprised when this simpled recipe yielded such a great dish. I really, really, wished that the rose had showed better because I couldn't imagine a dish better suited to Bandol Rose. The blending of sweet scallops and red bell pepper, with garlic, olive oil, and some nice tomato acid was so refreshing it really made me feel like I was hanging out in a place in Avignon or Arles wiping sweat from my brow.
That is all for now, if I am feeling generous I will post the recipe for the scallop dish, if not you will be treated to more of me talking about lame wine and food drudgery.
Mark!