Mirabeau makes it into Pippa’s Perfect Provençal Picnic!

Writing in her column for the Waitrose Kitchen magazine the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister recommended “whisk[ing] away someone special for an evening of gazing and grazing” – with a bottle of Mirabeau!

The 29-year-old’s Provençal Picnic menu includes peach and vanilla fizz, a fig and goat’s cheese fougasse – a type of bread associated with Provence – smoked chicken and melon salad and strawberry and lavender cheesecake jars.

She writes: ‘Here’s my vision of the perfect picnic. I’m in Provence, in a field just off the beaten track, where we’ve parked the car and thrown a quilted rug across the dry, parched grasses. The hazy sky is cobalt blue, cicadas hum around us and it’s hot, very hot. But not too hot for a picnic. Around us are plump peaches, figs and strawberries, oozing ripe cheeses and crunchy baguettes, torn and ready to mop up every last morsel.

My memories of French holidays with friends are full of these moments. Driving down the tired, scenic roads, the windows down in a battered hire car, so keen to get the breeze that our faces were coated with dust.

The palest chilled rosé is waiting to be poured from frosted bottles and as this is a Provence-style outing, napkins are old, French linen with their lavender hues and pretty lace trims.

These days when he sun comes out, I head up to the park to rustle up a picnic and attempt to recreate my fading dream.

And this month I’m going to show you how I do it. All the ingredients I’m using make it Provençal so all you need to do, if you want to, is add some styling;  jam jars with flowers in themm for example, or using striped tea towels for picnic basket liners.

So if and when the weather settles, quickly prep, pack, then whisk away someone special for an evening of grazing and gazing. I can’t promise sunshine but I can guarantee the food will take you in a journey to French picnic-perfection’.

And, of course, a bottle of deliciously refreshing, chilled Mirabeau Provence Rosé. Aha,  she clearly has impeccable tastes!