The article celebrates the arrival of spring, particularly the dazzling appearance of poppies in California, which prompt annual trips to natural landscapes. The author suggests transitioning wine choices alongside the seasonal change, moving from heavier reds to lighter, invigorating whites and rosés. Wine retailer Zach Jarrett notes that early spring can be announced by the appearance of peas at farmers’ markets, highlighting the connection between nature's cycles and food and wine pairing. The piece reflects on both the beauty of flowers and the joy of savoring seasonal flavors.
"Peas are the herald," says Zach Jarrett of Psychic Wines in Silver Lake. Like a lot of us he takes his cues from the produce stands at the Santa Monica Farmers Market, which he attends twice weekly. That's how he knows that peas appear, perplexingly, toward the end of January. "They sort of announce pre-spring, or micro-spring, or spring week," he says. "Then they vanish, and reappear in April."
And if your wine tastes are in the doldrums too, shift from the Cabs and Malbecs and Amarones and replace them with clean, sapid, mouthwatering white wines and pink wines, acid and electric. Dammit, palate, wake up!
My wife and I usually make annual sojourns to the Carrizo Plain (avoiding the Instagram hordes in the Antelope Valley) to wander among the poppies and lupine and goosefoots and owl's clover and coastal tidy tips in that turbulent, fault-scarred wilderness.
Come spring, if you find your eyes need a wake-up call, feast them on a field of poppies.
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