After a hard week at work, we like to have "date night" at a nice restaurant with a good bottle of wine. We recently decided to splurge at Bistro Provence, a French restaurant in Bethesda.

Bistro Provence is a lovely place, and the chef creates beautiful French foods that delight both visually and the tastebuds. We decided to try a Syrah from Saint Joseph in the Rhone region, Domaine du Tunnel 2011 from Stéphane Robert. What a lovely wine! It was a dark red-purple color (almost black!) with the scent of dark berries, along with spices like pepper (although not too heavy) and marjoram and other dried spices.

To go with the wine (yes, we did need to eat), we started off with zucchini cakes topped with crab meat for me, and rigatoni with a pistachio and lobster creme sauce for my husband. While the wine is fairly full-bodied, it went great with the zucchini cake and also with the rigatoni (although Ernie said that the tannins got a bit stronger with the creme sauce). For our main courses, I had a veal chop (perfect with the wine!), and Ernie had the classic bouillabaisse, which he loves from Bistro Provence. The wine had really opened up for the main course, and it was smooth, nicely dense, and just perfect with the dark fruit and the various spices on the palate. The acidity of the wine went great with the bouillabaisse, particularly with the rouille which traditionally accompanies the dish.

This wine is a bit more expensive - it ranges in the mid-$40 range at retail stores, so it is higher at the restaurant. However, given date night and the super food, it was definitely a treat!