Yes, friends, it happens. My pizza Saturday night was an abysmal, miserable flop, of Edsel and Ishtar proportions. O.K., perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but it felt that way to me, though maybe I take pizza failure too seriously. My world and welcome to it. When I proofed the yeast, working in a hurry, I may have used water that was too hot and basically killed the stuff before it even had a chance to perform its task. Or I may have flung in too much salt; you need salt, of course, but a lot of salt will slow the action of the yeast. In any case, the dough did not rise properly, a fact I realized after a couple of hours. I punched the dough down anyway, kneaded it a bit more and set it out to rise again. Nope. And I foolishly, stubbornly, went ahead and made the pizza. What emerged from the oven, after all this effort, felt and tasted half-formed, incomplete, unfulfilled. In a word: awful.

The wine I opened, however, was terrific. This is the Tardieu-Laurent Les Becs Fins 2008, Côtes-du-Rhône Villages. Composed of 50 percent each of syrah and grenache grapes, the latter from 60-year-old vines, the wine sees no oak, only stainless steel, so its sense of freshness, vivacity and immediacy is unimpaired, along with robustness and a deeply fruity, juicy nature. Black currant, black plum and mulberry scents and flavors coalesce into dark, spicy, pithy and Platonic black cherry layered with soft, supple tannins. These qualities are shaded — as if the wine were not dark enough — by touches of graphite and shale, mint, a breath of sea-salt and that notion called garrique, the combination of warm, dusty wild flowers and herbs characteristic of the South of France. The finish brings in a little tar, bittersweet chocolate and mossy, earthy elements. This will be great with your grilled steaks and burgers and smoked ribs this summer. The alcohol content is 14 percent. 1,008 cases were imported. Excellent. About $22.

Imported by Wilson Daniels, St. Helena, Ca. A sample for review.

About as much white wine is made in Chinon, in France’s Loire Valley, as red wine is made in Burgundy’s Puligny-Montrachet. Really damned little! Chinon, part of the Touraine region smack in the middle of the Loire, is largely cabernet franc country. No bistro in Paris would be without Chinon on its wine list; I wish we saw more examples of this quintessential restaurant wine in America. A little rose is made in Chinon and a smaller proportion, about two percent of the production, is white wine made from chenin blanc grapes.

Thus, the shimmering pale Les Chanteaux 2008, from Couly-Dutheil, was a revelation. LL had seared a fine filet of swordfish, just enough to give it slight char on the exterior and leave the interior moist, flavorful and almost rare at the center. She paired that with a piece of salmon that she had cooked a few days before, that fish having marinated in a black pepper-jalapeno sauce brought home from a Vietnamese restaurant. The combination, a sort of surf ‘n’ surf deal, was striking; the salmon, served cold, was dense, packed with spicy heat; the swordfish was lush and succulent. Also on the plate were rice and buttery, garlicky kale.

Les Chanteaux 2008 opened with a burst of camillia and honeysuckle, pear and quince, tangerine and exotic spice. As if this panoply of delights were not enough, the wine is bright and lively, with a tone of some piquancy wrapped around notes of white pepper and lychee, baked apple and in the limestone-laced finish, a hint of some shy, astringent meadow flower. Les Chateaux sees no oak, but rests on the lees in tank to pick up some nuance. Immensely appealing, and it tied together the elements of our meal very nicely. Very Good+ and definitely Worth a Search. I paid $25 for this bottle, which is the median price around the country.
Imported by Frank-Lin International, San Jose, Cal.