Candles and Food & Wine article

Candles are something I fill my life with. I love the flickering little flame, even though I know it adds some soot to my walls and ceilings. For a while I did the melting thingies, but I just missed having that flame. I don’t burn them as often anymore because I find so few with great throw that are burn-worthy.

Well.  On a weekend shopping expedition, I ran across Tatine Candles (www.tatinecandles.com) I got one in Forest Floor and one in Tabac.  When I opened the Tabac box, I had a hunch these candles were the real deal and might make me very happy as oodles of tobacco leaf unfurled from the box.  Put a match to it, walked away, came back into my living room (which is pretty big) 30 minutes later to the smell of the best of tobacco everywhere. Not cigarette butt tobacco, the tobacco you smell in the cigar shop in that little room.  The throw?  It was all overe the room, in every breathing space, and I’d only burned a teensy bit of the candle.

Cid I mention Forest Floor?  CB would be proud.  This is one straight from I Hate Perfumery, dank forest floor, earth, almost mushroomy, slightly decaying, but not in a bad way, just to add a loamy richness.  Again, the throw. I burned it in the bathroom for maybe 15 minutes, and it was as if I had walked into Mirkwood Forest.

Handmade from soy and beeswax, these are great candles. I’m perusing their website for more purchase.  Hemlock & green Jasmine?  Oh, noes! they don’t actually sell from their website, you do have to find a stockist. If anyone knows a stockist online that sells the entire line, would you let me know? Well, here’s a place in California that has most of them.

Do any of you get Food & Wine Magazine, and did you read the article this month about perfume and wine?  It was interesting, and covered much of what we have talked about here off and on in the past, that the two have a very common thread of notes and smells and identifying them, though it appears those immersed in wine professionally wind up wearing very little perfume, though the writer did wind up with Le Labo Neroli that she felt she could wear occasionally when working professionally in wine.  What a sad thing!  To love both and have to give up so much daily pleasure of perfume while working with wine. I am going to spritz on an extra spray or two of Nuit de Tubereuse tonight while swilling down some wine and immerse myself in the unparallelled pleasure of not having to choose either.

  • tammy says:

    Darn you anyway. Candles are my first love. As it turms out, I have somewhat limited preferences in perfume, so I can read most of the reviews here without lemming too awfully bad, but the candles…..darn you.

    Which remimds me; I think I have you to blame for the four-figure DL& Company bill last year, don’t I???

    #-o

  • carter says:

    Oh, puh-lease! Moderation in all things — just use your dang head, for crying out loud. Wine freaks and foodies (and I consider myself to be both) need to get over themselves. If you’re going to a restaurant, dress and spritz appropriately. I mean, the guy at the next table is probably eating a dish that is wafting and clashing like crazy with what’s on your own plate and in your glass. In cases such as these I heartily recommend the following, in which case you won’t care even if your server is squashing around in socks soaked through with Eau de Keetay Litaire:

    “Chateau Porneauxxx 2006 “Triple X Cuvée” Bordeaux. The flagship blend of the line, this classic French beauty makes you want to uncork it with your favorite mate on a shaggy rug in front of a fire. Like a vintage, cepia-tone burlesque photo, Porneauxxx teases, offering layers of titillating pleasure—cedary earthiness with a touch of plum on the nose, currants popping on the palate, palpable tannins stroking the tongue before slinking away in a way that just makes you want more. But Chateau Porneauxxx is not just a tease: behind every label is passport-size photo of, well, real porn, for your eyes only. We don’t want to tell you what the picture is…think of it as a sort of blind date with Bordeaux.”

  • Musette says:

    Dang! on the candle-love. I can’t have candles about overmuch because they shut down my hairtrigger sinuses. And it :(( because I do love them. I have to make do with those oil-stick thingies (diffusers! yes!) but as Agraria Bitter Orange comes in a diffuser all is right in my >-) world.

    Those candles do sound amazing, though.

    I think anybody who is working in close proximity to folks eating or drinking should just be judicious in their application of scent. I can’t imagine why a subtle hint of something should ruin the wine or food ‘experience’ any more than whatever other scents surround (let’s face it, if you’re in a restaurant, there are other smells – the next table’s ~:> au vin isn’t going to limit its olfactory throw to their table).

    xoxox >-)

  • Disteza says:

    Are the winos, oh, sorry, wine enthusiasts, scared that the perfume will cover up notes in the bouquet? That the perfume and the wine won’t pair well? Seeing as how almost everything has some sort of aromachemical added to it, I can’t think how perfume would be any different than say, shampoo. Or laundry soap.
    I agree that you should keep in mind your perfume if you expect to be able to taste things, which is why I tend to reserve my subtler scents for the really nice nights out. I find Miller et Bertaux’ Bois de Gaiac et Poire performs nicely in this role.

    • carter says:

      Oh, great…another one with italics talent. Or is it italic talents? You and Joe should get on like a house on fire. Or is it afire?:-:-:-:-:-l-)

  • Silviafunkly says:

    Oh, some more candles to track down ! List is getting longer, Astier de Villatte right at the top.

    I recall being disturbed at dinner by a waitress who must have bathed in Kenzo Amour 2 minutes before, but other than that a gentle waft of scent thankfully doesn’t disturb my enjoyment of food or wine (unless it’s Angel, Black Orchid or Shalimar of course).

    Am so happy to have been able to get on the Posse today, I get an error message most days. :d

  • Shelley says:

    Will look for the article. And while I loves me some food, and wine, and perfume, I’m also one who is a Not All at the Same Time person. Maybe a hugs the skin practically resides in it something that I can discover after the meal and the drinking are done…but I understand why the nose folk would steer clear.

    As for a “sommelier” reeking, for shame.

    The candles do sound interesting…they used to have a shop in Chicago, but went to all online a few years back. Never checked them out then; more on the radar now. 🙂

  • maggiecat says:

    Oh, I love candles too and now have something new to explore. Given that my budget is newly tightened – well, thanks. Thanks a lot. :-0 My DH isn’t especially partial to perfume, but does love good quality scotch, and we’ve spoken several times about the similarities in our passions (layers of scent, how scent and taste differ when scotch is mixed with water, etc.) It gives us some empathy for one another’s passions. And wouldn’t I hate to have a job where I couldn’t wear perfume!!!

  • karin says:

    Just read the F&W article. Interesting! Can’t say I want to smell perfume while eating or drinking wine, though. Strong perfume can ruin a good meal. As the final quote (from Fabrice Penor) in the article states, “Perfume, like wine, is beautiful when you know how to stop.”

    Reminds me of a disappointing meal at an unnamed top restaurant in Atlanta. The “wine girl” (I doubt she was a sommelier) reeked of Angel! We could smell her a couple of tables away, and every time she passed by – Angel in full force. Now, I love me some Angel, but only in the privacy of my own home, or in very small quantities in public…and definitely not poured on with abandon if you’re a server in a restaurant!!!!

    • karin says:

      Sorry, that’s Fabrice Penot!

    • Ari says:

      Karin, you’re right, most perfumes (ESPECIALLY Angel!) do not go very well with food. I think Turin recommends that one wear chypres at dinner, but I rarely wear chypres in public since they are so out of fashion 🙁 Even the Yvresse you so generously sent me gets “old lady” comments, and it’s not even a proper chypre!

      • carter says:

        Boy am I glad that I don’t give a crap. I tone it down with the power-hitters, and I do wait for the Criminy top to fade before I hit the streets (the truth is, I actually get some sort of perverse delight in keeping it all to meself and reveling in all that minty diesel glory alone at my dressing table — it puts me in a great mood for going out) but I couldn’t care less whether or not something is in style.

        In fact, I prefer to be different, unique, and true to myself because that IS style.

  • Wordbird says:

    My cousin is a winemaker and he absolutely loathes perfume of any kind. His long-suffering partner has to stay fragrance-free, poor girl.

  • Fiordiligi says:

    Candles! I do love my scented candles but am very fussy about them. This sounds like a lovely brand to search out.

    I love my food and wine but sorry, the idea of not wearing perfume because of being in the wine trade is too awful to contemplate. How lucky that I can indulge in perfume AND wine and not have to sacrifice one for the other. There must be something to be said for being an accountant (even on June 15).

  • mary says:

    That tabac candles sounds lovely, Patty. Thanks for mentioning the magazine article, I will definitley look for that. This month’s W ( the one with Cater Blanchett on the cover–it might be July, I’m not sure)has really interesting pictures of Serge Lutens’s Morocco house, and a fun and interesting article to go with the pictures. :)>- mary