I don't know what I'd expected of the Atlas, but it wasn't the pretty blossom-strewn villages that scattered the hillsides, the rusty-hued cubist cottages softened by haze, like something from an impressionist painting.
Made for Aldi by prolific Languedoc producer Jean Claude Mas, this is a fantastic dry white for the money, offering a pretty blossom-like nose and fleshy peach-and-pear palate for chicken and general afternoon garden drinking.
In a season bursting with pretty blossoms, Burstein's favorite floral is this strapless number by Alexander McQueen (about $4,300).
"Shucks and pork chucks," Petulia says, "it's just un-Southern for the most eligible bachelor in all Greenville not to dance with the prettiest blossom in the Delta regions".
The soft peachiness of the Marsanne 2015 and the pretty apple blossom of the Clairette are both in store for £5.99.
But gardeners in all but the mildest climates can still grow blueberries, getting tasty fruit, pretty spring blossoms and ornamental shrubbery in the bargain.
Château Raymond-Lafon Sauternes, Bordeaux, France 2008 (from £11.50, 37.5cl, The Wine Society Fine & Raree) Working as well with cheese (especially Stilton) as it does with the Christmas pud, this beautifully judged classically styled dessert wine has a pretty floral, blossom-like character as well as gorgeous crystallised tangerine citrus and honey.
Mrs. Buck said in a recent telephone interview from Ames, Iowa, that her husband also looked for "pretty foliage" and blossoms and growth habits that made the roses good garden companions.
Shiki, a specialist in washoku, traditional Japanese cuisine, is exquisitely tuned to the seasons, so that in the first weeks of spring you may find cherry blossoms pretty much anywhere, the season's first berries and lots of pale fronds.
It will not look very pretty after the blossoms have faded.
