I was looking at photos of the turquoise-blue Mediterranean waters near Cassis today and thinking, “When are they going to invent teleportation already!?!” As a particularly rotten flyer, I’d much rather spend my vacation time in that beautiful place, far enough away from my own environs to forget about everyday life and its travails, than spend time getting there on a bumpy, crowded, germ-sodden airline flight.
     But wait! Don’t I have my own Eden a few steps outside my kitchen door? Aren’t trees and flowers and friends and fun waiting for me there? Granted, it doesn’t exactly have a pretty azure sea, but there are balmy days and starlit nights, crackling fires and slowly swinging hammocks, plus a big tin washtub filled with chilling wine. Every habitable place is someone’s backyard, so all we have to do is appreciate it with new eyes as an outsider would and see it as the blissful utopia of our dreams. And since everything tastes better when you’re “on vacation,” we’ve put together a lovely assortment of wines to help transport you to your own local paradise (thankfully sans jet lag).