Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France

Jean Foillard (Morgon, Beaujolais)

While spending two days in the Beaujolais region for an event named "Les Rendez Vous Beaujolais", we found the time to make a visit to Jean Foillard, a vigneron and winemaker who along with a few others in the area did a lot for changing the way consumers see Beaujolais : an artisan vigneron who does not use any designer yeasts nor sulphur and whose wines offer a striking complexity.
The region is also where it all happened a few years after World War 2 : industrialization and co-op mentality was then full-blown in the winemaking and viticulture world, and someone named Jules chauvet, a resident of Beaujolais who was a winemerchant/oenologist/winetaster re-invented at this crucial time the way winemaking was thought, with studies about the chaptalization, indigenous yeats (and how they best work) and sulphur (this multi-faceted genius also designed the modern tasting glass used today). This led to the natural-wine revolution which got its first results when wine critics saw the results in the wines.
Jean Foillard receives us in his winery in Villié-Morgon, close to the famed Côte de Py climat. When he bought the farm, it was in complete disrepair, and looking at it today you don't imagine the work it went through. He walks us to the tasting room, where wood is still burning in the oven/fireplace : He received this morning several americans from the Kermit Lynch group for a tasting of wines from several wineries (including his).
He began working in viticulture and wine in 1982, first on the family estate, then renting and buying vineyards. Today his estate has a total surface of 11 hectares.
After we sat along the nice long and massive wooden table (3,5 meter long), he brought glasses for the tasting :
__1 Jean Foillard Morgon Côte du Py 2004. Substance. Silky. Nice wine indeed. Côte du Py is a climat of the Morgon Appellation where the vineyards grow on slopes with crumbly schists soil that give Gamay a unique expression. The Cote du Py hill is actually an extinct volcano, with lots of different types of soils depending of the plots.
Speaking about the work in the vineyard, Jean Foillard says he works with two employees (his wife does the accounting) and some additional "tacherons", this is a lot of work for 3 people, especially that the Vineyard is in goblet (an obligation in the Appellation) and that the density is high (10 000/hectare). Harvest has to be manual in the Beaujolais like in Champagne : in 2005, he needed 30 people plus cooks (to feed the company) for 17 days.

P. & A. De Villaine (Burgundy)

Pierre de Benoit, at the winery

Bouzeron (Burgundy), march 16. Domaine Pamela & Aubert De Villaine.
Angers, in the Loire, is oddly where we tasted several of Aubert de villaine's wines. This was at the "Return to Terroir" gathering last january, and Pierre de Benoit who today heads the Domaine, showed both earnestness and insightfulness when speaking about his viticulture philosophy and the interactions between the vines, the soil and the wine. Plus, his Bouzeron Aligoté, in spite of being tastedafter sweeter wines from Alsace, was a good surprise : A dry and fresh wine with purity and minerality, another reminder that Aligoté can be something more than its categorized reputation of a cheap fresh white wine.
Bouzeron, in Burgundy, is the only Appellation (created in 1998) with Aligoté as its single grape variety. Bouzeron is a village located in the Cotes Chalonnaises between Chalon sur Saone and Beaune, slightly on the west, in a hilly landscape.
Like we often do when we like what we taste and have the chance to be face to face with the vigneron, we asked for a visit, the materialization of which came earlier than usual.
The winery's facilities are settled in an old house with its outbuildings in the middle of the village, and we met Pierre de Benoit there. Speaking of Aligoté, he says that while Aligoté outside of Bouzeron is usually of the "green Aligoté" type, here in the Bouzeron Appellation, it is exclusively of the"Golden Aligoté" type. Pointing to the vineyards on the other side of the valley (on a slope named "La Digoine", a climat) where the estate grows Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Aligoté, he says that in the estate, Aligoté is mostly planted on higher slopes where the soil is poorer, with only 70cm of earth and clay/limestone, which explains the minerality. high density (10000/hectare) and goblet pruning help also to hold down yields at a low levels. A 20 points difference in the yields, from 70ho/ha to 50 ho/ha brings lots more minerality, more richness in the Aligoté. They also began massal selections last year on 57 vines so as to select the best of them for cuttings and replanting.
The total vineyard surface is about 21 hectares : 10 ha in Bouzeron Aligoté, 4 ha in Pinot Noir (Cote Calonnaise "La Digoine", Cote Chalonnaise "La Fortune", Mercurey "les Montots") and 6 ha Chardonnay (Rully "Saint Jacques", Cote Chalonnaise "les Clous").

In the casks and foudres cellar
Pierre de Benoit, after taking a couple of glasses and a winethief, shows us the chai with the pneumatic presses and the tronconic wooden vats (upper left pic). That's where the grapes arrive after being hand-picked and sorted out on the vines and on the grape bin. No mystery, he says, the good grapes are what make good wine. Usually one third of the grapes are destemmed (for both whites and reds), the remaining stems allowing an efficient draining of the juice in the pneumatic press. Reds go then into the open-top wooden vats [upper left pic] for the alcoholic fermentation, and when it has started, the tops are covered with a plastic sheet to retain CO2 and protect the juice without having to use SO2. This process is made possible with the organic farming because the indigenous yeasts are alive and active.

Paris Wine Bars : La Cremerie

La Cremerie, located on the left bank near Odeon and Bd St Germain in Paris, is at the same time a natural-wine store, a wine bar, and a place where you can eat authentic artisan charcuteries from different regions of France and Spain.
The place, which has been run by Pierre Jancou since 2002, is now managed by Serge Mathieu and his wife Helene. The spirit is very similar : Serge serves and sells mostly artisan wines made from organicly-farmed vineyards (90% of the wines here are natural, non-interventionist wines) with samely artisanal charcuterie and cheese imported from Spain, Italy and some french provinces.
Born in New York, he lived all his life in France and is an architect by training. He discovered the natural wines, loved them and decided to make a profession of that love. He stayed a while (several months) with Olivier Camus (at le Chapeau Melon, a wine bar in Paris), whom he says is one of the best wine tasters in Paris. Then he discovered by chance La Cremerie, an already-converted former dairy shop located on a side street near Odeon in Paris. Pierre Jancou, who was running the place, was not selling at the time but Serge felt that this was the place. He proposed his help and worked several more months with Pierre to get more experience and expertise. He finally acquired the store in 2006. His wife Helene, also an architect, joined and she helps with the wine as well as with the food.
The concept of the place is to be both a wine bar and a wine store. You can walk in, choose a bottle, pay and walk away. You can also drink a glass from the wine-by-the-glass selection, or buy a bottle from the shelves, pay an extra 6 Euro (cork fee) and drink it there. Because of the License, you must order something to eat with the wine, wether cheese or a saucisson plate for example. The wine bar/store/restaurant still retains many of the old dairy shop fixtures, including its beautiful hand-painted tile-ceiling. The dairy shop interior architecture dates from the late 19th century. The venue is not big : enough room for a handful of tables, the counter, and the shelves on both sides, with a large selection of natural wines from all over France, including Bordeaux, which is not so common [pic on right]. The red-bright ham-slicing machine on the counter is a venerable Berkel made in the year 1936. The Berkel company was at the time based in Rotterdam, Holland. The machine was discontinued in 1955-1960, but there was such a big restorated-machines market in Italy (the country of thin ham-slices, where they sell for about 6500 Euro for a vintage machine from the 20's, 30's or 40's), that Berkel restarted a production line for these very models.

La Cremerie (Pierre Jancou)

La Cremerie, located on the left bank near Odeon and Bd St Germain in Paris, is at the same time a natural wines store, a wine bar, and a place where you can eat authentic artisan charcuteries from different regions of Italy.
Pierre Jancou runs the place since 2002. He was previously a cook, runned an italian restaurant in Montmartre, then left for Italy in 1999 before coming back in 2002 and buying this place.
As he has always been fond of fine, natural food, he learned about wine on the job, and natural wines (not only organicly grown, but also vinified with little or no intervention) were an evidence for him, along his tastings of different wines in the food and wine fairs, in France and Italy. Italy is home to great artisanal food, and his italian experience and connections, his love for these products, explain his frequent expeditions with his van down there, to haul back the troves you will eat at la Cremerie. He usually begins his trips with Piedmont, which is also home to some of the best italian wines, then Emilie-Romagna (Parma, Modena, Bologna) and Tuscany, buying on the way all sorts of charcuteries, prosciutto, coppa, finochiona, culatello, panetta, and some wine. Pierre Jancou, eating his lunch after the rush-hour crowd subsided He adds new selections to his mostly french wine list when visiting wine fairs or when a friend tips him about a new player in the field. Young vignerons also visit him now and then to present their wines. This is how he discovered recently an impressive Mondeuse, a white grape variety from the Savoie region (near the french Alps). Same story for Jean Marc Brignot's Jura red Arbois wines, who bottled his first millesime in 2004 and already got the attention of wine critics.
The place is not big, he sits 17 people, including the ones at the counter, and it is wise to reserve for fridays and saturdays (closed sunday-monday). But the place is an architectural gem in addition to its slow food and natural wines.
The counter, with the venerable Berkel ham-slicing machineIt is a former dairy store (cremerie in french) built in the late 19th century which retained many of its original period features. It was bought in 1947 by some one named Miard and turned into a wine store, thus the other name of the place Pierre uses also : Caves Miard. He bought the place (which he already knew visually) by chance as it went for sale right at the time he was looking for a place in Paris in 2002. The ceiling is made of glass-plated painted silk, untouched since it was made in 1880. .................. Serge Mathieu, who helps Pierre, enjoying a glass of white wine Even the ham-slicing machine is beautiful. It is a venerable 1938 Berkel machine, named from a company then based in Rotterdam, Holland. The machine was discontinued in 1955-1960, but there was such a big restorated machines market in Italy (the country of thin ham slices, where they sell for about 6500 Euro for a vintage machine from the 20's, 30's or 40's), that Berkel restarted a production line for these very models. Back to wine : The balance between Italy and France here makes him recall what italians say : "Italians make golden wines with silver terroirs and french make silver wines with golden terroirs..." The french, this seems to say, have the potential for getting better wines in regard of their terroirs, but people like Jules Chauvet and others, in re-inventing the vinification which was until then very empirical, paved the way for the organic/biodynamic/natural-wines revolution. Pierre says the monks who developped the viticulture in France centuries ago, selected the grape varieties and chose where to plant the vineyards, with the right slope and orientation , also deserve our admiration.
So, La Cremerie being a wine store, you can choose and buy among the roughly 240 different labels (from 70-80 wineries). The bottles are displayed on shelves on both sides. The Loire and Burgundy are well represented in his selection. He has also the chance to have a deep cool cellar a few buildings away with hundreds more bottles waiting their turn in the dark (picture on the right, where he holds a "Plume D'Ange" from "les cailloux du Paradis"). If you want to drink on the spot, there are usually 2 whites and 2 reds by the glass, and the selection changes every other day. And you can drink a bottle you purchased on the shelves with an additional cork fee of 6 Euro, which is a good deal when you want to have a drink with friends, especially that many of the bottles are in the 10-20 Euro price range.
Because of beverage license reasons, you must order a plate of charcuterie or cheese with your wine. The first time I visited (with friends Mark and Ann, from Newcastle), I remember having an olive-oil drizzled delicate salad and thin slices of Parma with my glass of wine. This was 18 months ago. At lunchtime, Pierre makes a "plat du jour", and the evening dinner is with italian charcuteries and cheeses solely.
The place is opened tuesday to saturday, 10am to 10pm and is closed in august and the 1st week of january, which leaves Pierre some time to spend with his 2 (and soon 3) kids.
La Cremerie 9 rue des Quatre Vents 75006 ParisPhone/fax 01 43 54 99 30Metro : Odeonvinsnature@hotmail.com

Wine Pairing Story (4)

There seems to be some sort of reproach tone in these eyes. Did that beautiful white burgundian cow (that I hand-fed last summer) forsee my (wine related) interest in her flesh ?
Winter is Bourguignon's season. Bourguignon not only means "from Burgundy" but the word is short for "boeuf bourguignon", that is, beef cooked in wine, burgundian style. this is a great winter dish, synonym for long, patient cooking on the stove.
The meat is usually from the shoulder part of the cow, a lean type of meat, and is usually cut by butchers in big pieces. Whenever cooked like a steak in a frying pan it would be tough to eat, but long hours on the stove, bathing in its juice plus wine, make it both tender and so differently tasty than ordinary beef.

The best cooking recipient for the bourguignon is the heavy cast iron pot with its lid. It works like a stewpot, retaining the aromas and cooking the ingredients harmoniously.
There are variants in the recipe. As for me, I use to lightly fry the meat with sliced onions a few minutes in the open cast-iron pot, turning the pieces over a few times so that they can get superficially cooked on all sides. Then, pour the wine and add some aromatic herbs and salt.

Of course, the dish being burgundian, the wine would be ideally Pinot Noir from Burgundy. The important thing actually is that the wine has to be a flavored, rich-texture wine. In short, a good wine that could be enjoyed in a glass. I sort of improvised this one and chose a wine I bought in bulk last year and bottled myself (I recognize I am reluctant to pour more expensive wine just to cook meat), a Touraine Cabernet 2002 by Francis Jourdain. After the meat was enough stir-fried and had changed color, I poured about a third of the bottle in the pot, put the heavy lid back and left the pot on the stove. Both the cast-iron pot and the wood cookstove provide the ideal conditions for the long, patient cooking needed for the "bourguignon".