Paris Wine Bars : Le Mauzac

Kathleen Pouring a Michel Juliot 2003 (Pinot Noir)This is a quiet street in a corner of the 5th arrondissement in Paris, far from any metro station, and the short, leafy stretch of street where Le Mauzac is located has the serenity feel of a french-province town. The neighborhood owes its character to the universities and publishing houses, this is an intellectual center of gravity which unlike the lower Saint-Germain-des-Près has not been disturbed by the invasion of fashion/apparel stores and cheap tourist eateries.
The Mauzac name comes from a Southern-France grape variety, the Mauzac, which is used to make lightly-sweet white sparklings, the most well-known being the Blanquette de Limoux, a sparkling which was already famous more than a century before Champagne was invented. Much more cultivated several hundreds years ago, it is now a minor grape variety mainly grown in the Gaillac region. You can spot the Gaillac region on the map showed on the lower part of this page (the red patch on the right).

This Champagne Glass Needs a Refill...Le Mauzac is also a restaurant but you may stop there just for a glass of wine. If there is no table available at lunch or dinner time, the zinc bar has high stools with the best view on the hanging blackboard to read quietly the wine list. That's where I like to sit even when there's room at the tables. The other option is sitting outside on the terrasse, whis is the thing to do when you are a small group of friends.
Boris and Chloé, the managers, run the place since a year or so, and they keep the natural-wine philosophy of the wine bar. Every single wine here is vinified with the most traditional, non-interventionist manner. You may leave Boris choose your wine, he may well suggest a.....Mauzac, as they have precisely the white sparkling Mauzac here, and this one is made by Robert Plageoles, the most renowned vintner of the Gaillac region in the South-West of France. If you look for sparkling gems other than Champagne (and there are many in France), this is a good way to begin.Chloe Pouring ChampagneThis was a while ago, I had ordered a Loire red by Villemade and B. a glass of Champagne. The wine-by-the-glass list is hanging behind the bar (picture letf) and every single wine there is worth a try, they're all made by artisan-minded vignerons from the french regions, and served by the glass, the "pot" or the bottle, at prices (for a glass) starting at 4,3 Euro. You find most of the major french wine regions, except Jura and Bordeaux, with maybe a preference for the Loire. A few names on the glass list : Villemade, Puzelat, Plageoles, Lecointre, Guy Julien, Foillard, Morin, Fouassier. The bottle list is longer, about 100 wines to drink here or to go.You don't need to eat something here with your glass (they have the right licence) but, apart from the restaurant menu, you can be tempted by one of their Foie Gras plates, a Foie Gras des Landes cuit au torchon (15,8 Euro), Foie Gras aux Echalottes (shallots) with red-wine sauce (16,8 Euro), Foie Gras aux Chataignes (chestnuts) at 16,8 Euro, or an assortment plate with the different Foie Gras at 25,8 Euro.
The decor is not as important as the quality of the wine list, but many details at Le Mauzac are visual reminders of how much wine is important here : There's a great collection of carafes and decanters on the side, the wall under the ceiling is lined with empty bottles, there's this intriguing painting, and of course, the semi-circular zinc countertop with grapes all along the side, molded in the thick-graining, patined metal.Jenny and Francois at Le MauzacThis was a few months ago at Le Mauzac, several vintners from the Loire were pouring their wines for sommeliers, locals and passerbys to enjoy what real wines feel like. The importers Jenny Lefcourt and Francois Ecot (of Jenny & Francois Selections) were also there and as far as I remember this was a lot of fun in spite of the cold weather.Le Mauzac7 rue de L'Abbé de L'Epée75005 ParisMetro : Place Monge (line 7)RER (underground suburb trains): Luxembourgphone 01 46 33 75 22lemauzac.comOpen for lunch and dinner (7pm-11pm+)