A Vignerons Barbecue

Laurent & Noëlla with a friend Pouillé, Loire
Photo story - First festive gathering at la Boudinerie : Noella Morantin and Laurent Saillard invited friends, among whom many artisan vignerons, for a barbecue and lots of great wines (and artisanal beer). These vignerons sharing the same love for real wines often meet for such heartening lunches or dinners, and this happens all around France. Sometimes, these gatherings take place on the side of bigger meetings and wine fairs, jumping on the opportunity that they're around together, sometimes like here, just for the fun to be together and celebrate. Of what I heard, this is always casual and relaxed, the food is great, and as the vignerons bring their wines, you drink lots of good stuff, some of it not even on the market.
Here, this was also the opportunity to celebrate a friend's birthday : Arnaud Ehrart's birthday.
People began arriving at the winery at noon, lots of familiar faces and a few whom I met for the first time. Joe Dressner, Denyse and his children were there too, as well as several other Americans. I spoke to Sam, a close friend of Arnaud who is from Mexico, and who worked along with James in Arnaud's early ventures. I spoke also with Caribou who with Julie created La Mise, the small-but-hot natural-wine gathering which takes place yearly in the south of France. I also discovered that many vignerons had hidden skills, like they know how to sharpen knives, cut muttons and things like that...

Thierry pouring to Arnaud Arnaud Ehrart was the hero of the day. Arnaud is the man behind 360 [article by Eric Asimov], a now-closed iconic restaurant which was opened in 2003 in Red Hook, Brooklyn. This Alsace native introduced the natural wines on the restaurant scene there, in New York, which was not an easy business then even if the wines were already imported in the U.S.. Arnaud left the big city after several successful years in his restaurant, for a different life near Puerto Rico where he dives and enjoys the sea. He and Laurent Saillard (who set up Ici, another Brooklyn restaurant dealing with natural wines) are close friends and they have a lot of complicity together.
Arnaud is a bit anxious these days because a big storm (class 3, 120-knots winds as what was known when this barbecue took place) is on its way in the Carribean and he is having his boat moved because of this. Arnaud Ehrart, Catherine and Thierry The guests keep arriving, at one point, it's Joe Dressner (here in the background on left), Denyse and their children who joined. Joe wrote a few words on his blog about this Arnaud celebration in the Loir et Cher [My God....is 360 Van Brunt still closed?].... Fixing the boudin (blood sausage) in la Boudinerie Each of us was welcomed upon arrival with a T shirt at his/her size with the logo of La Boudinerie, which is the name of the farm where the winery is sitting. The word boudinerie comes from the French word boudin (blood sausage), maybe because they were making boudins in this particular farm in the past. For this reason, the logo featured a symbolized pig head (very simple but well-done sketch, I need to know who designed this). On the back of the T-shirt were the following words : 1er Symposium International Sur Le Contrôle Des Maturités - 28 Aout 2010. The maturité thing has a dual sense, it is what you check in the grapes before deciding to harvest, and it is also the maturity someone is supposed to have when he reaches 40 (Arnaud). CRB Sauvignon 1996 There was so many wines that day. My first one was this Sauvignon 1996 from Clos Roche Blanche. Beautiful and still fresh. Soon ready Children & wine : for the picture only Ice bottles, Pet'Nat' and water for Panache There was all these wines cooling in the bucket and no one thought to Panache. No problem, the cooling water will make the job. Let's eat ! Kudos to Noëlla and Laurent and the other artists behind all this great food, charcuterie, oysters, terrines, salad, blood sausage, mutton, vegetables cooked with love in meat juice in an iron-cast pot, the great cheeses and the chocolate cake... Noëlla making a last spoon-tasting check before serving the vegetables
Noëlla Morantin & Joe Dressner Sylvestre Mosse & Laurent Saillard with the muttonSylvestre, on the left, is following the wine trail of his parents Agnès and René Mosse : he is leaving soon for Beaune in Burgundy, where he'll enroll the wine school. A side of the shoe-horse table (Joe D. at the other end) René Mosse cutting the mutton with Christian Venier Time for a nap CaribouI came to know Caribou here. She is a Quebec native and she created with her friend Julie a small vigneron fair in the south of France known under the name of La Mise. In spite of its size (only about 20 vignerons take part), this wine tasting event has a large aura and that's a must-visit thing if you can go there when it takes place (in winter if I remember). Here is a page about la Mise 2009. Caribou has just been hired as a sommelière by an upscale restaurant in Saint Barth in the Carribean and she is very excited by this prospect... Didier & Céline (OMG, I missed this CRB Gamay 1978...) You may encounter problems to view this video (it stops at some point) Here is a video to give you a better idea of this beautiful day. There's even an exclusive covering here by Wineterroirs : two New Yorkers feuding in front of the camera, Zaggy, who leaves New York for France a couple times a year, barking agressively against New-York expat Panache (who settled here in the Loire two years ago). See also how René Mosse, Thierry Villemade and Christian Venier can do with a mutton. And at the end, Americans and French playing pétanque...

I left the party at about 10 pm, although it went on till the morning, I guess (could have slept there, no problem, said Laurent), and I passed while on my motorcycle near there in Saint-Aignan along what I think was a Gendarmerie squad setting up near the bridge for its saturday-evening shift of road checks. This is what I'd call a close call for a breath check

Comments

[Jasonadams]

I am so fucking jealous.

[Doug]

Hungry now! Inspired for sure.

[Gregg Ushiroda]

Can I still get a t-shirt? Great post.

[Bertrand]

Must be some left... There's something to do with these t-shirt, print some more...

[Kyle Dunn]

This has the feel of a South African affair!

[Steve Cormier]

I found this website just a few days ago. It is enjoyable to read. I must say that after reading this article, I began remembering past days of my youth. Being from Lafayette Louisiana and having family and friends outings such was shown in this article, made me long for days past. The boudin looked fantastic. Thanks for the article.