Wine News (37)

Oysters straight from the rocks Best wishes for 2011, may this new year be for you all as fresh and opulently vivid as these oysters...
We made a small trip to a region that we aren't familiar with for a change : Brittany, known in French as Bretagne, this region has lots of specific traits, beginning with the architecture and the maritime landscape.

There isn't wine produced there but there is cider and Calvados, and Bretons are known to drink well.
One of the gastromy hot items of Brittany is the oyster, and as we were walking at low tide on the shore, we went across wild oyters. There were plenty of them, most of very good size, on the rocks along a small bay in the area of Paimpol (you'll not know where exactly, go to brittany and find out...). We had a couple of bottles of Muscadet in the trunk of the car, that I had bought at the Leclerc supermarket of Paimpol, and these oysters sounded like a good opportunity to pop up for a new year treat. I was not sure how legal it was to pick and eat oysters on the shore but the friend we were staying at in Paimpol told us later that as long as it is on the shore, it's public space and picking is allowed. The heath concerns may be why these oysters could grow quietly and not be picked, as people are wary of getting sick because they are above the water level at each low tide. I took a risk and survived (this is winter and the risk seemed negligible to me), B. choosing to abstain and just sip some wine. If you know the size of a Swiss-Army knife, you may check with the picture on the right and understand that these oysters were the biggest I ever had the chance to eat. They're proof that there's lots of wild life in Brittany.
See on the left another great spot of this region, the pink granite rocks at Ploumanach.
The Muscadet is a Chateau Thébaud, Reserve du Fief Cognard 2009, it was fruity with freshness, and had a perly feel. It cost 3,3 € at the supermarket.

Littering the highway may be good...Unplanned harvest
We were driving in the middle of a forested area in the Loire with no house in view when B. spotted this lone appletree along the border line of the woods : a few apples were still hanging and many others were lying on the ground. We stopped to pick them all and suddenly realized that they were from the Golden variety and that this now-adult tree which had no reason to be there was certainly the consequence of an apple core thrown out of a passing car long time ago...
The moral of this story is that everything we do has consequences and that littering can be good and bear fruits when you refrain from throwing empty cans and their likes...although, didn't I read somewhere that sunk war ships created an enormous haven for fish habitat ?... Nothing is simple in this world, but if the benefits of sinking retired warships is widely recognized, try NOT to litter the highway with plastic, metal or glass, just fruit cores and skins... Varieties you never heard of Richard Hemmings, who I learn has been working at JancisRobinson.com (the website), composed this cute little song based on the original by Tom Lehrer (The Elements song), itself being inspired an Ira (brother of George) Gershwin song titled "Tchaikovsky and Other Russians" which similarly listed fifty Russian composers with a simple background musical theme...
This video, which I found on Wine Itch, a Flamish-language blog from Belgium, could inspire the musicians among us to write humoristic and musically-pleasant lyrics on wine. A Cesar 2008 from Burgundy Speaking of varieties unheard of, here is Cesar (I don't think I saw it pass in the song...) : this old variety is now extremely rare and I got the chance to get a few bottles from the Vignoble de Flavigny recently. They have a very small surface of it, the vines are 18 years old if I remember and they don't make wine of it every year. It costs 7 or 8 € only at the estate and that's the only place you can buy it (the volume is so small that they reserve the bottles for the customers who come at the winery).
This César is a surprising wine, much more easily drinkable than what I had heard about this variety : the color is a very bright rubis, with much more transparency than this picture hints. The attack is good, the wine is moderately tannic with a good freshness bordering on the excessive acidity, and the aromas go between strawberry and meat juice (also crushed raspberry). Mid-level length in the mouth. In spite of the acidity, this is a very interesting wine to drink, it can be had in summer with raw ham for example, says B.
The label is quite ugly and the name of the cuvée (le Vaillant) pitiful like it seems to be the norm in this winery, but that leaves more wines for us I guess : They have quite a good range of interesting wines, including some Pinot Beurrot (in rosé or white), an Auxerrois and an Aligoté (in addition to the Chardonnay). Their Pinot Noir gave us also some good pleasure more than once. Most of the wines in this estate are priced between 6 € (Aligoté) and 8 € (Pinot Noir or the Pinot Beurrot white). Flavigny, a cute medieval village of central Burgundy, is located far away from the known wine regions (Chablis, Beaune etc...). Shiki, a Japanese restaurant Here is a Japanese restaurant not to miss if you're into asian food in Paris. Shiki sits near Paris in Boulogne, very close to the Porte de Saint Cloud on an ordinary-looking back street of this residential neighborhood. Don't pay attention to the restaurant room also, it is conservatively unsurprising, but here, the Chef at Shiki is Kano Kazunari, he is one of the best Japanese chefs in town with innovative cuisine re-interpreting Japanese tradition and textures with the French ones. He excells in low-temperature cooking and his dishes are a rare treat of refineness and delicate aromas. It's mostly on his shoulders that rested the fame of Ozu, a restaurant located near the Trocadero in the 16th arrondissement in Paris. Since he left Ozu about three years ago, Ozu has been rated by some as disappointing and overpriced for the quality.
Kano leaves now and then his kitchen for a short tour of the table during the evening, he is a very modest and kind person, very affable even for the unknown visitor who asks a question about a dish.
It's wise to call and reserve for dinner. Lunch is a good deal in terms of prices.
There's another quality Japanese restaurant in Boulogne owned by the same people : Sanki, which is located 34 Avenue Edouart Vaillant. Shiki53 rue Gallieni, Boulognemetro Marcel Sembat (line 9)phone 01 47 61 94 22

Champs L'Abbaye Clos Côtes du Couchois 2007 B. opened this now-rare bottle of Domaine Champs de l'Abbaye, Bourgogne Côtes du Couchois 2007 Le Clos, made by Alain Hasard in the early years of his estate. Alain and his wife Isabelle began to make beautiful terroir wines a few years ago in what was then a little-known corner of Burgundy (he has since chosen vineyards centered on the better-known Côte Chalonnaise). This Côtes du Couchois is a dark Pinot with small black fruits aromas and some hints of chocolate. We had it along a very simple dish of freshly grinded beef with vegetables fried in a pan. We noticed the high quality of the cork, meant for long keep, it was 5-centimeter long. We still have a bottle or two of this wine and I think we can wait a few more years to enjoy it again. The King of the Pot au FeuWe ate in this restaurant with Japanese visitors recently : a friendly place specialized on Pot au Feu, this traditional French dish made of beef cooked in a pot with vegetables. This isn't high gastronomy but rather a hearty popular dish for meat lovers. The Pot au Feu is a traditional French dish par excellence, as old as the fireplace where in the past centuries the gallic housewives would keep iron-cast pots hanging with meat and various vegetables for days, picking some of it at every meal. As opposed to the Boeuf Bourguignon where the meat is cooked in a red, tannic wine, here with the Pot au Feu, the meat is cooked in water along with the vegetables (and samely during long hours). To be frank with you, and this has nothing to do with my love for wine, I actually prefer the Boeuf Bourguignon because of the migration of the tannins aromas into the meat, it brings more concentration in the dish (see also this story about ox tail cooked in wine). But I don't balk at a Pot au Feu from time to time, especially in the cold season, it's at the same time a tasty meat dish with gorgeous bone marrow to slurp, but also a vegetable dish with vitamin-loaded juice.
The restaurant has the classical settings of a traditional French auberge, complete with the vintage-looking red-and-white tablecloth and napkins, and cosy moleskine bench seats. This place, which looks unchanged since the 1950s', is some sort of smaller version of Chartier (another cheap historic restaurant in Paris) that would be serving almost only Pot au Feu (there are a few other choices though). The wine list is short, and the wine is already on the table when you walk in : it's a red Côte Roannaise that you will pay à la ficelle, which means that you pay only what you've drunk of the bottle. This cheap red is rather ordinary (you'll not come back for the wine) but it seemed to me very low in alcohol, maybe 10 ° or solmething like that, which is in line with the type of table wine that people drank in the past.
Entry dishes (among which bouillon and Bone-Marrow plate (there is also bone marrow in the Pot au Feu) cost from 5 € to 7 €. Main dishes cost 18 € (including the Pot au Feu Royal) or 20 €. A bottle of Côte Roannaise cost 18 € (but you pay à la ficelle, meaning that you only pay the volume that you'll drink from the bottle). As the restaurant fills up fast and the managers don't take reservations, come early to choose your table, like 7 pm (the restaurant serves also all day anyway if you prefer to come earlier).Le Roi du Pot-au-Feu34 rue Vignon, Paris 7500Metro Madeleine (line 8-12-14)Open everyday noon to 10:30 pm

25-centiliter wine Tetra-Pak at 30 centsHere is a new "product" by a négoce specialized in mass bottlings. This is made by Trilles, a company part of the Groupe Val D'Orbieu, a bottler which has increased its 120-million bottle capacity with this Tetra Prisma Aseptic 25 cl packaging line. The 25-centiliter individual cubic dose is filled with two or three types of Languedoc wines. The wine I tried here, a Cabernet Sauvignon that cost 30 Euro-cents apiece in the shop, was frankly an undrinkable crap. The chapter devoted to this new product line on the linked Pdf says that these are fruit-loaded, pleasure wines which are easy to drink [...] and represent an innovative concept enabling to seduce new consumers and reduce the carbon footprint. Pinch me to wake me up, I must be dreaming.... Salo, vodka, hrem and seld...Russia keeps bouncing back in my face, as a couple of friends recently visited Paris and brought along a few tasty items from mother Russia, like this big piece of salo (pork fat), the favorite Gerbovaya (гербовая) vodka that we used to drink during our road trip, seld (сельдь or herring) and a glass can of hrem (хрен or horseradish). I calmed down B. who didn't see me favorably all eating this fat by melting it away from my arteries with vodka, and I'm pretty sre that the horseradish cured me from some sort of bronchitis that I was in the middle of. The Russians, who have a large choice of hrem productions to choose from in their country, consider horseradish as one of the natural remedies against upper respiratory ailments. I found later, having witness first-hand a rapid improvement of my condition, that horseradish benefits are proven, even in the west, and all this adds up for me to the credit of Russia and its organic (without the hype side of the word) ways...
The herring was so good too, lightly marinated or smoked, I don't know exactly, but its texture was similar to the one of a freshly caught fish. It was very moderately salted, had all its intestines, eggs and everything and I envy these people to find these products at very affordable prices. Fasola special deliverySanta Claus from the Land of the Rising Sun
Japan also comes our way as our friend Junko came as usual for her usual week in Paris, and again, I asked her to bring a few bottles of Japanese whisky from the dutyfree shops in Narita. B. went several times to Japan this year but on cheaper two-leg flights, and thanks to you-know-whom, you can't board the plane in the second part of the trip with bottles (even if bought in a duty-free zone).
Learning that our friend would fly direct, I sent an email to Fasola, the duty-free chain with shops in Narita (see map), to know what whiskies they had in store and at which prices. They were kind enough to send a reply, here are the whiskies they had recently. This may be of interest if you, or someone you know, flies direct from Narita, as the rates are a good deal compared to what we pay wherever we live (Let's remind that 4000 Y makes 37 € or 49 USD).
SUNTORY (size 700ml)
ROYAL 15years \3,300
白州 (Hakusyuu) 12 years　\4,500 Y
白州 (Hakusyuu) 18 years　\15,000 Y
響 (Hibiki) 12 years　\3,500 Y
響 (Hibiki) 17 years　\6,500 Y
響　(Hibiki) 21 years　\15,000 Y
響　(Hibiki) 30 years　\75,000 Y
山崎 (Yamazaki) 10 years　\3,300 Y
山崎 (Yamazaki) 12 years　\4,500 Y
山崎 (Yamazaki) 18 years　\15,000 Y

NIKKA (size 700ml)
余市 (Yoichi) 12 years　\3,500 Y
余市 (Yoichi) 15 years　\3,900 Y
余市 (Yoichi) 20 years　\5,500 Y
竹鶴 (Taketsuru) 21 years \ 6,000 Y Mr Douche, I don't know anything about wine... This text-to-movie is one a few similar humoristic do-it-yourself cartoons that showed up in the recent months, and while it's already known on the blogosphere I'm always happy to watch it again as it's fun and says sound truths at the same time. It features a funny exchange about how a young woman with no clues about wine must behave in front of a wine list in a restaurant, and also how she must deal with the cork and say to the sommelier. At the end, there are hilarious views on how the formatted, heavily-corrected wines keep enjoying a profitable market (one big fucked-up feedback loop)... Always a healthy reminder about what's in the wines we may drink on a daily basis, thank you to Lyle Fass for making these gems.
The video has some flavors and reminiscence of the humor of Art Buchwald when he wrote the following lines in an essay on wine in 1954 (I already posted some of these quotes, sorry for those who remember) :
When speaking of vintages, never refer to a wine as 1935 or 1936. Always drop the nineteen and refer to them as thirty-fours, thirty-fives, thirty-nines, etc. Learn the names of a few rare wines and throw them around as much as you can. If you can associate them with a good French restaurant, it always helps. For example, never say, "I like a Margaux." It's much better to reminisce, "I remember a Margaux I once had at the Grand Vefour in forty-six. What a noble lunch that was."
When ordering wines in restaurants, study the card for a long time even if you don’t understand what you're reading. Cluck occasionally, and then turn to the som­melier and ask him to advise you on what to order. Never accept his first suggestion. He is testing you, and you don't want to lose face.
Always carry a vintage chart with you.If you're not sure of the best wine years, take the wine card to the washroom and check it against your vintage chart.
Text-to-movie is a tool created by Xtranormal. (8'46") Winter, snow, Paris and wine bar/shops You may know that Paris, like many other areas of the western hemisphere has been repeatedly covered by snow along the recent weeks, and here is a small promenade in Paris streets when the town was a huge traffic jam because of the impracticability of the streets.
The promenade begins with le Verre Volé (the wine bar/shop) along which I just pass (the guy speaking on the phone works there if I'm right) and ends as I walk into La Contre Etiquette (a street shop located at 31 rue Sainte Marthe and the physical front of an online wine retailer), where my friend Christophe Guitard opens a bottle of Les Vignes du Paradis, a small domaine (3 or 4 hectares) in Savoie along the Lac Leman. This is a cuvée named "un Petit Coin de Paradis" 2009, 100% Chasselas. This is a very small cuvée in terms of Volume and Christophe (who sells artisan/natural wines) could get a few bottles to sell in his Paris shop. Beautiful fruity wine with a bit of residual sugar (a particularity of the vintage 2009). Thank you Christophe for the opportunity to warm up and taste this wine. And sorry to have stopped filming a bit early (still learning shooting videos...). Burgundy snow promenade Now, B. opening the road, here is a 10-minute stroll along the white winter roads of central Burgundy.
At one stage, you'll see a sleeping-beauty vineyard with rusted tin cans on top of each post, then a lone horse eating grass it forages under the snow (the poor animal didn't see me coming and jumped out of surprise), then later you'll see a few courageous cows whith the winter fur they grew to endure the cold temperatures. Very few people on the roads, that's when we like best go out and walk.

Comments

[kaat]

thanks for the link ;-)

hope you have a wonderful 2011 - and... thanks to your blog we had some wonderfull tastings in the Elzas! Barmès-Buecher and Tempé.

They both know that good wine comes from healthy vineyards and grapes. It's as simple as that 'we pick our grapes when they are ready' was the best quote last year when i asked De Sousa (champagne) for his secret.

keep enjoying!

[hikalu]

Happy New year 2011, Bertrand!
I'm looking forward to read the nice wine blog and your photos this year. Have a wonderful year!

[Mike]

Wine sippy boxes?! Oh my. Thanks for sharing all these things, especially the piano wine varietal number. Loved it!