Nouveau 2012 in Paris

The A-Team Caves Augé, 116 Boulevard Haussmann, Paris.
The 3rd thursday of november is usually when the Beaujolais Nouveau of the year is poured for the first time, it has been now a "tradition" for years all over the world albeit not a very old one (1951). Let's be clear, it's still mostly a Beaujolais day but you begin to see Nouveau from other regions as well, here and there, and that's what the Caves Augé in Paris offered to passerbys and people in the know : a gorgeous tasting of a few Nouveau wines from a handful of iconic vintners (4 of them that day) who were there in person to pour the wines. But a first glance at the small crowd could make you think that there were more vintners presenting their wines than the 4 that were announced : it seems that the word had got around in the trade that you had to be at Cave Augé that day, because there seemed to be more vintners visiting from their province than Parisians.
Here among the vignerons on this picture above, only one was here to present his wines : Jean Foillard in the middle, and both Marcel Richaud (southern Rhone) and Pierre Breton (Bourgueil, Loire) were just unrepentant visitors having dropped here to enjoy a few glasses among friends.
These free sidewalk tastings at Caves Augé are always a pleasure, they're at the same time serious in the sense that it's always about good wine but there's nothing ostentatious in the event and people, including the participating vintners and the visiting sommeliers, obviously have a good time. Plus, Marc Sibard (pictured right) the caviste who runs the shop, often opens a couple of unscheduled bottles that come as a surprise when you happen to be around the small group with whom he shares it...

René-Jean Dard and his Saint-Joseph (sort of) T shirt I arrived at the crime scene when the daylight was still there, and the first person I spoke to was René-Jean Dard (Dard et Ribo) who was also an outsider visiting the tasting and who at that precise moment (I guess he had already spent enough time to taste all the wines) was enjoying with a few people/vintners a splendid 30-year-old Xeres wine, a bottle opened by the maître des lieux, the caviste Marc Sibard. Jean-René showed me his pink T shirt reading literally in French "a monkey in the wind" (un singe au zeph, zeph being slang for wind) a sentence which sounds also like Un Saint-Joseph. If you're a bit familiar with the wines of Dard & ribo, you can understand why René-Jean fell for this T shirt, it might become a code word for the fans of their wines. I made some research and found out that this T shirt (along some 10 other wine-themed T shirts) was designed by sommelier-turned-designer Fabrice Langlois. Most of these T shirts display sentences with a double meaning, one from the litteral words and the other from the sounding (needs to be fluent in French to get the thing), like the one which reads Qui Ignore la Bourgogne Meursault which sounds [for French ears] like Qui Ignore la Bourgogne Meurt Sot (who ignores Burgundy will die a fool). The square around the sentence is an allusion to the warning signs you find on cigaret packs in France.

The splendid Xeres had the following info on its label : Amontillado Tradicion - 30 Anos - Botella No 835 / 1700 / 1/9 [hand written] - Bodegas Tradicion S.L. Plaza Cordobeses 3, Jerez, Spain Jean-Christophe Comor (left) with Juliette and Florian After chatting with René-Jean Dard and a few other people, I went first to the cask/stand of Jean-Christophe Comor. There were a few young people with him, among them Juliette who had done some harvest and cellar work at his cellar in Provence, and Florian who also spent time there. It happens that Florian is setting up his own winery as he is taking over the vineyards of Jacques Maillet in Savoie, a vigneron who makes beautiful wines (plus, with organic farming and natural vinification) from what I understand when I read this post (in French) by Olif. Florian will now on work on 4,5 hectares planted with Mondeuse, Gamay, Jacquère, Altesse and Pinot Noir. I can't wait to come across these wines... Nicolas Carmarans and Jean-Christophe Comor Time passes quite fast in these tastings so don't be surprised to see pictures at dark. Here is another visitor who stepped out from his remote and forested mountains of Aveyron, Nicolas Carmarans who like many of these vignerons had possibly other tastings scheduled in Paris for his own wines. He had planned to go to the Café de la Nouvelle Mairie later in the evening if I remember, this wine bar with an excellent selection (and cellar) of natural wines being his own creation as he managed it for years until he decided to go back to his ancestors country back there in Aveyron to tend vines and make wine.
I was almost forgetting to tell about Jean-Christophe Comor wine : it's a cuvée named A Ma Guise, a Vin de France (table wine) with a nice freshness and a good aromatic palette that I have a hard time to describe (after the Xeres it was a bit arduous), maybe something related to garrigue. I bought a few bottles from the 2011 vintage of A ma Guise last summer as Jean-Christophe Comor still had a few bottles and this was a pleasure to drink (I still have a couple of bottles), proving that Nouveau wine can be had a few months lather than the time of the planned release. I remember I paid 8 € a bottle at the winery in Laroquebrussanne, Var (Provence). François Morel & Jean Foillard Jean Foillard is uncorking one of his bottles while chatting with wine writer François Morel, who also contributes to the independant wine magazine Le Rouge & Le Blanc. This subscription magazine with nice black & white pictures is probably the only independant printed resource on wine in France, with no advertising, no conflict of interest and undercover sponsored articles by the wine industry. You find extensive coverage on artisan vintners in it.
Jean Foillard wines were poured from magnums that day, and by the way I remember that I bought a couple of magnums from him in a similar tasting a couple years ago and I'm thinking that it would be nice to open them one of these days, my Frigidaire wine fridge having probably kept them in perfect condition. Foillard Nouveau had a nice bitterness with aromas of cherry, cherry stone and dust. Not that on the fruit for a Nouveau, might benefit from waiting a few months. Bernard Pontonnier pouring Jean-François Nick was not at his "stand", I mean, at his barrel although I spotted him when I arrived, and he probably vanished to tasted the wine of one of his fellow vintners. In his place Bernard Pontonnier was helping pour the wine, and you can see him here with southern-Rhone vintner Marcel Richaud. Actually I think that he was pouring some Foillard wine here on this picture but this was still The Foulards-Rouges stand. Bernard Pontonnier is a character who played a central role in the natural-wine movement, as he helped make it known in Paris in the early years, that is in the 1980s' when he was managing bars in Paris. You can read more about his role is this story written earlier this year.
Jean-François Nick is the man behind Les Foulards Rouges, one of the earliest winery working in the natural wine philosophy. Jean-François Nick is also the man who previously turned the Coop of Estezargues near Nimes into the first coop in France making parcel cuvées and natural wine from organic vineyards. The Primeur cuvée from les Foulards Rouges that day was named Octobre, it was a Vin de France (table wine) 2012, a fresh and rather balanced wine. Thibault Pfifferling of L'Anglore (center) Not that I disliked in any manner any of the wines I got that day, including the Xeres, but the star of the evening was for me the Primeur of Pfifferling (Domaine de L'Anglore, in southern Rhone), a magic wine beginning with its color. This was a cuvée named Terre D'Ombre, a vin de France (table wine) made from 100% whole-clustered Grenache. The mouth was intense and fruity with a light bitterness and silky tannins. Eric Pfifferling was not here that day but his son Thibault was there instead, he said to his friends on the picture that he tilled the soil on this vineyard last spring. This wine costs 15,3 € a bottle here at Caves Augé. I'll have another glass. What I like in these tastings at Caves Augé is that the pours are generous and that you can really experience the wine, not only in terms of aromas and tasting traits, but in terms of its ability to make you feel high the right way, you really touch the pleasure/drinkability aspect of the wine, which is ultimately what will make you make the purchase decision. Manon Manon is another young woman who spent time working with Jean-Christophe Comor in Provence. These youngsters know what they want and they're particularly commited in the philosophy of real wine and artisanal winemaking. Here I love how it's going on at Caves Augé : she's taking the matters in her own hands and opens a bottle of Comor as he was busy chatting with visitors and there were these thirsty souls including me hanging around the barrel.
On this picture you can see one of the vintners' trucks parked in front of the wine shop, they all came with their pallets, delivering their customers across Paris on the same occasion, and there were at least three of these white trucks parked in front of the wine shop. Keep in mind that these artisans really do most of the hard work themselves. I fell myself one day upon Jean Foillard unloading his wine in Paris, and an ususpecting passerby would have surely mistaken him for a delivery man. A toast for Kuki A toast for Kuki (here on left), a Japanese native who seems to be still working for Caves Augé. He knows both sides of the wine trade and worked a season at Jean Foillard a while ago. Camille Vermynck I don't know what Jean-Christophe Comor has in store to lure all these young women but Camille also worked a while at his winery down there in the remote hills of the Var département. Right now she's managing Le San Francisco, a family hotel/restaurant on the west coast of France near Vannes in Brittany, on the quiet Ile aux Moines. Her venue over there is very open to natural wines from what I understand, thus what I perceived as her success among the vintners here. She also holds tastings from time to time in her Ile-aux-Moines hotel/restaurant, centered on vignerons sharing this love for real wines.... See pictures of this tasting event here, you'll recognize a few people.

Comments

[Tom Mullen]

This looks like a wonderful event! In the United States, the fourth Thursday of November is Thanksgiving....Now that I know the third Thursday of the same month is Beaujolais Day, I will begin serving it for Thanksgiving from now on - whether in the US or Europe. Your photographs really capture the attraction and intimacy of the scene. Nice post.