I must admit we don't often drink Rivesaltes, and this bottle was an awakening to what we miss : Here is a fortified wine from the Roussillon region, a Rivesaltes Vin Doux Naturel 1996 made by the Parcé brothers of La Rectorie winery, this wine being made through their négoce wing Les Frères Parcé (purchased grapes). See this map with the tiny orange spots of the Rivesaltes and Maury appellations (2 fortified wines) on the upper-left corner of the pink Roussillon area.
This Rivesaltes wine went through 18 years of élevage in barrels and was bottled very recently, on march 2015. It seems that the Parcé Frères have a large number of barrels of this wine and that they bottle along the demand__see this page featuring the same 1996 wine with a 17-year élevage, bottled in april 2014. The wine is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris and Macabeu and it makes 16,5 % alc. It went through skin contact from what I learned.
Let me tell you that you drink this wine comme du petit lait like we say in French, it sports a great freshness in spite of the sugar and alcohol, you have these soft spices and this rich range of aromas along a saline edge, a delight. Was superb with a Bleu des causses cheese and also a Roquefort. Costs a mere 15 €, incredibly cheap given the long élevage... Plus I'm sure you can just put the cork back and help yourself days later, it won't spoil.
I had brought this magnum of Mephisto MMII (2012) for a family reunion recently in Bourges, eastern Loire. I had bought the wine in Touraine, my attention
was aroused not only because of the label but because it was the work of the Domaine de L'Ecu with Fred Niger Van Herck & Guy Bossard at the wheel. The domaine is a longtime organic pioneer in the Loire, starting farming clean in 1975 and adding biodynamy in 1998.
This cuvée Mephisto is made from a parcel of Cabernet Franc formerly used for the domaine's sparklings. It's all naturally vinified, unfiltered, unfined and no SO2 added. The wine has everything you like, fruit, spices and tannic character. I just think I opened it a bit early because the magnum yields a delayed aging on the wines compared to 75cl bottles and I'm sure it'd be even better in a few months. I have another bottle which I'll try to wait another couple of years.
We've stayed a few days in Lyon for Christmas, my sister having moved there recently, and beyond the family reunion it was a good opportunity to see the city, deemed the 2nd biggest city after Paris. I walked a lot in Lyon, B. went to the Modern
Art Biennale while I just walked casually through
the city under very mild temperatures for the season. I first went to the Vercoquin, a wine shop selling artisan wines on the rue de la Thibaudière. Lots of stuff in there including many Beaujolais wines. Major towns outside Paris have now a good number of natural wine venues and shops, although with its size one could expect more of them for Lyon.
The Vercoquin has lots of interesting bottles, I spotted a wine made by the Gaillac producer Cazottes (better known for his spirits), this was the cuvée Champêtre, a 100 % Braucol (a Gaillac grape variety) vin de France, it was priced at 11 € in the shop. I was also tempted by the cuvée Séléné, a Beaujolais Villages from the Domaine de la Tallebarde, it's made by a former staff of Lapalu, Sylvère Trichard, who farms his 4 hectares by hand. Read this story on Sylvere (in French).
I ended up buying a bottle of Beaujolais by Jérôme Balmet for 12 €. We opened at our friends' country house in the Perche region, it was a pleasure of a Beaujolais.
With this great opportunity to spend a couple of days in Lyon B. and I went to En Mets Fait Ce Qu'il te Plait, THE wine restaurant in Lyon if you're a fan of real, artisan wines. This was Christmas and we weren't available for a dinner there (and they possibly were fully booked) but at least we could speak with the Chef Katsumi who is know
for having many friends-vignerons in the natural-wine scene. Katsumi-san arrived in France in 1992 without even speaking French, he met Marcel Lapierre a year later and thanks to Marcel's warm and communicative embrace he discovered this exciting world and family of {real-] winemakers. After working for other restaurants he opened his own in 1999 and he made a lot to bring the natural wines to Lyon, particularly the one of Beaujolais, and this may have been a uphill battle because Lyon had traditionally its sights on the Rhône wines, Beaujolais being considered a cheap drink for the working class (to say it short).
The restaurant's cellar is well stocked and you can expect great wines to go with your food, including rare picks. When I ask Katsumi-san to hold a bottle of his choice for a quick portrait, he grabbed this Marcel Lapierre cuvée MMVII [2007], no need to say a terrific wine.
Speaking of the food, here was the 25 € menu for lunch when we passed there : Entrees (au choix) : Culatello di Zibello (Emilie Romagne) charcuterie Jambon italien produit dans la province de parme (supl-10 €) or Saumon d'Ecosse Bio fumé maison avec toast or assiette de légumes de Trévoux, lait caillé de chèvre d'Ardèche à l'huile de truffe blanche d'Alba -- Dishes : Cuisse de canard élevée en Bresse confit or Saint-Pierre sauvage de Bretagne à la vapeur (supl 10 €) or Faux chapon de Bresse roti au jus, crême de foie gras (supl 10 €) or Onglet de "Black Angus" pôélé sauce vin rouge -- Cheese or dessert.
The dinner menu which was at 38 € had a few more options.
Address : 43 rue Chevreuil 69007 Lyon -- phone +33 4 78 72 58
Tripadvisor page
You really have to go to this particular intersection in Lyon : on the other side of Katsumi-san's restaurant you have no less than TWO natural-wine venues, one being a wine shop and the other being also a wine shop but
doubling as a
wine bar...
The Cave des Vins Nature is the oldest wine shop at this crossroads, it was actually opened by Katsumi Ishida at about the same time than his restaurant (at a time natural wines were still a long way to be almost mainstream) and it soon fared well with his patrons eager to find the wines they were having in the restaurant but after some time it was hard for him and his staff to manage the two venues at the same time so he sold it. The wine-sop's website is pretty user-friendly, you can try Beaujolais and check all the appellation boxes together then check "red" and "75cl" and you get an istant view of the large choice in nature Beaujolais there. You can even visualize the wines you just missed as it shows the out-of-stock cuvée. The shop seems to sell wine online too and ship. The shop also maintains a blog where you have salivating entrees on their new cuvées and spirits. I spent a lot of time "reading" all these labels, there's a lot of choice here with prices starting at 5 €.
I bought this bottle of Beaujolais 2012 by Nicolas Dubost (it was 9 € if I remember) who set up his domaine in 2000, farming organic and beginning to introduce biodynamy. We drank it in Lyon with the family, I didn't take notes but I remember a light pleasant wine (makes only 11% alc.).
Don't miss the boulangerie [bakery] next door, it has excellent breat, we were tipped about it by Katsumi-san himself....
Address : 34 rue Chevreuil 69007 Lyon -- phone +33 4 37 37 40 47
This is the other natural wine venue, next to the Cave des Vins Nature and facing Katsumi-san's restaurant : En Attendant Septembre is a wine shop where you can also order wine by the glass,
a good way to sample and help you make your purchase. When B. and I walked in they were about to close for the Christmas
evening and we couldn't have a glass alas.
This cave was opened barely 2 months ago by someone appropriately named Didier Boisson [means drink in French], and this new venue makes this particular street intersection the most strategic on in Lyon for wine lovers.
Here are the wines by the glass (12 cl) they had when we passed there : Whites -- La Pierre de Sysiphe 2014 Joseph Jefferies Languedoc 4,4 € -- Zelberg 2012 Julien Meyer Alsace 4,6 € -- Bourgogne Vezelay 2014 Montanet Toden 5,3 €
Reds : Hors Champs 2014 Jean Baptiste Sénat 3,7 € -- Chiroubles 2014 Damien Coquelet 4,3 € -- Autrement 2012 Jacques Broustet 5,1 €. The cork fee for a bottle on the shelves was 8 €.
The wine-bar section is open thursday & friday (7 pm to 11 pm) and saturday ( noon to 3 pm).
Address : 34 rue Chevreuil 69007 Lyon -- phone +33 9 81 28 28 89
When we stopped for a day in Burgundy at her parents' place, B. grabbed a bottle in her own cellar there, this was a great pick, this wine was just soooo beautiful : Vouvray Le Mont demi-sec 2001 by Huet Viticulteur to use the exact words of the front label. This 15-year old Chenin was just so exquisite and complex, every sip was a delight, it was lightly sugary, we had it with a foie gras pôélé.
She had bought the bottle for 14,7 € when we had visited the Domaine Huet back in 2004, on the 1st year of this Wineterroirs venture, the bottle then was put to rest 11 long years waiting for this superb day.
I went for a last visit at the Tsukiji fish market which is to move later in 2016 to
nearby Toyosu. There are of course worries that the market which really has a soul will loose its essence in its new clothes. Right now Tsukiji is the perfect example of ancient, traditionnal Japan fitting perfectly with the modern world, day after day for such a long time it has brought tons of fresh fish to the tables of the demanding Japanese consumers. The market has a soul which it owes largely to its many workers including the cart and iconic turret truck drivers who pass so fast along the narrow alleys.
Paris went through this decades ago when the Marché des Halles moved to Rungis around 1970, I think this was a mistake and some of the market should have remained in its wonderful Baltard architecture.
At least Toyosu where the Tsukiji market will relocate is very close to the former location (3 km), unlike Rungis where few Parisians dare to go to as it's buried in a suburb 20 km south of Paris. The new fish market will be multistory and the public access will be regulated which I think means we will not be allowed anymore to mix with the workers and sales people, I'm afraid the empirical success of Tsukiji might not survive the administrative move.
I like the comment of a turret truck driver who's been working for 30 years at Tsukiji and who says wisely that We have come this far because of this wonderful market and the system that our predecessors established, however, I don’t think the new facility is something that we can proudly hand over to the next generation. It’s like one big warehouse.”
As an indication how Japanese natural wines are going mainstream for demanding shoppers, here are a couple of pictures shot at the Chabara Aki-Oka market in Akihabara/Okachimachi, Tokyo. This large shop has been a project by Japan Rail (it's actually sitting right under its tracks between the Akihabara & Okachimachi stations). Chabara Aki-Oka sells all sort of artisanal products from throughout Japan, it's quality stuff and often organic from what I understand. There's lots of gift junk too but you'll find good food too (see here for more pictures (click on a particular pic to enlarge).
The wine section was for me quite a surprise, first they had wine fridges for certain wines when in Japan it's still rare to see wine stored under controlled temperature (this was december but summer
is excessively hot here). Then several of these wines were obviously natural wines with labels highlighting
the no-SO2, unfiltered or no-additive character of the product. Another surprise was the very affordable prices.
The bottle above right, Zawazawa 2014 is a 100 % Delaware made by the Hitomi winery, as its label reads, it's Acid additive-free, it had its malolactic and it's unfiltered. I love the Japlish sentence above : "Complete Absolute Ego feat.Destiny". This bottle cost only ¥ 1800 or 14 €, really cheap for a domestic natural wine.
The other wine (above left) was another cuvée from the same Hitomi winery : La Shi Sa sans soufre doux [en français dans le texte] 2015 "Rurale Type Non Degorgement Sweet Style which if my Japlish is good means ancestral method undisgorged- sweet sparkling. It's made from the Niagara grape variety and makes only 9 % in alc. The shopping website lists it as being made without additives ( 酸化防止剤無添加にごりワイン ).
At ¥ 1600 or 12,5 € it was also a surprising bargain.
On the pic on left you can see another wine sold there, also made by the Hitomi winery, it's Vin Nature de "Awa" BlancBlanc 2015, a Sans Soufre Vin Nature [en français dans le texte] or SO2-free natural wine made from Niagara and Delaware. This is a sparkling (with residual sugar I think) and the closure is of the swing type, alcohol is 10 %. At ¥ 1800 or 14 € that's cheap too.
The Hitomi winery has quite a large range of wines, here are the wines, here, here, here and here. The Google-translation is so poetic that you salivate when you read it...
Hitomi winery's website.
Among the hundreds of products at Chabara Aki-Oka they have also very affordable miso paste packs (pic on right), of the type B. uses at home all the time in Paris and I emailed her with a pic to ask if we needed to restock. At respectively ¥ 700 (5,5 €) and ¥ 1000 (7,8 €) for a 750g pack this was also a very good deal.
The japanese love to buy their food on food trucks, especially for lunch in the office neighborhoods, and like elsewhere some chains like the Bell Pot chain invested in the health-food trend. I shot this picture near the Ichigata station if I remember, I didn't eat anything there but loved the truck, it looks very similar to the iconic Citroën Type H which in France we call the Citroën Tube, I think it's some sort of copy made by a Japanese fan of Citroën. The food truck here is very small even though it may look large on the picture, and it has yellow plates hinting that it's in the Kei car category with an engine under 660 cc and lower tax and insurance. Japan is a gold mine for car lovers, they have car types (particularly in the Kei car bracket) which you don't find elsewhere, I think therre's a fortune to make exporting them overseas, if the damned European norms allow it.
In Lyon we opened this Chateau Belles Graves, Lalande de Pomerol 1964 which my mother had brought specially for the family reunion. We were anxious and excited about what the wine had in store especially that my grandfather hadn't stored it in a good cellar but only
a bit of the wine was missing in the bottle so there was hope. We had trouble (I had trouble) getting the cork out, I hadn't brought my special needle corkscrew which is
actually not a screw but pumps air inside the bottle neck in order to push the cork gently out, so with the regular corkscrew the cork just crumbled into pieces and I had to take all the remaining cork using a sharp object and a vacuum cleaner so that the tiny debris don't land in the wine, and it worked well although we couldn't enjoy seeing the whole cork.
The wine ended up being very likeable and fruity, with of course aromas in pair with its age but not to the point of maderisation, it had a nice delicate complexity and the experience was all suavity. We often delay the opening of old bottles but I think one day or another it's time to make the step and put them on the table, choosing of course the right time and people. A cellar shouldn't be viewed as an investment portfolio but rather as a pantry where you store food that will ultimately shared for a few precious minutes.
Here are a few wines which I tasted a few weeks ago, you may recognize the sidewalk outside the Caves Augé.
Nicolas Renaud of Clos des Grillons is a neighboor from the Domaine de l'Anglore (here represented by
Eric Pfifferling's son Thibault). The Clos des Grillons is farmed on the biodynamic method.
__ Les Grillons white 2014, made from Grenache, Bourboulenc and Picpoul. Fruity and acidulous on the nose with notes of berlingot candy. In the mouth, a majestic wine with
power.
__ Les
Grillons "Cuvée 1901" 2014, 100% Bourboulenc, a cuvée of white he's making every year since 2008. As its name hints, its made from 100-year-old vines. There's a nice energy in this wine, with I feel more minerality.
__ Clos des Grillons 2014 red. Cinsault, Grenache Mourvèdre. A lightly-colored red, and we're in the Rhône... Quite powerful in the mouth with refined tannins, a feel of silk paper.
Facebook page of the Clos des Grillons.
Thibault Pfifferling now takes the reins from Eric his father, no doubt we'll be happy as well with his work.
__ L'Anglore Chemin de la Brune, Vin de France 2014. Grenache, Cinsault and a bit of Mourvèdre. The mouth is very sensual and feminine. The wine looks like a white or a very pale rosé, it's surprising, but in the mouth it has the structure of a red. Grenadine notes.
__ Venskab (not noted the vintage but I think it's 2014), a cuvée they've been making with Nicolas Renaud for 3 years now, they first did it to thank a Danish importer (Venskab means friendship in Danish). This is a blend of several wines, including Tavel, some old vines and Renaud's rosé. They were vinified separately and blended in the spring, bottled in july It's labelled as a table wine of course. Nice structure in the mouth with a light peppery bitterness. Some sort of Tavel with its powerful feel, plus a sugar/glycerol side too. They made 39 hectoliters in 2014 or 4800 bottles. Unfiltered wine, 1,5 gr/hectoliter for SO2. Costs about 18 € a bottle. Varieties : Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvèdre, Carignan, Clairette
__ L'Anglore Tavel 2014. A dark rosé with a turbid look. This red has a beautiful energy in it, the one only well-tended vines can produce. On the nose, hints of acidic
cherries. The mouth is bursting with freshness, here is a very enjoyable wine.
__ L'Anglore les Traverses 2014, Vin de France. Mostly made from Syrah, plus a bit of Grenache. Man, this is sooo good. Not enough of it in my glass but I won't dare ask for more.
__ L'Anglore Pierre Chaude 2014, vin de France also. Majority of Grenache. Even better than the previous pour, so beautiful, refined and alive....This is just magic, take any bottle you could find, you'll not regret your purchase.
__ L'Anglore aux Foulards Rouge, a red table wine 2014 which is the work of Eric Pfifferling and Jean-François Nick, I understand it's a blend of Tavel with Nick's Les Glaneuses. Very nice wine, the mouthfeel bringing impressions of dust, of a cloud of thin tannin that wrap the fruit aromas.
Hirotake Ooka, the Japanese native and friend of Thierry Allemand who makes wine in the Saint-Peray/Cornas region had brought a couple of wines from this Rhône cellar.
__ Le Canon Blanc 2013, white Vin de France, 100 % Chardonnay. Lightly turbid, a nice wine in the mouth with a beautiful sapidity, I could say also umami.
__ Le Canon 2014, red Vin de France (table wine), blend of Syrah/Grenache. Very enegetic wine, tight & subdued tannins, thin like silk paper. Vinification : wholeclustered,
stomping once a day, 15-day vatting, no pumping over. 1-day pressing time in basket press. Costs 4,9 € without tax at the domaine.
__ Le Canon 2014, red Vin de France (table wine).
__ Vin de France 2012, 100 % Syrah. Could technically have been labelled a Saint-Joseph but he didn't ask for the appellation : in 2011 he was refused the appellation, so in 2012 and 2013 he didn't ask for it. Beautiful, delicate aromas of faded roses, there's a thin tannic texture, wrapped in a light sugary feel, the whole thing perfectly balanced by a good acidity. Unfiltered and no added so2, bottled march 2015. Kudos for this wine... Costs 12 € without tax.
I tasted two wines from the Domaine Gilles Barge :
__ Côte Rôtie Cuvée du
Plessy 2011. Toasted aromas, a bit short in the mouth.
__ Serine, "Enclavée Cuite Rôtie" (written on the elliptic banner at the bottom). The parcel is in an enclave inside the Côte Rôtie area which for some reason is labelled as a mere Côtes du Rhône, this has to do with fuzzy appellation politics when the delimitations of the appellations were made around 1940 in the area.
Lovely chiseled wine with a nice tannic texture. Don't miss if it comes you way, plus the labelling is humoristic, alludes to it's deprived Côte-Rôtie appellation.
I also tasted a few wines from Domaine Gramenon, Michèle Aubery was there in person to pour her wines. Other winemakers who weren't involved in the tasting (like here Didier Chaffardon from the Loire) dropped at the wine shop to taste wines and see their colleagues.
__ Poignée de Raisins 2014, a red made with the younger vines of Grenache and Cinsault (5 to 30 actually), a nice
entry wine for Gramenon's range.
__ Sierra du Sud Côtes du Rhône 2014. A red with a lightly turbidly-milky color. Sharp, voluptuous acidity. Very nice, enjoyable wine, I like that...
__ La Sagesse Côtes du Rhône 2014. Same color and turbidity character than the previous wine. High acidity, sharp & focused.
__ La Mémé, Ceps Centenaires [vines older than 100] 2014. A cult cuvée around the wotld from Gramenon. Just beginning with the nose you get the intant notice of its qualities, with somehow a salivating feel of acidity. Mouth ; extraordinary freshness indeed, it's a light, aerial Côtes du Rhône, an iconic wine for a reason, light years from the Rhône wines you're used to. Divine to the last drop. That's when Didier Chaffardon tells me that La Papesse is even better...
__ La Papesse Vinsobres 2014. Color : lightly darker. The lose is super complex, with notes of peony and other flowers in a late summer afternoon. Swallowed : here there's more intensity compared to the previous wine but I keep my preference for La Mémé...
Paul Estève's Domaine des Miquettes is located in the southern Saint-Joseph area, it's barely more than 10 years old with a 4 or 5-hectare surface. Paul uses large capacity barrels (demi-muids) as well as amphorae for the vinification, he and his wife farm biodynamic and vinify with indigenous yeast.
__ Saint Joseph
2012. Lots of fruit in the mouth, superb Saint Jo... Vinified in cement vat, half whole clusters and half destemmed grapes. Unfiltered, unfined.
__ Madloba red 2013, a Saint Joseph vinified in amphora, with 3 weeks of skin contact. It's the 4th year he makes this cuvée, same for its white equivalent. In the mouth the wine is more astringent, it has to do I guess with the long skin contact. Very fruity. Short mouth feel.
__ Madloba white 2013, made with Marssanne & Viognier. Macerated on the skins for 6 months. Color : somewhere between orange and yellow. Nose : honey candy, interesting aromas of turbid white beer and white flowers. They vinify this wine in underground amphorae, Georgian style like you can see on this picture. Vinifying in amphora brings great results and one of its promoters in France is certainly Thierry Puzelat, pictured here again by the Japanese wine photographer Mai. Mai travels the wine routes with another Japanese woman, visiting artisan winemakers (watch for Keiko & Maika). Thierry helps also several Georgian winemakers sell their wines in France and Europe.
Matthieu Dumarcher is a young vigneron who started his domaine in 2006, he farms 5 hectares in the southern Rhône.
__ Léon & Séraphin 2014, Vin de France (table wine). Grenache, Carignan and Syrah. Picking was quite early in order to have a wine with freshness. The color of this red is light, like a Tavel. In the mouth, there a sugary feel with a majestic freshness.
__ Côtes du Rhône 2013, red. Grenache and Carignan (both on stonny garrigue soil, 50 years old) and Syrah (on clays). Concentration and refineness are the words that come to mind with this wine, there's also a nice acidity holding the whole thing together.
__ Côtes du Rhône 2014, also made from Carignan, Grenache and a little bit of Syrah. There's more Grenache in this vintage because its share was abnormally low in 2013. Vinified half in wood, half in vats, a bit of SO2 added before bottling. Surprising mouth with a coffee side, some dust feel and well-integrated tannins, nice wine.
__ Zinzin 2014, Vin de France (table wine).Syrah on cool terroir, meaning with more clay than stones, this is thus very good for the Syrah because it doesn't suffer too much under the Rhône summers. Nice elegant aromas, long mouth.
I went in december to a tasting focused on the wines of the Gaillac appellation, a region which is known to be the oldest wine region in France. The Gaillac wines have made a comeback a couple decades ago after illfated attemps along the 20th century to duplicate the Bordeaux wines by replacing its unique grape varieties with the Bordeaux ones. The tasting took place at A. Noste, a tapas restaurant in the 2nd arrondissement and the wines were made with the emblematic varieties of this small appellation : Braucol, Duras, Prunelart, Mauzac and Loin de l’œil.
The participating domaines were either organic or farming along "agriculture raisonnée which is said to be conventional farming with lower doses of spraying. Organic farming has increased a lot in the region, certainly thanks to a handful of successful wine farms beginning with the Domaine Plageoles, the pioneer in this regard including for the reintroduction of the indigenous varieties which had otherwise almost disappeared duruing the 20th century. My impression after tasting most of the wines is that if there's been a change for the better in the farming management and the choice of varieties, the vinification somehow lags in many of the wines, these reds being often overextracted and with a disbalance and an excessively forward alcohol feel. At the end of the tables I stumbled on a domaine I have already tasted in the past and highly praised, the Domaine Brin, and believe me there was such a difference with Damien Bonnet's wines (he was here in person), here at last was the balance and pleasure to drink, which proves that with the right cellar work (or might be the lack thereof) the Gaillac wines can recover their drinkability and their freshness.
We had a few bottles of the Macabeu variety a few weeks ago. Macabeu is the common French name but each region has its own name, like Macabeo or here Viura, this one from the Rioja was really standing out. This Rioja white 4 Caminos is made by the Bodegas Moraza. The 6-generation wine farm is organic, it used slow pressing and low-temperature fermentation in a stainless-steel vat.
The nose is complex and beautiful, very feminine, aromas of peony and other flowers. The mouth is really enjoyable, superb and balanced power, it doesn't feel high in alcohol with its reasonable 12,5 %. It costs only 10 € at the Cave d'Ivry, a good caviste located in the Paris suburb.
I bought this wine randomly, this southern Rhône was a good surpise with this freshness and thin, integrated tannnins with a dust feel and a fruit that wasn't over extracted. Here is a nice wine from Chateau Amphoux, it's made from Carignan vines planted in 1874 on a 1-hectare plot in the Costières de Nîmes (in the Languedoc, was formerly in the southern Rhône).
That what we can call very old vines, about 140 years, the old ladies have made a good work, even if I presume there has been some later replantings later in the parcel.
The wine has this good freshness in spite of the hot summers there and it makes 13,5 % in alcohol which is reasonable for the region. You find a few informations on this cuvée (in English) on this page but there seems to be otherwise little info available about it on the web. It seemùs the wine didn't see oak, at least the vintage tasted by the wine writer there.
I stumbled upon this poster just a few days after the islamist terror attacks in Paris last november, this was just a few meters from Le Repaire de Cartouche (Rue Amelot side) where I had been for a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau (pic on left, Rodolphe Paquin), and just maybe 100 meters from Au Passage, another great wine bistro. The poster was here for a good reason as the Bataclan itself
(the theater where some 80 people were murdered) is a mere 400 meters away. I liked to see this
black-and-white street-Art work standing discreetly in this nondescript little street, one of the guy featured on the painting holding his glass proudly, it's simple, straightforward and says it all. My visits to several bars and venues that day proved me that people were eager to keep going out and have a glass in crowded bars and even terraces.
I don't think street art or hashtags are the most powerful weapons to defeat barbarity (if ISIS certainly fears Russian bombs, Boko Haram still laughs at #bringbackourgirls...) but in this case it helps the survivors literally stand up and keep going. This evening I went also to Au Passage as well as at Le Rubis (pic on right), where the ambiance was terrific and the Nouveau wines were nice and cheap (4 € a glass).
Combo is a courageous street artist ("Fear No One, Fear Nothing" is his motto), he is the author of Coexist, a collage/poster he's been putting up on the walls all over after the Charlie-Hebdo carnage and which shows side by side the symbols of Islam, Christianity and Judaism with the underlying message that this is just a big family that can coexist peacefully. But he was threatened and badly beaten up for that painting by 4 thugs (whom, interestingly, he refused to describe...). There's nothing worse for devout muslim fanatics than seeing the sign of Judaism next to the one of Islam...
We had this Montlouis Clos du Breuil 2013 a few weeks ago, the bottle was among 3 that I had bought in the Loire (not at the domaine). It was a palate opening experience, this wine was so pure, so refined and alive, full of energy and keeping telling you things as you were having a sip now and then. I attribute this to the biodynamic farming at François Chidaine, there is a mysterious relation with this type of farming and the aliveness feel in the wine, and believe me, I really wasn't prejudiced when I opened the bottle. The yields are 25 hectoliters/hectare, vines are 30 to 90, soil is clay with silex plus chalky tuffeau rock table through with the roots penetrate. Great job and for a very affordable price as I see on the domaine's retail wine price list that they sell currently the 2011 for 13,9 € tax included (I guess the 2013 is sold out).
This was a delight, here is another wine by Gilles Azzoni, Zebrure 2012. The bottle had been sleeping in my wine fridge in Paris for a few months and one evening I thought we might open it. It is made with a red grape and a white grape, 70 % Syrah and 30 % Petit Manseng. The color speaks by itself, this unfiltered, unsulfured table wine from the Ardèche is a pleasure to chew and to swallow, the first thing you think to when you swallow it is "wine is food", and we all know we need food to survive...
I shot this picture in a small village in the Loire (Touraine), outside a street house.
One of the strongest incentive for an urbanite who considers moving to the countryside is certainly the fact that he can keep these lovely animals we see when we go there on weekends. What child in our mega towns wouldn't dream of having such a cute thing as a companion ? Having to take care of a pet is also a training ground for future responsabilities but let's keep that aspect on the side : the emotional enrichment of having these animals is so obvious, and I begin to understand why a real farm with all its animals living side by side yields better wines and products than a soulless productivist industrial farm, it's all proved in the eyes of these cuties.
For the festive evening of New Year's Eve 2016 which we spent with friends in the Perche region, we had some simple sparkling, namely a Loire traditional-method bubbly by André Fouassier (cuvée Saint Phalier) which we consider a very good deal. I don't know if many people do like us as from the recently-released statistics Champagne has broken another record of production, but I do think there's a trend in France to replace Champagne with other less glamorous sparkling which are made on lower yields and (for the pet-nat part) without sugar addition and lab yeast. Another reason to switch to these sparklings could be the heavy bullying exerted by the Champagne people on writers they don't like or think they threaten the commercial image of Champagne. Jim Budd reported at length in his blog Jim's Loire about the ordeal faced by Jayne Powell, better known as Champagne Jayne (a title the bullies wanted her stop using), one of the reasons of the CICV Jayne-vs-Goliath trial being that she also wrote nicely about nice non-Champagne bubblies, an horrible threat for the Champagne big guys as you can guess (would it be that they're not confident in the soundness of their asset ?). This bullying and trial cost her a lot of harm and expenses and at one point a crowdfunding account was opened to support her, which I think is still active. Like you can read in the Gofundme video, the real issue is that she has demystified Champagne, certainly the unspoken crime targetted in the trial.
As a response you can begin from time to time to use regular sparklings and pet-nat (natural sparklings) for your special occasions, and don't forget to use occasionally on the social media the humoristic (hoping humor doesn't drag us to court) hashtags Jim found out : #bettervaluethanchampagne #tastesbetterthanchampagne #loweryieldsthanchampagne #lessaddedsugarthanchampagne #notthechampagnebullies #idontdrinkchampagne #champagnewineofbulliesnotcelebration
Speaking of bullying, another heavy weight has been recently under the spotlight for its unfair practices, copyright issues, revenue issues and last-but-not-least censorship against those not in line with its own political correctness : Facebook. The recent initiative by Facebook to work with Germany's Angela Merkel to censor on the Internet the dissenting voices and debates relating to her controversial immigration policies is more than worrying, especially that the users of the social media site have few alternatives__ Yet.
A new player has been setting up shop with totally crystal-clear rules of conduct as well as ethics : Tsu is a new social media platform that gives its users full ownership of their content and also shares the advertising revenues generously with them, making it potentially a fearsome rival to Facebook, which lags on all these issues. There's a sign that this tiny startup company represents a huge danger to the Goliath of social media, Facebook has been doing all it can against Tsu (and it can a lot...), blocking the links to Tsu (calling it "spam" !), and going as far as retroactively removing any mention of the site from its archives. That speaks volume about the panic in the leadership of Facebook, this is clearly abuse of power, be it on the political forum or on the competitors, and even if Facebook since then seems to have backtracked and lifted the ban (a move which is reminiscent of Riedel in its censorship push against a writer) this bullying has been one more worry for users trapped in the company. Like I'd say for Champagne, you may keep your account there for now but it'd be wise to begin switch progressively to Tsu as a precaution and with an eye on the future...
We opened recently this bottle fom Anjou while on a weekend in the Loire, this is a Vin de France 2014 by Damien Bureau, 100 % Grolleau.
This was just so good, a pleasure all along including the next day when we finished the bottle. It's a pleasure of joyful fruit and suavity, the type of easy unfiltered wine with nothing to hide which I'm sure most of us relish to enjoy. The wine was making a mere 11 % in alcohol.
Here are somme comments I wrote on my winery-visit profile a few months back : His yields there are 60 hectliters/hectare although he prunes short. Damien vinifies it [this Grolleau] like the Pineau d'Aunis, whole-clustered, in neutral vats, no pigeage, no pumping over. This is his 1st vintage of this terroir and he decided to devat it after 3 weeks because he felt like it was already fine. What he likes with this Grolleau is that compared with the Aunis you get more substance all the while remaining on the lightness side and the easy-drinking, fruity side. Another cuvée you must try, especially that it costs around 10 € if I remember.
I spent a few days in Budapest recently and discovered that even by minus 8 ° C outside temperatures you can really enjoy a beer, in my case I'd often choose a dark
beer when given the chance to
make myself understand, like here a Dreher Bak which I took in a corner beer stand at the 2nd story of the Nagyvásárcsarnok covered market along the Danube. They just have a couple of stools along the window but a couple of tables and locals stop there to add liquid pleasure to their meat and vegetable purchases. I paid 330 Forints for this draft beer (1 €) with the luxury of a view.
I like this beer, you feel you're eating all the while you're drinking, it's balanced and I like the caramel or roasted aromas there but it's pretty strong at 7 % alc. In the shops in Budapest you can have a 0,5 liter bottle for a mere 249 Forints or only 0,79 €.
Here is the Beeradvocate page on this beer.
Hungary is also for me a shortcut to access a staple of the Russian diet like salo, known here under the name of szalonna, you can spot the blocks of white pork fat lurking from behind the shop windows of all charcuterie stalls in the different covered markets of Budapest. While I never experienced one here which I really didn't like there is obviously a
variation in quality and refineness, all these fats being prepared in different farms or small meat plants.
This time I think I found the right one (the market and stall wil remain classified information).
The Szalonna was advertised on the shop window of the market stand as "Extra minöségi házi füstölésű csemege szalonna" (I'm giving a precious clue here) which means in short extra quality home-made smoked pork fat. They were right, this particular Szalonna was of top-notch quality, a velvety white thing melting divinely in the mouth. I can't believe the price I paid for this pork-fat delicacy : 1099 Forints per kg, or less than 3,5 € / kg...
The images on the sides are from the wrapping paper of the szalonna.
I had to wait to be back in Paris to enjoy it with the Russian Standard Platinum which I brought back from Moscow recently. I like to caution people on this vodka and I'll do it again : it's so easy to drink and smooth in the throat that you have to take extra precautions and measure your thirst, try to limit yourself to one glass and that's it... And there's something I'm intuitively sure of, it's that getting salo with vodka is a great, healthy combination (and not only for the taste and pairing), particularly in winter. You can often read lyrical praises for salo going with vodka on the Russian blogosphere, like it's making miracle things inside our metabolism and combine with each other so that the fat sort of goes away. I think there's truth to this even if it sounds like anathema to the Westerner equaling spartan food with healthy diet.
Russian Standard is a relatively new distillery in Russia, having being created in 1998 by a successful entrepeneur with large means. I remember having had a terrific basic-range vodka from them in an Auchan supermarket in France when they launched the brand here, but I'm pretty sure the vodka inside the bottle then was of the higher Platinum range which goes through two additional filtering throughh silver, making it a particularly smooth and velvety vodka. I bought this one-liter bottle in Moscow at the Duty Free of the Sheremetyevo airport this december, a great value at 23 € (I paid with a card and it turned out to be billed only 21 €).
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