Paris, 20th arrondissement
There are always some tastings restarting at that time of the year, generally on mondays like here for professional events, I was tipped about this one otherwise I'd have missed it, this was the second edition of
The other nice thing here was the location for the tasting : Caché (means hidden in French) is a restaurant which is indeed hidden in a remote corner of the 20th arrondissement, along a dead-end cobblestone street (Villa Riberolle, villa being another French word for impasse or dead-end street) lined with former workshops next to the Père Lachaise cemetery (but there's no entrance to the cemetary on this side). so unsuspecting visitors can't stumble upon this place by chance). Caché restaurant was founded by two Italians (Lorenza Lenzi and Gianpaolo Polverino) focused on delicate cuisine including seafood. Part of the tasting also took place at Amagat next door, a restaurant sharing the same philosophy but with Spanish (Catalogna) roots.
Pic on left : entering villa Riberolle from the rue de Bagnolet. The restaurant is toward the end on the left. The trees in the far are the Père Lachaise beyond a wall.
The entrance to the event (which from 10 am to 6 pm that day) was (if I'm right) on the Amagat side, which is this room on the picture. The entry fee was 5 € (we're really spoiled in Paris, I know) and you were given a glass, a small cardboard cup to spit and a printed list of the vigneron, and here we go ! I didn't taste that many wines, being in transit in Paris and also still painstakingly recuperating from a flu, but here are the people who were present (includes invited artists, a few breweries and distilleries):
Dom & Terre (Languedoc)
Aurélien Lemaire (Champagne)
Les Enfants Terribles (Alsace)
Chateau Del Ranq (Languedoc)
Domaine des Boissières (Sud-Ouest)
Ça Boit Libre (Savoie)
Jeremy Cartert (Bourgogne)
Domaine de Thalie (Bourgogne)
Domaine Christinat (Switzerland)
Domaine des Canailles (Beaujolais)
Robin Carette (Loire)
Bramaventu (Roussillon)
Dominique Dufour (Loire)
Nathalie Banes (Beaujolais)
Mathias Barralon (North Rhone)
Domaine de la Marinière (Loire)
Maison Jaune (Loire)
Dame Jeanne (Bourgogne)
Le Caveur Etrusco (truffles)
Zéroïne (Jura)
Domaine du Gringet (Savoie)
Bonyvresse (Roussillon)
Domaine Goepp (Alsace)
Les Champs du Possible (Bugey)
Domaine du Nozay (Loire)
Champagne Pierre Deville (Champagne)
Morena Tamborrino (invited artist)
Melsolo (Sud-Ouest)
La Pierre Levée (Sud-Ouest)
Champagne Coessens (Champagne)
Domaine Belmont (Sud-Ouest)
Simon Gastrein (North Rhone)
La Cidrerie Cyprien Lireux (Normandy)
Club des Terres (invited domaine)
Maison Maenad (Jura)
Jorge Olivera (Spain)
Romain Hénin (Champagne)
Angèle Leprat (Bourgogne)
Baptiste Nayrand (Coteaux du Lyonnais)
Julien Merle (Beaujolais)
Tailleurs Cueilleurs (Bugey)
Brasserie du Mont Salève
Brasserie Mosaïque
Distillerie Spiral
Distillerie du Champ du Cygne
Distillerie L'Eau des Vivants
Distillerie Chromatique
Les Larmes du Levant (French sake)
Sabrina Wine Art (invited artist)
Atelier Inès Waris (invited artist)
Mas Palat (olive oil farm)
Now I have a problem : As I'm looking for my notes spread on 3 loose sheets of paper there's one (the first) I can't find... First time I have this type of issue. So hoping I end up finding this piece of paper, I have no notes for the wines I tasted on the first 6 tables.. Not that my notes are that relevant but it's still very frustrating not being able to communicate one's loves at first sip !
The Domaine de La Petite Empreinte in Burgundy is run by Melissa Bazin and Romain de Moor (pictured here) in Courgis. Certainly some relation with the De Moors we all love...
And to make it worse, my only picture at the table of Domaine Robin Carette here is off focus !
I know the Domaine des Canailles is located in southern Beaujolais and managed by Simon Pérot and Etienne Ubaud, they're associates on this thing since 2005, farm biodynamic and have a 8-hectare surface. The young woman on the picture is an American who is staying with them and learning the trade I guess.
Damien Bastian of Ça Boit Libre makes wine in Savoie, on a 4-hectare surface mostly planted with Chasselas, I remember here having been impressed by his dry Chasselas
Les Champs du Possible is a 3-year old wine farm (started in 2020) in the Bugey (Savoie, near the Alps) managed by Ludovic Fayolle (pictured here). Not to mistake (like I did when I spotted the name on the list) with Le Champ du Possible which I visited a couple years ago in the French Alps near Haute Provence. Ludovic bottles everything in Vin de France, for me the best way to be sure his wines are free of any administrative reins.
__ Farfassu 2022 (a local word in Bugey meaning in French l'ébourifé and in English disheveled). The wine we taste here is brut de cuve or vat sample (will be bottled in april). it's a 100 % Chardonnay.all his wines are unfined and unfiltered. Very saline and iodine, that's the word ! Not fully finished wine but already very nice.
__ Tavaillon 2020 [his first vintage]. Still some residual sugar. Made through pellicular maceration in 600-liter demi-muids. 20 % of Melon de Bourgogne in grapes were infused in Chardonnay juice. Nice frank mouth with discreet tannin feel. His only cuvée that is ready, he says.
__ Gamay Les Iles 2022, a red vin de France. Brut de cuve. Nice juice feel, very promising
__ Mosaique 2022, a cuvée typical of old style Bugey : in this cuvée you have all the grapes from the farm, red and whites. Also vat sample. Super good ! Splendid feel when down the throat, don't let that one pass if you see a bottle ! His prices are from 10 € to 13 € pro without tax.
Nathalie Banes is doing everything by herself in her Beaujolais wine farm, including taking care of the draft horse and leading it
between her rows for the
plowing job... She started her thing in 2015 with only 1,5 hectare and now manages 3,8 hectares. She wants to scale back her surface though to farm it properly and grow vegetables on the side in order to be more autarcic. Her team is really very small, if you look at here website it's two-staff strong : herself... and Hulot, her cute horse power aide.
__Pappouth, Blanc de Noir made with Gamay. The wine had 6 grams of residual sugar and she had it bottled in reinforced bottled (sparkling type) just in case, but no pressure in here apparently. No more sresidual sugar now. Turbid wine.
__Nathalitre 2021, a red bottled in one-liter bottle, and a star spangled glass bottle like one-liter table wines were back in the 70s ! Lovely Gamay ! 10 € pro price. Vinified in 2 stainless-steel vats with 2 pumping over per day. She says her maceration lengths are shorter and shorter, like less than 10 days. No filtration, no added sulfites.
__ La Saoulée vin de France 2021, a red made from another parcel. Lovely mouth ! I recommend that. Age of her vines : 35 years in general.
the Domaine du Gringet which is run by Vincent Ruiz (pictured here) is located in Ardèche (southern Rhône), it was started in 2020
after several years where Vincent leant the trade at Balthazar in Cornas. From what I understand, Vincent Ruiz took over Dominique Belluard's Savoie domaine after the latter unexpectedly took his own life last year.
__ Pet Nat, Les Perles du MontBlanc 2019. Vinified by Dominique Belluar
dt (before he died). Nice mouth touch, thin bubbles.
__ Eponyme 2020, made with local white variety Gringet. Also vinified by Belluard. Mineral, rocky feel.
__ Monsieur Gringet 2020. Vines age 80 years here (planted 1915 to 1928). Wow, that's something when you drink this, obviously a different world here.
We are here in the Jura, Domaine Zeroine is managed by Maylis Bernard
(pictured here)
who I've read later somewhere is also Jean-François Ganevat's girlfriend.
__ Chardonnay 2020. Love it ! It flows down like so easy !
__ Gamay 2021. Light color, but what an inspiring color ! 2 weeks of maceration here. You'll love that Gamay for sure ! Delicate, alive. 15 € pro without tax.
__Alsace red Vin de France 2021; blend of Pinot Noir & Riesling, light color too, turbid, almost a rosé. Just delicious !
This is here Champagne Pierre Deville from the Marne part of Champagne in Montagne de Reims, and the young man here is I think Alain Corbeaux, the son of the owners Christophe & Isabelle Corbeaux. the total surface of the domaine is 5 hectares, 60 % of which Pinot Noir and the rest Chardonnay. Farming is not organic but HVE (some sort of light version of conventional farming).
__ Champagne non dosé Chardonnay 100 %. 1 gram so2 added, 20 total.
__ Blanc de Noir. From Pinot Noir.
Mathias Barralon is making wine in Ardèche, he was initially a carpenter, also a musician and
started his natural wine farm in the mid to late 2010s, formally in 2018 (but he had been loving these wines long before). mathias' vineyard surface is small, right now sothing like 2,5 hectares at this stage.
__ Les Soins, Vin de France 2022, made from Pinot Noir planted in 2018. Mathias has been replanting slopes that were covered with vineyards in the past, and he loves the challenge of bringing these coteaux back to life. Exciting turbid color. Mouth : silky tannins. 10,8 % alcohol ! Very refined, lovely wine ! Follow this ! 9 € without tax export price. Right now ha says he has makes only 2 cuvées.
Melsolo is a wine farm managed by a German woman, Mélanie Körber in the Gaillac region in the South-West of France, an area well-known for its many local varieties and the fact it may be the oldest wine region in what is known today as France (it is said to predate the Roman era). Mélanie started her thing back in 2019 and she is doing all the work by herself with a total vineyard surface of 2,5 hectares. The area of Gaillac seems to go through a vibrant renewal, following the pioneering counter revolution of one named PLageoles who forsaked the mainstream varieties imported from Bordeaux and focused instead on the local, near-extinct varieties deemed unsuitable for the mass market. This was really against the tide back then and thanks to Robert's and Bernard's perseverance we have now multiple of young actors like Mélanie popping up. I found about another one in the area while doing a short research on Melsolo, La Bonne Pioche, the guy there was helped by Bernard pLageoles by the way when he looked for a start in the region...
The domaine La Pierre Levée is also located in the Gaillac region (Le Rial
81140 Le Verdier), it is managed by Mickaël Gares pictured here. The winery was started 2 years
Lubrifiant Social is a domaine managed by Julien Merle whose father and grandfather were already in the trade, it is located in the southern Beaujolais and has a vineyard surface of 6,5 hectares, organicly farmed. Winemaking is natural without added sulfites. Watch this interview of Julien in a parcel. If I can read my notes correctly Christian Ducroux is one of the winemakers who inspired him.
__ Loin de L'Oeil 2020, from the namesake local white variety. Obviously unfiltered. 2-week skin maceration here. ago if I'm right. I found this page listing a few cuvées with retail prices, it says the vineyard surface is 4 hectares planted in part with local varieties plus Syrah and Merlot, farming is organic with hand picking. I just tasted one or two wines (this was the end of the tasting and I was reaching my breaking point, many of these wines were so delicious I woudn't spit, or spit enough...).
__ PetNat rosé
__ Braucol 2022, brut de cuve. Some bitterness, enjoyable Braucol.
__ Champ Blanc 2020, a Gamay on granite soil, pretty rare terroir in southern Beaujolais he says. Lovely Gamay ! Very promising indeed.
__ White wine with residual sugar.
Comments