Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France

Vinopiano, Budapest wine bar

The counter and bottle wall

Budapest, Hungary
Here is Vinopiano, this wine bar made its debut on the other side of the Danube on Bartók Béla út and was transfered here because from what I understand the investor behind the venue found another location on Pest side along Tűzoltó utca on premises large enough so that they could fit both a kert (or Biergarten with a ruin pub touch) on the surface and the wine bar in a basement. Wine bars (usually doubling as wine shops) dealing with natural wine have been opening here and there in Budapest in the last few years but this one gets this relaxed approach that makes it more familiar for those of us used to the bohemian laidback atmosphere of the French natural wine bars.

The easygoing feel may also have to do with the location, Tűzoltó utca is off the beaten track, a bit off-center it's not the classy (but rather cold) 5th kerület nor the crowded 7th' party district in the former Jewish Ghetto. It is certainly closer to where young Hungarians live and thus more neighborhoody, but still at easy reach for an ousider : take tramway 4 or 6 to Corvin Negyed and from there a short walk along Tűzoltó utca 22.
The street view of the building shows a nondescript facade but with the backlit stencil signs you immediately feel there's more than that underground. This visit took place in the evening of the 23rd of february, in the night when the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, we live through very dangerous times and hope it stops...

An other era and perspective on wine

Who loves wine, loves life

It is good to remind that along history the vision and understanding on things has evolved continuously. What you believed as rock solid decades ago evaporates overnight, and this in many fields (today's righteous certitudes will follow the same path, be sure of that). This story is not only an interlude while waiting a warmer season but a reminder on times where optics were totally different... These posters date from, say, around 1915 to the late 1960s'. Since the censorship law of 1991 there has been of course no positive communication campaign in France regarding wine, everything now unfolding instead by word of mouth and undercover. But on the bright side the natural-wine milieu is certainly the most vibrant in emphasizing the healthy and joyful nature of this age-old beverage...

Bistrot Paul Bert tasting

Festive street window

11th arrondissement, Paris
This is another tastingI went to in the vibrant 11th to recently (actually in early december...) and this was my last tasting in that year (not that there weren't more, this season was hot, but I was busy or away afterwards). This professional tasting was organized by Solenne Jouan, the young woman behind Vins Eléments, she is a distribution agent and through this structure she deals only with living wines, selling to professionals in Paris. The young sommelière worked at Le Baratin, Saturne and Bistrot Paul Bert (all hot spots for real wines/real food) before setting up her own thing.

The tasting took place at both the Bistrot Paul Bert (I linked to their wine list) and L'Ecailler du Bistrot next door, two venues that work in tandem (also owned by Bertrand Auboyneau and Gwenaëlle Cadoret). These are good places to hang around for good wine, especially now that mass tourism has receded (yes, there was also kind of a mass tourism for natural-wine venues a couple years ago until 2019...), there's a little more chance to find a seat now. Plus, these venues have the feel of an authentic patina, nothing overstated, and you really feel at ease in there.

Les 10 Vins Cochons 2021

The marquee-like room

Saint-Rémy-sur-Durolle, Auvergne
This early december took place the 18th edition of the famed (if small) wine fair Les 10 Vins Cochons, a natural-wine, direct-sale event centered on the wines of Auvergne and Massif Central. The organizers had in mind from the start to make these wines better known for the locals who don't have the opportunity to know them, that's why the organizers kept selecting along the years venues located deep in the heart of this vibrant mountainous region which as you know is dotted with so many exctinct volcanoes. That's why also the bottle prices were pretty friendly, that is, either the same price than at the wine farm or even cheaper from what I was told by a few winemakers. The remoteness of the chosen location tends to make this wine fair indeed very local with few Parisians or foreigners attending because of the complicated issue of commuting by public transport (first reach Clermont Ferrand by train, then a secondary town (here Thiers), then the final stretch who-knows-how (taxi, acquaintance...) to reach the given village.

So in short, practically I gave up, but there was an unexpected turnaround when Aaron tipped about the impending event (which anyway had passed under my radar) and offered me to get there together and possibly visit a vigneron the day before. Doing crazy things collectively seemed wiser than venturing there alone, especially when not aware at all about where we'd sleep (and the region was under the snow), so I said OK, just that I was busy the day before. So here I am taking the train to Clermond Ferrand where I'd meet a few folks including Aaron (blog & Substack newsletter) and Hannah Fuellenkemper (blog or Instagram), and find myself in good company in the back of a Saab with Dutch license plates heading to the white mountains, exactly to the reservoir of the village of Saint-Rémy-sur-Durolle (pictures on both side)... I love this job

La Goulayance tasting

Happy crowd

Ground Control, near Gare de Lyon (Paris)
This is a time of the year you have plenty of exciting tasting in Paris, I was tipped about La Goulayance by Maryse and although I intended to go there, when the day came for real on november 28, it was so rainy, grey and cloudy (typical Paris weather at this time of the year you might say) that I really was going reluctantly (j'y allais à reculons like we say in French), taking the métro where at least the rain couldn't reach me for this Ground Control thing which I had visited recently also for a tasting (given the venue, this tasting couldn't be but worthwhile)...

Unsuspecting passerbys certainly couldn't imagine that day what was going on behind this bleak street access (picture on right), the place is as you know a former train workshop that belonged to the state rail company SNCF and the new managers obviously haven't been looking to make it glamorous, too much work I guess, plus there's a charm in converted industrial premises.

The tasting event was centered on the "vins sains sans artifices" which could be translated by "healthy wines made without tricks", it took place on two consecutive days november 217 & 28, access was unrestricted, fee was 10 € which included a glass and tasting of everything, chatting with all these winemakers, and you had to have your valid pass sanitaine scanned beforehand (that's the law), otherwise, when inside you weren't requided to keep your mask. Que la fête commence !
And if you want to see how valuable this tasting was indeed, just check the list of participating domaines/winemakers (on the left)...

Loire Volcanique tasting

View on the tasting

La Marbrerie, Montreuil (Paris suburb)
This is yet another interesting tasting which focused on the easternmost sub-wine regions of the Loire, gathered here under the unifying concept of La Loire Volcanique. What we call the Loire as wine region has as you know a very wide span (see Loire wine region map here) as it goes literally from the Atlantic (with Vendée) to the extinct volcanoes of the Massif Central (West of Lyon), the closest "Loire" vineyard over there west of Lyon being a mere 60 kilometers from this city as the crow flies, quite far east when you think about it... Precisely in the vicinity of these exctinct volcanoes, there are a few small regions which need to be better known, these are Saint-Pourçain, Auvergne, Forez and Roannais, and this professional tasting event put in place by Aurélie Soubiran for the collective Loire Volcanique helped correct this. Auvergne has been on the map for many of us thanks to the great work of a small band of intrepid artisan vignerons but the other neighboring regions somehow remained off focus, that's why we're grateful for this type of initiative.

This event took place at La Marbrerie, another of these multi-faceted community centers where you can have concerts, live events, wine fairs, plenty other things that don't always fit in regular venues or theaters. The place is located in Montreuil, and I came with my motorbike but by metro it's line 9, Mairie de Montreuil and from there 400 meters by foot. Montreuil has another hot place for real wines : L'Amitié Rit, which now and then holds its own tastings (not to miss, check their Facebook page, I just saw I missed Naturisme, their 28th november tasting).

Tastings have resumed : Biotop

Things get on track again (video overview)

Gare de Lyon, Paris
It's been a fact that tastings had resumed already a bit in spring 2021 (still very limited because vaccination was just beginning and organizers were scary of problems with the authorities I guess) but in autumn 2021 I really felt we were back for some normalcy after almost two years of virtual shutdown on the wine-events front. The relatively high vaccination rate in France (reached after a late and sluggish start, to be honest) allowed for this easing which we hope will last throughout winter months). Some kind of complained on Instagram when i posted a picture of the event, like this unmasked crowd was a no-go signal and full of risks, but of course there was a document check at the door to make sure everyone was either fully vaxxed or had a recent negative test for the pandemic virus.

The Biotop tasting event is organized by Isabelle Jomain of Verre Bouteille, it is like usual open for professionnals only for an entry fee of 10 € which includes pen, notebook and a nice tasting glass, that's pretty well the norm for such tastings which costs routinely in Paris from 5 € to 10 € (we're lucky in this regard). The setting at Ground Control near the Gare de Lyon was a roomy former SNCF locomotive repair shop, it looks indeed like a former plant with high roofs and thus is perfectly suitable in these times of virus-related claustrophobic worries. Ground Control is a multi-purpose community center where you can eat and drink on any given day (open wednesday-saturday noon-midnight/1am, and sunday closes at 10:30 pm), looks like a good alternative experience.
For once I didn't use the motorbike and the most convenient metro stations are Reuilly Diderot, Gare de Lyon or Montgallet (you still have to walk a bit).

Antoine Lienhardt (Burgundy)

Antoine Lienhardt (black vest) with staff

Comblanchien (Burgundy)
I also visited at last (also unannounced) Domaine Antoine Lienhardt, whose wines impressed me every time I had the opportunity to taste them, I'd rather say, not just taste but drink to the last drop. Antoine's wine facility and house are located in the village of Comblanchien (sitting between Chorey and Nuits-Saint-Georges), this village is more known for its quarries (the hard limestone of Comblanchien) but it has a winegrowing history as well (more info on this page about the climats and vineyard surface in Comblanchien), and Antoine's organic/biodynamic farming (plus natural winemaking) certainly helps put back the village in the spotlight. This is a 6-hectare family domaine, Antoine took the reins in 2011 and his sister Héloïse joined the fray in 2017. This is a short story but hopefully I'll come back for a longer one on this domaine and have a look on the parcels.

Visit at Philippe Pacalet (Burgundy)

Monica and Philippe Pacalet outside the facility

Beaune, Burgundy
I dropped the other day (this was late september) for a short, unannounced visit at Philippe Pacalet's facility in downtown Beaune (rue de Chaumergy). I had not yet visited his new extension on the other side of the street and I was happy both Philippe and Monica were there and could tour me around.

The rebel winemaker and outsider who succeeded at making a brand of his name in Burgundy without owning vineyards there has longtime contracts for selected terroirs across the region, with also some grapes sourced in Beaujolais and the Rhône. This year he began picking his grapes september 20. asked about this year's particularities, he says they suffered from frost and thus have low volumes, but no other [disease] problem. There were also a few storms that made the picking and the coming and going of vehicules tricky, but this didn't impact the quality of the grapes. The alcohol level this year should be classic, he says, something like 12,5 %, which is fine for him. The 3 previous vintages were higher, they were more solar with warmer summers, in 2021 it's a comeback to something more typical of Burgundy.

Loire Harvest 2021 (2)

Pickers on Pinot Noir (Quastana)

Loir-et-Cher (Loire)
The following day and a half I toured again several growers and domaines, some being located on the Cher valley side, some on the edge of Sologne and the first place I visited was a parcel where Jeremy Quastana and a few people including his brother Jean where picking Pinot Noir. Jeremy Quastana himself had zero grapes in his parcels because of the catastrophic weather conditions this year, so here he was picking on a friends' vineyard and the grapes would be vinified by his brother Jean who is also joining the fray of artisan winemaking.
These friends who own this parcel don't make wine themselves, for now at least, they just sell the grapes. They grow organic of course and I spotted this intact mushroom between the rows (I've heard it's edible but I never tried), this is a Wolf-fart Puffball, known in French as vesse de loup.