9 natural wines I’ve enjoyed in Paris this week

It’s not often I spend a whole week drinking natural wine but I’ve been in Paris with my husband who drinks nothing else, given the chance. And we’ve been hanging out in restaurants and bars that have natural wine lists.

So here are a few things we’ve enjoyed, where we’ve drunk them and what we ate with them. As usual I’ve rated them from green to red - see my traffic lights system, right.

X Bulles at Le Mary Celeste 

A  super bone-dry pet nat made from melon de Bourgogne from muscadet producer Vincent Caillé  Great with oysters. (See my recently updated review of the restaurant). N/A in the UK. GREEN TO AMBER

Le Temps d’Aimer Sorcellerie 2012 at Sauvage

A new one on me, this dry chenin from Francois Maudet’s Le Temps d’Aimer just south of Angers was delicately peachy but with the acidity to make it a great match with oysters (yes, again). See my review of Sauvage in the previous post - I think only they stock it. GREEN TO AMBER

Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet 2013 Vin de Pays de l’Ardèche Blanc at Au Passage

I’ve enjoyed Hervé Souhaut’s syrah before but not tried this richly textured blend of Roussanne and Viognier. It sailed through our starters of salmon with beets and horseradish, salt cod with saffron aioli. and roast Jerusalem artichokes. Les Caves de Pyrène GREEN TO AMBER

Le Vendangeur Masque 2013 Bourgogne Blanc, de Moor at Le Servan


Confusingly this seems to be labelled as Chablis in some markets and Bourgogne in France but it’s very fine either way - beautifully crisp and precise. My mate Fiona ordered a case (from Les Caves de Pyrène) she enjoyed it so much. Spot on with tête de porc with cockles and celery and gravlax of trout with endive and orange. GREEN

Muxagat Tinta Barrocca 2013 at Le Servan
One of the few non-French wines on this list, a deliciously vibrant unoaked Portuguese red from Mateus Nicolau de Almeida of Quinta do Monte Xisto in the Douro (see this interesting background profile from Wine Detective Sarah Ahmed.)  Very good with a robust, sticky beef stew with carrots and black sesame. GREEN

La Stoppa Ageno 2005 at Le Baratin

No real excuse for ordering this as we have several bottles at home but it’s rare to come across a 2005 let alone for €7.50 a glass. Deep, deep orange (as you can see below) with an exotic flavour of quince. Perfect with paté, braised duck and gorgonzola (not all on the same plate, obviously). Les Caves de Pyrène. AMBER

Camerlengo Accamilla 2013 at Heimat

Not quite in the same league as the Ageno but still very young, a beguilingly floral skin contact Malvasia from Basilicata. Very good with a deeply savoury starter of veal tongue. Vini Italiani in the UK has the 2011vintage for £21. AMBER

Sang Neuf, Vuillaud 2013, Beaujolais at Heimat

The name says it all. This unusual Beaujolais really did smell of blood, iron and freshly dug earth which obviously won’t make it to everyone’s taste. Great with a robustly spicy seafood pasta though. AMBER TO RED

Koforobé 2013 Gregory Guillaume from L’Etiquette

L’Etiquette on L’isle Saint-Louis is one of our favourite wine shops (pop by if you’re in the neighbourhood for their Saturday tastings). An unusual blend from Alba La Romaine in the Rhône, marrying peppery syrah with fresh redcurranty merlot. No added sulphur, fining or filtering - a simple vin de soif. 17€ GREEN TO AMBER

Interestingly when I went through my notes and snaps I found we drank more white than red, maybe a reflection of the style of food we were eating. A topic I’ll return to in due course.

Sauvage, a new natural wine bar discovery in rue du Cherche Midi, Paris

While we pick up most of our recommendations online, it’s always good to discover somewhere for yourself as we did a couple of months back heading back up the rue du Cherche Midi and stumbling upon Sauvage.

Having recently opened it consisted of a few shelves of natural wines and the standard wine bar fare of cheese and charcuterie. Now it has a few hot dishes too prepared in a minute space at the back by the owner Sebastien Leroy with the aid of a sharp knife, a microwave and a slow cooker.

Given the fact that Leroy has to combine the roles of salesman, sommelier, chef and front of house (and presumably washer-upper) the operation runs surprisingly smoothly. If you sit down and order a couple of glasses of wine (a slightly wild pet nat - La Buelloise from La Grapperie in our case) you get a few slices of excellent saucisson with it.

Leroy rattles off the menu - there’s no written version so it pays to have a smattering of French - which includes oysters, mackerel, some kind of fish I didn’t catch and sausage de Morteau with carrots. The oysters which we could hear being shucked in the background were wonderfully fresh and salty, perfect with the utterly delicious 2012 Sorcellerie dry chenin from Francois Maudet’s Le Temps d’Aimer (GREEN TO AMBER - see my traffic light ratings on the right) that he suggested to go with them, a generous hunk of beurre de sel and some thickly sliced dark rye bread.

The satisfyingly meaty, slightly smokey sausage came with sweet-tasting heritage carrots which I gather from the ‘ping’ were microwaved (nothing wrong with that) then had some shavings of carrot added to the hot broth for an interesting textural contrast. Very simple but a first class use of good seasonal ingredients, following the natural wine philosophy of adding nothing and taking nothing away. Considering his background is apparently in film rather than a restaurant kitchen according to this review in Le Fooding, Leroy can cook a bit.

A selection of Sauvage's wines - not the ones we tasted

The wine selection is modest but eclectic with not many names i recognised apart from Sebastien Riffault but Leroy says he tries to stock wines that aren’t available elsewhere. The ‘Malice’ Cab Franc we had with the sausage, also from Maudet was delicious too though slightly funkier (AMBER). I can’t find out much about the domaine at all other than that he’s just south of Angers. Certainly one to look out for.

It was hard to keep track of exactly what we spent because there wasn’t a bill and we the took the remains of the two bottles we started away to finish over the weekend. But I’m guessing the wine came to about half our €112 total. You could certainly get away with a lot less.

Sauvage is at 60 rue du Cherche Midi, 76006 Paris (the 6e) and on Facebook at cave.sauvage. Closed Sunday after 3 and Mondays. Open 10-3 Tues & Wednesday and 10-11pm Thursday-Saturday

Are women more tolerant of natural wine?

I’m not sure what’s in the air but there’s been a lot of impassioned debate about natural wine this week - both pro and anti.

Natural wine advocate Isabelle Legeron referred to it in the Guardian as ‘life in a glass’. Jay Rayner countered that they were ‘brutal’ (scroll down to the comments below the piece). Wine critic Tim Atkin referred to it on Twitter as ‘primitive wine’, his fellow writer Jamie Goode poked gentle fun at both while baker and food stylist Claire Ptak enthused about her favourite natural wine diners in the FT.

It’s possible to detect a couple of patterns here. One is - and it's tempting to  argue this on International Women's Day -  that women are more tolerant than men of natural wine. At one level that’s true. I think women are generally less inclined to be confrontational about their preferences and accepting of those who don’t share them. But the people who make natural wine - and other types of wine - are mainly male, as are many of the young sommeliers who champion them.

No, the big divide I think is between people who have a food background and those whose background is in wine. By and large the wine establishment (Jamie and a handful of others apart) is anti and I can see why. Regardless of whether you approve or not of the ’N’ word about which I blogged myself a couple of weeks ago the implication for many is that if these wines are good then there’s something wrong with the rest of the wines we drink. (Not a view I share. I think it’s perfectly possible to enjoy both pet nat and champagne for example but the establishment seems to feel you can't do both.)

Food writers, chefs and younger consumers, are more open-minded. Their reaction to an unfamiliar taste or ingredient they haven’t come across is ‘bring it on’. If they don’t like it to start with (as many of us don’t take to olives or anchovies, say) their response is to try it again to see what the fuss is about. It helps to explain why many of the new wave of restaurants and wine bars serve natural wines. The chefs are into them just as much as their wine guys (or gals).

Regardless of the merits - or demerits - of natural wines, and there are good and bad examples of each, I just don’t see why people (especially middle-aged men in the wine trade) get so angry about them. No-one forces them to drink them or to go to restaurants that serve them. Almost every restaurant - even those with a 100% natural wine list - serves some other beverage - beer, cider, cocktails - that they could drink. Or they could simply say to the sommelier "I’m not that keen on natural wine, can you suggest one I might enjoy?" They might even - and this might come as a shock to them - actually find one they liked.

Image © nicoletaionescu - Fotolia.com

Terroir wine bar, San Francisco

Read any list of the world’s best natural wine bars and Terroir in San Francisco is sure to be included so I was determined to take it in on my 2 day visit to the city the week before last.

To anyone used to natural wine bars in Paris it’s comfortingly familiar - unsurprisingly as it’s run by a Frenchman Luc Ertoran together with his Italian business partner Dagan Ministero - hence the scattering of Italian wines, mainly from Sicily, among the largely French list.  There’s even a sandfilled trough outside to stub out your Gauloise.

Rather over-optimistically I was hoping to see what California had to offer by way of natural wines. There were only two open that day - an Enfield Syrah from Hayes Vineyard in the Napa Valley - fresh, stalky and about as un-Napa a wine as you could imagine (GREEN TO AMBER) and the Trowbridge ‘Four Horsemen’ from Lake County, a somewhat tarry blend of Portuguese varieties that was less to my taste (the same rating)

It was at this point things went pear-shaped. The girl on my left, clearly unaccustomed to natural wine was saying “I keep tasting something that reminds me a bit of vinegar‘ so I pitched in without thinking, concerned that she thought her tastebuds in some way defective and said it was the wine not her and that natural wine took a bit of getting used to.

Unwise. From that moment on Luc clearly decided I needed to be taken down a peg and proceeded to pick an argument about everything from natural wine aficionados who suggested that this was somehow a better way to make wine to whether natural wines fell apart on opening. (They did he insisted, pouring me one to prove his point)

The fact that I detected redcurrant flavours in a Domaine de la Tournelle Uva Arbosiana provoked an even more forceful explosion about how ridiculous tasting terms were. "If you want to analyse do something worthwhile like be a philosopher" he snorted.

I asked if he treated all his customers that way. Not, if they were there to learn, it appeared. It was clearly my presumption in pronouncing on the subject that got his goat.

Eventually he calmed down and we got on OK. He poured a Julien Sunier Fleurie (delicious though Luc said I must simply say I liked it and not pass judgment on it) and a beautifully fragrant Domaine des Sanzay 2008 Les Poyeux from the same vineyard as Clos Rougeard. I presumably knew about Clos Rougeard? No I didn’t. Much eye-rolling and ‘call yourself an expert’ expressions.

Maybe relenting (or deciding I was in need of further education) he said he thought I might be interested in a book called Terroir et L’Humanisme (another one to add to Trevor’s reading list) and refused to take any money for the wines he’d poured. I left $20 anyway.

So - a great place to drink natural wines kept in top condition. Just go in the evening when they’re busy and Luc doesn’t have time on his hands to pick a fight. Oh and if you know anything about natural wine don’t let on. And for goodness sake don’t mention redcurrants*.

* Or - worse still - that a wine reminds you of candied violets in a salad as one customer had been rash enough to do. “I mean, come onnnnn, when have you ever tasted candied violets in a salad. . . . “ See what I mean? Just watch it.

For a fuller report on Terroir read this recent post from Bertrand Celce of Wine Terroirs who obviously got off more lightly than I did.

Terroir is at 1116 Folsom St, San Francisco (on 7th) +1 415-558-9946

Natural wine bar Artisan & Vine closes

Sad news today that one of London's best natural wine bars has closed its doors. Kathyrn O'Mara the owner of Artisan and Vine in Battersea attributes the situation to the recession. According to the wine industry magazine Harpers she said "Sticking to my principles on natural and local wines and food may have been what cost me my business, but changing to a more generic option would have cost us Artisan & Vine."

O'Mara a popular figure in the trade put a great deal into the business, attracting many of the top natural winemakers to her bar and restaurant. I went to a great dinner there with Sicilian winemaker Frank Cornelissen last year and the food (see above) was as good as the wine.

Ironically I was just thinking this week that the natural wine movement was flourishing despite criticism from leading industry figures such as Michel Chapoutier. Antidote just off Carnaby Street in the West End was packed when we ate there the other night and more and more conventional restaurants and merchants seem to be listing organic and biodynamic wines.

Maybe it was the location that did for Artisan & Vine but it can't have helped that the fashionable Soif, sister restaurant to Terroirs and Brawn opened up not that far away.

It's a real shame but I'm sure with her energy, drive and passion Kathryn will go on to do great things elsewhere.

Duck Soup, Soho: London's newest natural wine bar

The moment I heard that Duck Soup had a natural wine list I was in there. Two days after opening which was speedy, you have to admit.

Not that they bill themselves as a natural wine bar. In fact they told me they intended to list a few natural wines but as chef Julian Biggs (above) put it "once you start drinking natural wine you can't drink anything else."

It's a tiny no-reservations place with a few tables and a long bar, not unlike the hugely popular Spuntino. There's an interview here with Julian about their philosophy which is (sensibly) to create the kind of place they like to eat in themselves.


I like the way the menu's written on a scruffy piece of paper. I had a gorgeous umami-rich open sandwich topped with fresh girolles (rather than the advertised ceps), lardo and Berkswell cheese which went down nicely with a glass of Frantz Saumon Mineral +.


You can see some of their other wines on the handwritten board.


There was also an amazing earthenware pot of pappa al pomodoro which I got to taste as it cooled, drizzled with olive oil and topped with a couple of shavings of parmesan.


Apparently you can also bring along your own vinyl and they'll play it in the bar.

Another recent addition to the London natural wine scene is Antidote which has opened on the site of the former La Trouvaille in Newburgh Street just off Carnaby Street, under the same management, I think. My husband went along last night and said it was just like a Parisian natural wine bar.

He had some charcuterie and a couple of glasses of wine - La Grange Tiphaine, Bel Air Touraine Amboise and Chateau La Coste 2007, Version Nature, a Cab Merlot blend "not like Bordeaux, but with a southern warmth to it, reminiscent of Bandol". The winemaker is Mathieu Cosse of Cahors.

He was full of praise for the bar which I was slight miffed he managed to get to before me. Ah well, can't be everywhere . . .

Chai Christine Cannac, Bédarieux

From the Auvergne to the Languedoc - specifically Bédarieux, an attractive town in the Vallée de l'Orb we haven't visited for a while. But we'd heard there was a good natural wine bar and shop there and finally made it up there for lunch today.

Christine Cannac (above) has worked as a sommelier all over the Languedoc but came back to set up a wine bar in her home town a couple of years ago. She'd become more and more drawn to natural wines, she told us. Her wine list is a roll-call of the great and the good including Casot des Mailloles, Marcel Lapierre, Dard et Ribo, Thierry Allemand and Léon Barral in nearby Faugères.

We initially made the mistake of ordering a couple of unknown (to us) wines by the glass - a grenache gris called La Begou from Maxime Magnon and a rather over-funky rosé called Plait-t'il from Le Petite Baigneuse - which I don't think were showing at their best. Possibly they'd just been open too long.


So we switched to a bright, breezy vin de soif called Fou du Roi from Axel Prüfer of Le Temps des Cerises just up the road at Le Mas Blanc which was perfect with our shared platter of charcuterie. According to the Australian importer Living Wines, which rather impressively ships it over to Tasmania, it's a blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Carignan.



We drove up the road to see if Axel was around but the winery was firmly shut up. Shame. He sounds quite a character.


Anyway if you're in the area Chai Christine Cannac is a good place to drop by for a drink. Just order by the bottle. The bar is at 3 square Robert Schumann, 34600 Bédarieux. Tel: 04 67 95 86 14.

Auberge de Chassignolles: a natural wine hotel

Ever since I visited the natural wine bar Gergovie earlier this year and found out that owner Harry Lester (below) ran a hotel in the Auvergne called the Auberge de Chassignolles during the summer I’ve been dying to go.

And last week we made it and spent 3 indulgent nights there.

It’s just as good as I’d hoped. A tiny village set in glorious unspoilt countryside about 950m above sea level, surrounded by dense forests and rolling green pastures it’s as good a get-away-from-it-all destination as you can imagine.



Our room overlooked a 12th century Romanesque church


The auberge operates on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis, dinner being a 5 course prix fixe affair that changes every night - fantastic value for 24 euros a head.



Harry also has a serious, largely natural wine list which we made good use of - highlights being the 2008 Domaine Michel Lafarge Raisins Dorées Bourgogne Aligoté, the 2008 Elian da Ros Cotes du Marmandais, Le Vin est une Fête and Antoine Arena Carco 2009 from Patrimonio in Corsica. There are also some great classics such as Domaine Tempier Bandol, Thierry Allemand’s Cornas, Grange des Pères and a 1999 vintage of Domaine de Trévallon.


In fact it was so perfect we’re squeezing in another night on the way home next week ;-)

Note: the hotel closes for the summer at the end of September

Le Pichenouille, Maury

Another good natural wine bar and shop, this time in Maury, run by negociant Jean Pla - or it was when we went there on Saturday. Apparently he’s handing over to someone else this week.

Unlike the Xadic del Mar Le Pichenouille is more of a restaurant with two long shared tables, one inside and one outside. The menu is simpe with a choice of 2 dishes - 15€ for two courses 19.50€ for three.



The food is simple but well cooked and based on good ingredients - I had a tartine of goats cheese, my husband serrano ham and pan con tomate then we both had slow braised pig’s cheek which went well with a dark brambly Clos d’Origine Les Quilles Libres (l’equilibre - geddit?), a local, organic blend of grenache, syrah and carignan we picked off the shelves for 20€. (They list wine at the same price they sell it in the shop.)


Despite the fact they decanted it it had some pretty tough tannins though was fine with the pork - and better still when we drank it, lightly chilled, the following day.

33, ave Jean Jaurès, 66460 Maury.
Tel: 04 68 59 02 18
www.restocave.com

Incidentally it was thanks to this guide by Michel Tuz and Alice Feiring which lists both natural wine producers and wine bars that we found the Xadic del Mar and the Pichenouille. Well worth getting if you're travelling around France.

El Xadic del Mar: a gem of a natural wine bar

On the face of it the back streets of the small town of Banyuls-sur-Mer seems an unlikely location for a natural wine bar but given that Roussillon has more than its fair share of natural winemakers, one of the most renowned of which, Casot des Mailloles, is just up the road, it’s not so surprising.

El Xadic del Mar was opened a year ago by Emmanuel aka ‘Manu’ Desclaux who used to run Le Verre Volé in Paris and has an exemplary selection of local wines and natural wines from further afield.

We stopped by for lunch before our visit to Casot des Mailloles (of which more later) and had a couple of interesting whites - Domaine Yoyo’s Restaké 2010 and Bruno Duchêne’s Val Pompo, both Grenache Gris . . .


. . . and some inventive plates of tapas including calcots and anchovies (of course, in this part of the world) and marinated mackerel with asparagus.


Desclaux’ view is that the Parisien wine bar scene has lost touch with its roots - that places that started as bars have become fully fledged restaurants. Well this is thoroughly unpretentious and a great place to drink natural wine.

El Xadic del Mar is at 11, av. du Puig-del-Mas, Banyuls Sur Mer (66650)
TÉL : + 33 4 68 88 89 20