A subtitle of this trip report might be “Searching for Chamonard.” Recently I became interested in the so-called Gang of Five producers in Morgon (Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard, Jean-Paul Thevenet, Guy Breton, Joseph Chamonard) because wines by the first three, especially Thevenet, really raised my bar for gamay. The thing is, the first four are imported into the US but Chamonard isn’t, so the carrot I dangled during this trip was “find some Chamonard!” There are, of course, too many wine stores in Paris and too many regions represented in each store so my rule-of-thumb or litmus test became: call up the store or visit their Beaujolais section and, depending on what they have, deduce how good the entire store is. If they have a decent selection (e.g., Vissoux, Descombes, and Pacalet) but no Gang of Five: decent store. If they have Gang of Five: good store. If they have Chamonard: great store. Well, in the end, there was only one great store, but I am getting ahead of myself. But this mission gave the entire visit a natural wine slant that may give the impression that I am only interested in such wines, not the case.
Day 1: Monday Feb 23
The morning was spent getting from the airport to the apartment where we would be staying, then unpacking and showering, etc. We were pretty hungry by lunchtime and went strolling on the blvd. St. Germain in search of grub.
Lunch at Le Comptoir du Relais
Mondays are bad in Paris because most of the best bistros are closed, so we considered ourselves lucky to find a table at the well-known Le Comptoir du Relais (the chef is Yves Camdeborde, who ran the kitchen at La Regalade for 12 years). Our food was good, but not quite as good as the place’s reputation. My eggs with black truffles delivered more on quantity than quality and I’ve had better onglet (hanger steak) in New York. An accompanying half bottle of Pavelot Les Vergelesses was adequate:
2007 Domaine Régis Pavelot Pernand Vergelesses 1er Cru Les Vergelesses 13.0%
Not the well-known Pavelot, who is Jean Marc. Aromas of dark cherry, sous bois and leather. Pleasingly tart, dusky tannins, bright acidity, matched by ample but simple fruit. Medium to light body.
Visit to Bon Marché
This market gets pretty close to supermarket heaven and there is a good wine section, with occasionally reasonable prices. Since I really like Jacques Prieur’s 2005 Beaune Champs Pimont, I picked up a bottle each of Drouhin’s 1999 and 2005 Beaune Champimonts (different spelling) 1er Cru.
Visit to La Dernière Goutte
Nice little wine store with a good selection oriented towards natural wines. While we were browsing, a geeky customer was asking the owner, who speaks good English, whether he had any organic wines, after which the customer went on and on about composts and fertilizers and whatnot, all with boring zeal. Interesting how every field attracts its fair share of fanatics and how fanatics, in every field, share the same tiresome zeal. In any case, I was looking for good Beaujolais with two or three years of age for consumption that same evening, but all they had was 2007s. They had plenty of other good things, of course, but at prices that were not as good as can be found in the US.
In the evening we stayed home and had, with two excellent sheep’s milks cheeses from Bon Marché:
1999 Joseph Drouhin Beaune-Champimonts 1er Cru 13.0%
Darker than usual ruby. Pleasant aromas of cherry, caramel, rubber and sous bois. Medium to light body (expected more heft), with zippy acidity, slightly overpowering the fruit right after pouring. With aeration, and with the cheese absorbing some of the acidity, the wine gains body and richness, with additional pepper and spice notes. Good, but not special.
Day 2: Tuesday Feb 24
Visit to Palais des Découvertes
We went to this natural history museum because it had an interesting exhibit on scents. There was a section on wine where we had to sniff four different substances and guess which was characteristic of which wine. For the record, they were Alsace/Rose, Bordeaux/Coffee, Burgundy/Raspberry, Champagne/Hazelnut and Cote du Rhone/Licorice. There was an interesting section on famous perfumes that divided their scents into top, middle and bottom notes, possibly a way to look at wine as well.
Visit to Jacquemart-André Museum
This little museum in a sumptuous mansion is sometimes compared to the Frick Collection, though it is far less impressive, despite having no fewer than three Andrea Mantegnas (to understand how exceptional that is, the Accademia in Venice only has one), a good Carpaccio (the painter, not the food), a good Bellini (the painter, not the drink) and a wonderful little Paolo Ucello of St. George lancing a beautiful dragon with polka dots. The lighting was often very poor, making some of their Dutch Masters look lugubrious.
Lunch at Lavinia
After a brisk walk we had lunch at Lavinia, one of the best wine stores in Paris, marred only by being a bit too modern and certainly not the cheapest. We shared a delicious charcuterie platter with two glasses of white and two glasses of red. Servings were very generous and the bottles were left at our table (is that civilized, or what?):
2007 Pierre et Catherine Breton Epaulé Jeté Vouvray Sec 13.0%
Served quite cold, so nose was mostly floral with lemon drops. Mouth feel was simply terrific, zesty and citrusy. A very bright and cheerful wine, delicious, reminiscent of good dry rieslings. Very nice.
2006 Domaine Tissot Les Argiles du Lias Côte du Jura Chardonnay 13.5%
Interesting aromas or pear and almonds, smoky, with a suggestion of saltiness. Mouth feel is very slightly oxidative, in a pleasing way, with excellent acidity. Also very nice.
2006 Christophe Pacalet Côte de Brouilly 12.5%
Aromas of raspberry and match powder (I like!). Good structure, simultaneously light and serious. Quite lovely, though not extraordinary. Curiously, later it went very well with Marcia’s crème brulée.
2007 Pierre et Catherine Breton Epaulé Jeté Bourgueil 12.0%
Aromas of cherry, toffee and wet dishrag. Bright and tart acidity, rustic tannins. Quite good, but not memorable.
After lunch we strolled around the store and our jaws were dropping by the time we finished walking through the cool room. Never have we seen so many bottles of DRC, Petrus, Leroy, Jayer Cros Parantoux, Méo-Camuzet, etc., plus all the Bordeaux grand crus (including a Lafite from 1867). Prices were often the same as those of small automobiles. Marcia quipped that it felt like we were in the Louvre. Not equipped with that kind of firepower, we left with a 2006 Christophe Pacalet Juliénas and a 2005 Guy Breton Le P’tit Max Morgon.
This ended up being our second favorite wine & food experience, highly recommended, despite the somewhat corporate feel. All in all, we were amazed at how, with food and wine this criminally good, we seldom see obesity in Paris. It’s as if each human being seeks a quantum of pleasure that can be fulfilled either by higher quality multiplied by lower quantity (in France) or lower quality multiplied by higher quantity (in most other places). The latter is, of course, much more caloric. I exaggerate, of course, but you get my point.
Visits to Fauchon, Maille and Ladurée
After leaving Lavinia, we walked around the place de la Madeleine and stepped into three stations of the epicurean cross: the headquarters of Fauchon (never have we seen food so beautifully displayed and so decoratively enticing); La Boutique Maille (a branch of the Dijon mustard purveyor, with many intriguing flavor combinations, three of which - chardonnay, chablis and white wine - are available on tap, like beer) and Patisserie Ladurée (macaroon heaven, with many other pastries to die for). All are worth visiting.
Dinner at Taillevent
This was the main splurge of the trip, an attempt to establish new paradigms. We were given an excellent table in one of the two main wood-paneled rooms, very elegantly caparisoned despite a mismatched 1970s square brass fixture hanging in the middle. Service was superb throughout the evening, from coat check to coat recovery, though I found it odd that the same shape of wine glass (shaped like a burgundy, except a little smaller) that was already at the table when we arrived was used for both the white and the red wines that we ordered. I was expecting the tasting menu to cost around €100, so I was shocked at the actual cost of €190 (crisis, what crisis?). Since both Marcia and I were not fully recovered from lunch at Lavinia, we settled for appetizers and main courses, accompanied by half bottles of white and red (disappointingly, there was no list of wines by the glass). The amouse bouche – a crustacean emulsion with lemon cream – was the best thing I ate all evening. My appetizer, a “bonbon de foie gras de canard” that looked and tasted like a greasy foie gras profiterole – was way too salty and excessively fried. My main course, a foie gras de canard, was good, not memorable. Marcia had better luck: her scallops and escargots met her expectations, but did not surpass them. I’d say it was only a paradigm shifting experience price-wise, and a truly poor cost-benefit.
2005 Huet Vouvray Sec Le Haut Lieu (alcohol level not noted)
Lovely floral aromas with lanolin, lemon and wet stone. Also a saline note that took me straight to the seaside. Refreshing acidity, excellent acid/sweet balance. Less “happy” than the lunchtime Breton but more serious and complex. Excellent, and one to look out for.
2004 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle Musigny 13.0%
Aromas of cherry, raspberry and cloves. Some green twigs, sous bois and dark plums. Medium weight, pleasantly tart acidity. Towards the end, the nose became heady and lovely. Should age well.
1998 Domaine Georg Lunzer Golser Beerenauslese Rheinriesling 12.0%
Served by the glass. Attractive aromas of apricots and honey. Nice biting acidity, tasty fruit, very good acid/sweet balance. An excellent way to end the evening.
Day 3: Wednesday, Feb 25
Visits to Delacroix Museum (so so) and Notre Dame Cathedral (impressive).
Visit to La Crémerie hoping to have lunch, but they only serve food at night. Another good store with a natural wine orientation.
Lunch at Fish/La Boissonerie
Owned by the same folks who own the wine store La Dernière Goutte (see above). Curiously, all the staff speak perfect English. The focaccia in the bread tray was fluffy and delicious. My warm scallops were excellent but served on a bed of cold potato salad – for some reason I don’t like mixing temperatures like that. My main course – duck with mushrooms and polenta – was excellent, despite (or perhaps because of) a surfeit of grease. We had two reds by the glass (the 99 Corbières was from magnum):
1999 Chateau La Voulte Gasparets Cuvee Romain Pauc Corbières
100% Carignan. Lovely aromas of old leather and cassis. Very pleasing mouth feel, excellent balance. A very nice surprise. Bizarrely, the nose on this is extremely similar to the cabernet/merlot/malbec blends made by Weinert in Mendoza in the 1990s. Go figure.
2006 Pierre Usseglio Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Light cherry and pepper aromas. Spicy mouth feel, tangy acidity. Picked for its excellent reputation but I found it just regular.
Visit to the Museum of the History of Medicine
Marcia, who is a doctor, enjoyed this greatly, but I shuddered with squeamishness at the sight of so many historically invasive instruments.
Visit to Bacchus & Ariane
Another good wine store with a natural orientation. Picked up a 2005 Foillard Cote de Py, a 2006 Descombes Morgon and a 2005 Chidaine Vouvray Clos Baudoin. Armed with a baked Mont d’Or, a slice of pâté, toast and salad, we stayed home that evening and kept up the Vouvray streak:
2005 François Chidaine Vouvray Clos Baudoin 14.0%
Lovely fruit nose of pear and quince, with that lovely saline note that the Huet also had, though a little sweeter. Interesting how chenin seems to be the only varietal that comes anywhere near riesling in terms of the range of available sweetness levels. Wot a grape!
We also finished the bottle of 99 Drouhin Beaune Champimonts. It was drinking beautifully after two days in the fridge: refined cherry and leather, excellent acidity and classy mouth feel.
Day 4: Thursday, Feb 26
Visit to the Musée d’Orsay
Not to be missed, has some of the most important works in the history of painting, including Manet’s Olympia and Déjeuneur sur l’Herbe, Courbet’s forbidden painting The Origin of the World, Whistler’s Portrait of the Artist’s Mother, and several anthological works by Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and many others. Part of what makes this museum so special is that it shows the “losers” (academic painters) next to the “winners” (Impressionists and post-Impressionists), giving a much truer image of what the period was really like than a “winners only” selection such as you will find at standard-setting institutions like MoMA. But the exhaustive is pretty exhausting.
Lunch at Chez l’Ami Jean
With Patrick, an excellent drummer and friend from my musician days. This bistro has a strong reputation; my braised boar was, indeed, very good but one of the desserts, a recipe from the chef’s grandmother, was memorable: a sweet rice pudding mixed with crunchy caramel. We had a bottle of:
2004 Houillon Arbois Pupillin Poulsard 12.0%
Light ruby/magenta with some cloudiness, perhaps due to low sulfur. Fragrant nose of light cherry, leather and spice. Fresh mouth feel, with zippy acidity matched by delicious fruit sweetness. Excellent body, belying the pale color and low alcohol level. My first Houillon Poulsard, and a treat.
Visit to the National Assembly
Patrick has a day job at the Assembly, the French equivalent of the House of Representatives, and gave us a tour of the premises, including the impressive underground cellar full of Pétrus, d’Yquêm, etc. We also saw great quantities of precious Sevres porcelain and Baccarat crystal that are used for banquets thrown by the presidency of the assembly. All of which left us meditating about the French Revolution and how each successive group that comes into power, many of them representing populist principles, are soon emulating the luxury of the aristocracy, as if that were its due reward. Though this meditation was directed at France – the country at hand – and Brazil, it’s just human nature, and applies everywhere.
Dinner at Café de la Nouvelle Mairie
For dinner we went to a very nice cafe recommended by Rahsaan, in an attractive trapezoidal square (sic) near the Pantheon. The atmosphere was attractive, with lots of students and locals, but spirits made a table next to ours excessively noisy, marring things a little. Food was good and service charming.
2007 Audrey and Christian Binner Riesling Ammerschwihr Alsace
An organic wine from a producer I had never heard of. The gold color and the nose of apricot and honey made me think I had made a mistake and this was a sticky, but the mouth feel was totally dry. The acidity was a bit too much for the fruit, that could only be smelled, not tasted. With food, the acidity receded, as it usually does, and it became more balanced. At least it was interesting because aroma and taste differed so much.
2006 Foillard Morgon Courcelette
Nice perfume of violets and blueberries, marred by a bit too dishrag. Good body, good acid/sweet balance, but a disappointment. I was surprised at how often I ran into Foillard at restaurants and wine stores – he seems to be the Gang of Five producer with the best distribution. Next was Lapierre, also not hard to find. Guy Breton came third, with Thevenet scarce and Chamonard rare. Catherine and Pierre Breton’s wines seemed to be the best distributed of all; we saw their posters in several shops and bistros.
Day 5: Friday, Feb 27
Visit to Palais de Versailles
Impressive and exhausting. At least the visit burns many calories, welcome on a trip like this. Although Versailles is more about Louis XIV than Louis XVI, the spirit of the latter and Marie Antoinette are everywhere, with the guillotine and the fascination exercised by the Revolution. Reading and seeing so much connected to the Revolution gave me a little epiphany that had implications, also, for the way I look at wine. Since childhood, the eternal question “do the means justify the ends?” has eluded simple answers. Reflecting on how so much blood has been expended, and so much barbarity committed, in the name of ideals, not only in the French revolution but in many other instances in the history of cruelty, it occurred to me that men cannot be trusted to judge whether the ends justify the ends so that we should err on the side of caution, on the side of means. What has this got to do with wine? Obviously, the ethics of winemaking can’t compare to the ethics of violence against human beings or animals, but it felt right for me to conclude that I cannot adopt the position that if the wine tastes good, I don’t care what the winemaker did. But this is too big a subject to delve into here.
Lunch at Café Orleans at Palais de Versailles
Pretty good for a “museum restaurant.” For once, we had no wine.
Visit to La Cave de l’Insolite
This is one of the best natural wine stores in Paris and we had a great time meeting Michel Moulherat, the burly, rugby loving owner. He didn’t have Chamonard but he had Thevenet, of which I picked up a bottle of the 07 Morgon Vieilles Vignes, together with a specimen (in the name of science) of Julien (son of Claude) Courtois’s Gamay. Marcia, who has been going through a (most welcome) chenin phase because of tasting so many excellent vouvrays, picked up two exotic chenins from Robinot, also in the name of science. By the end of our visit we had become so chummy with Michel that when I asked him if a 1999 Overnoy Arbois Pupillin Poulsard, with its low SO2, would survive the trip to Brazil, he candidly replied that it might, so we should take one as a gift from him. Taken aback, I insisted on paying for the bottle until he gruffly (but nicely) threatened to break it over my head, settling the argument.
Dinner at Le Verre Volé
The evening was blessed because we also had a great time at this tiny bistro/wine store where you can pick any bottle from the walls, which are packed floor to ceiling, for retail plus €7 corkage. We shared a pâté de campagne as an appetizer and then Marcia had sausage with salad & mashed potatoes and I had breaded ham with salad & mashed potatoes, both delicious. The funky ambiance was also tremendously to our liking. The tiny place was completely packed (reservations are essential), but not claustrophobically so. Tables would periodically empty as patrons went outside to smoke, and passersby who saw the empty tables would enter and be turned away, the waiters utterly unconcerned with the lower table turnover caused by these lingering outdoor sessions. With our meal we had:
2007 Agnes and Rene Mosse Arena Savennières 13.0%
I’ve been curious about this producer so was glad to have an opportunity to try one of their chenins. I don’t usually note color unless it’s really special and this certainly was, a beautiful shade of light gold with bronze highlights. The nose showed pear, nuts, anis, and glycerin, with other mineral and floral notes. The acid/sweet balance was excellent, with a lemony and pleasingly tart finish. Nervier than the vouvrays we’ve been having lately, but a seriously good wine and great with food. Label says “agriculture biologique,” don’t know if this means organic or biodynamic.
2007 Guy Breton Morgon Le P’tit Max (by the glass)
My first Guy Breton. Lovely raspberry and musk perfume. This tastes crystalline yet hedonistic, delivering as much pleasure as I’ve ever received from a Beaujolais, and comparable only to the 04 Thevenet V.V. Perfect acid/sweet balance, gorgeous berry fruit, with subtle chocolate and caramel notes. Simple beauty. Before this I was beginning to think that Gang of Five Morgons needed two or three years to show really well; not so.
Day 6: Saturday, Feb 28
Visit to Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was tried and imprisoned before the guillotine, and Sainte Chapelle, a lovely 13th Century Gothic chapel full of stained glass windows.
For lunch we went to the Les Papilles, a highly rated mix of wine shop and bistro in the famous Passage des Panoramas, but it was closed; it only serves food from Monday to Thursday, so on other days they follow regular store hours, closing at lunch. Disappointed, we went to another highly recommended place, Autour d’un Verre, only to find it closed also. An object lesson on how it’s important to call ahead in Paris. As we entered the metro station, Marcia’s wallet was so masterfully picked from her handbag at the turnstile that she didn’t even feel it; we only found out that she had been robbed when a young girl, who had seen it all happen, went up to her on the platform and told her what she had seen. The afternoon thus ruined, we abandoned the idea of lunch and headed back to the apartment to cancel Marcia’s credit cards, etc. Thought of Dale, who had a backpack swiped in Paris two years ago.
Visit to Caves Augé
Trying to return to normalcy, later in the afternoon we went to this well-known store, the only one in Paris where I finally found Chamonard (the 2006 Morgon Le Clos de Lys). Hooray! To further my research into Gang of Five Morgons, I also picked up a 2006 Thevenet V.V. and a 2006 Guy Breton Morgon V.V. After that we went back to Fauchon to buy some assorted cheeses to take home because they can vacuum-pack them, a plus if you’re carrying the stuff across the Atlantic.
Dinner at Les Pupilles
Another highly rated wine store/bar with a natural orientation, run by a rugby loving former Taillevent pastry chef, and again lined floor to ceiling with bottles available for retail + €7 corkage. But, unlike at Le Verre Volé, there is only one appetizer, one main course, a cheese plate, and one dessert, all depending on what was fresh at the market that day. If you don’t like what they have or don’t eat meat (thought of you, Rahsaan), you're in trouble. Also, the atmosphere is much more “classical bistro” as opposed to funky café, and we prefer the less bourgeois places. The appetizer (pumpkin velouté) and main (magret de canard) were quite good, as was the dessert, but we didn’t have as good a time as we had at Le Verre Volé. For the wine, after much hesitation, I chose a reasonably priced 20 year old Chinon, thinking that, though I had never heard of the producer, it’s not everyday that you get to taste a Chinon this old in a setting where you can refuse it if it’s turned to vinegar:
1989 Earl les Roches-Lenoir Chinon Les Roches 12.5%
Possibly ex-chateau, as the restaurant had three or four different vintages and all bottles and labels looked brand new. Attractively mature aromas of leather, funk and prunes. Good acidity, good weight, tannins still alive, framing mature fruit. But the pleasure it gave me was more intellectual than sensual, therefore somewhat frustrating.
Day 7: Sunday, Mar 1
After a late morning we visited the wonderful outdoor green market that lines the rue de Sèvres on Sundays and bought some bread for the evening.
Lunch at Le Temps au Temps
In the fashionable rue Paul Bert, lined with bistros. Atmosphere is a little too prim for me, but still quite comfortable. Food was good but I was disappointed with the wine list and the choices of wine by the glass. Of the latter, we had:
2006 Le Rocher des Violettes Montlouis (sec)
Chenin. Aromas of dried apricots, persimmon and white flowers. Tastes very fresh, with excellent acid/sweet balance. Very pleasant.
2004 Neumayer Riesling Austria
Muted nose with light peach. Bright, lemony acidity. Pleasant.
2008 Chateau de Pizay Morgon
Generic cherry aromas, very muted. Fresh mouth feel, good acidity, but almost no discernible taste other than straightforward berry. Good generic meal wine but no more.
2004 Le Mascarou Cotes de Roussillon-Villages 14.5%
A blend of carignan, syrah, grenache. Aroma is slightly rancid, as in lard, with some quinine, like hair lotion. When I tasted, there was an oxidative note. Since I am a complete Roussillon ignoramus, I called the single waiter/host and asked if this was characteristic. He said that it was with so much conviction that I said OK, I’ll keep it, though he sweetly offered to replace it (other choices were not too inspiring). So I sipped what became more and more a light port. Still not sure if I was "duped" – the few references to this wine that I found on google don’t mention any oxidative notes. Marcia saw him opening the bottle, so the oxidation was not due to it having been open for too long.
Visit to the Orangerie Museum
Notable for two large oval rooms full of Monet water lily paintings and a lower level with the important collection of modern and Impressionist paintings bequeathed by Paul Guillaume, a Parisian dealer active between the wars that played an important role in providing Albert Barnes with the works that can be seen today in Barnes Collection in Philadelphia.
Dinner at home with truffle brie and sundried tomato goat cheese and bread. To celebrate our last evening, nothing better than staying at home, even in Paris. This called for something special, so we opened with great curiosity and expectation, the bottle which Michel Moulherat had so kindly given us:
1999 Pierre Overnoy Arbois Pupillin Poulsard 12.5%
Odd ferruginous color, pale tawny, quite unattractive, almost like sewage. Aromas are pleasant and bright, somewhere between strawberry and pomegranate with a hint of violets. Light body, with sweet edge, but good acidity and pleasant tannins. No sign of premature aging due to low SO2. Goes down like juice, so easy and light and pleasant, but with a serious edge. Reminiscent of very fine gamay. Like a flower blossoming, this grows and grows as we eat and drink, ultimately attaining a kind of quintessence, utterly lovely. A memorable wine, and a fine farewell to Paris.
