Just returned from a 9 day trip to Paris and Alsace. Great food and great wine, mostly thanks to the help of recommendations on the board. Deepest thanks to the numerous folks who made suggestions for Paris and Panos, who offered essential recommendations for Strasbourg. Without your advice and reports, our trip wouldn’t have been nearly as wonderful as it turned out to be.
This is sort of a hybrid tasting note / travelogue.
Day 1, we landed to torrential rain. We had a simple lunch at Willi’s Wine Bar (surprisingly nice food) before taking a quick, wet walk to the Louvre.
-
2009 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru (11/29/2015)
At Willi’s wine bar. Not good - very buttery, to a fault. Oaky, too. I don’t like buttered popcorn in my Chablis. My wife and I couldn’t finish the bottle. (85 pts.)
For dinner we took a short walk to L’Ami Jean. I had mixed feelings about LAJ. Food was very delicious, but a bit heavy-handed. Bivalves served still-squirming in a searing hot dish of bubbling, garlicy broth was so outrageously garlicy that the seafood character was a bit obscured, even though the dish was VERY delicious in a primal sort of way; my wife was warned that her hare would be gamey, and it was, but the reduction intensified the gaminess at the expense of everything else. My wood pigeon was absolutely spectacular, served with turnips and pears and vanilla. Easily the best dish of the night. The vaunted rice pudding didn’t do much for me. It tasted like well-made rice pudding.
The wine was a super pairing for the food - I REALLY liked this as I thought it was basically a perfect example of a “bistro bottle”. I was only introduced to Bonneau a few months ago but after 3 bottles at different levels, I’m all in.
-
NV Henri Bonneau Les Rouliers - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Vaucluse (11/29/2015)
At L’Ami Jean. I liked this much more than what seems to be the CT consensus. Remarkably silky-textured, this is ripe but never spicy or spirity - at most, it shows perhaps a bit of warmth but in the way that a really old brandy does. Not stereotypically “grenachey” - this is surprisingly savory, almost a touch teritiary, with a figgy, hoisin character. But it’s not overripe or fat - it has decent acid, and taken together with the silky texture its almost gulpable. Put differently, it was a phenomenal pairing with claims steamed in garlic broth - but also worked well (but not quite as well) with a main course of roasted pigeon. Great wine - not trying to be more than a bistro bottle but it’s the platonic ideal of that. (90 pts.)
The next day it rained again. We mostly stayed in and napped. I had the chance to visit Caves Auges and stock our hotel room. I was also able to score some very well-priced French farmed caviar and blini for a late lunch, washed down with Selosse. It didn’t suck. We drank the remaining bottles from Caves Auges in our room over the next couple of days.
-
NV Jacques Selosse Champagne Cuvée Exquise - France, Champagne (11/29/2015)
Purchased at Caves Auges. Superlative champagne. I’d recently had a Selosse that was brut, and I -far- preferred this Sec; the extra sugar does wonders with the vinous, oxidative style. It’s somewhere on the spectrum between Krug and the more elegant style of madiera - the acid here is screamingly high but its in perfect balance with the sweetness, so this drinks remarkably dry, but the sugar still rounds the wine / brings out the gingery, spicy elements. Plenty of chalky structure. Wow bottle - one of the best champagnes I’ve ever had. (92 pts.) -
2011 Domaine des Tours Vaucluse - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Vaucluse (11/29/2015)
Bought at Caves Auges. This was all over Paris - saw this at nearly every restaurant and wine store. We paid 11 euro for it. For that price, it’s a screaming bargain - it clearly has the house style, with the green herbiness (smells a bit like weed, actually), very red fruit, pale color and tart finish. Less concentrated and a bit rougher than the big boy bottles, but you’d peg it blind as being in the family. Better with cheese, which tames the acid and the slightly-spritzy finish. (88 pts.) -
2009 Catherine & Dominique Derain Saint-Aubin 1er Cru en Remilly - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Saint-Aubin 1er Cru (11/29/2015)
Bought at Caves Auges. Bad wine. Corn chowder, some apple - lots of acetaldehyde here. Short and tart, especially from such a ripe year. Anonymously natural wine-y, and not in a good way. (83 pts.)
For dinner we went to Passage 53. It was spectacular - great service, terrific, innovative food; a lovely setting in the Passage des Panoramas. Mostly fish and vegetables so we went with a white burg at the suggestion of the somm - and lucked out with the wine of the trip. For the sole meat course we split a glass of tasty burg. For dessert, the somm gifted us each a glass of some lovely Trimbach Gewurtz VT, but I didn’t catch the vintage.
There was a guy at the table next to us ordering about $10,000 of wine with his date. The somm paid us just as much attention. It was much appreciated.
-
2000 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet (11/29/2015)
Off the list at Passage 53. Best white burg I’ve had in years. Somm agreed this was showing extremely well - he thought it was the best bottle of his batch (it was the last bottle). Butterscotch, lemon, nutmeg, chalk, honey - it’s got everything you could want from mature white burg. Perhaps a touch of white nuts, it’s ripe for Puligny. Very long, concentrated, almost unctuous. I’ve had a mediocre bottle of this in the US that was unrecognizable as the same wine. Astonishingly good for a village wine and probably the wine of the trip. Great food wine, too - very flexible. (94 pts.) -
2007 Serafin Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin (11/29/2015)
By the glass at Passage 53. Great restaurant burg - wide open, bright and accessible; more red fruit than typical for Gevrey, a pleasingly well-integrated stem character, very fragrant; juicy, finishes with mild tannins and has a twist of gevrey structure. Ripe, tasty wine; doubt it will get better but was never designed to be a distance runner. (89 pts.)
After dinner, we shared a nightcap at our hotel bar:
-
2006 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon - France, Champagne (11/29/2015)
BTG at our hotel bar. Had this the same day as the Selosse Exquise, and it suffered greatly in comparison. Part of it is that the wine - even poured from a bottle that had been opened for several hours - was quite deeply reduced, verging on skunky/flawed; the house style does not favors to drinking the wine this young. And this clearly is going to be a longer-aging vintage than the 2004 or 2003, both of which were much more accessible. But aside from the reduction, this just seemed a bit simple - there was lots of lemon, but not much autolytic character. It’ll probably develop complexity with time, but I imagine 99% of Dom is drunk young. Weird wine. (88 pts.)
The next day we finally had good weather so we took a very long walk. The highlight was stopping into Chocolat Chapon - simply extraordinary chocolate, the best I’ve ever had. They have a chocolate mousse bar with different mousses each made from a different single-origin chocolate that they roast themselves. We tried plenty of chocolate on our trip from good stores, but this was head and shoulders above the rest. We stopped at a wine bar at one point and had some mediocre glasses of natural wines, but the names escape me, and nibbled on some jamon iberico bellota (I’m a sucker for Spanish ham). It was a Sunday, so we had a light dinner at 110 de Taillevent - better food than we expected but certainly the weakest meal of the trip - and tasted a number of fairly priced full and half pours. All of these were very well priced - full glasses about 20-33% of US retailer bottle price.
-
2010 Jean-Michel Gerin Côte-Rôtie Les Grandes Places - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (11/29/2015)
BTG at 110 de Taillevent. Whoa! Ordered quasi-blindly off the list - asked them for a Cote Rotie that wouldn’t break the bank, this is one of the best C-Rs I’ve ever had. Intermediate in style between traditional and modern, this has some oak but its more of in the vein of softening the edges rather than overwhelming the Syrah-y ness of it; this is still a decidedly olive/ham/violets sort of wine, with juicy blackberry fruit. Cleanly made with no brett. Yum! Wish more C-R tasted like this. Saw Gerin everywhere in France; clearly more popular there than here and I’d say it was one of my revelations of the trip. (93 pts.) -
2009 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru (11/29/2015)
BTG at 110 de Taillevent. Buttery, corny, oaky; like a Rombauer start married to a chablis finish. Disjointed. Not my thing. Shame they were mostly out of the Leflaive I’d ordered at first. (83 pts.) -
2005 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Taillepieds - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru (11/29/2015)
BTG at 110 de Taillevent. Seems crazy to serve this now, but hey, if they want to pour it, we’ll order it. It’s shut down as hell, and slowly opens with time in my wife’s glass; dense, concentrated, dark; has that “licking a magnet” iron taste that Taillepieds can get - the tannins are exceptionally refined and powdery but there’s a lot of them; this is all potential but this particular bottle was a coiled-up essence of its vineyard - improved greatly with air and the last sip was the best.
Later that night and throughout the trip, we enjoyed some BTG glasses of champagne at our hotel. House producers were Delamotte and Billecart-Salmon, so it was hard to resist a snort.
-
NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé - France, Champagne (11/29/2015)
Just a solid rose champagne - not too much dosage or too little, nicely chalky. This was the house bottle at our hotel and it was consistently very good. (90 pts.)
The next day the weather started out holding, so we took another lovely walk. We got hungry midway so stopped into Terroir Parisien at the Bourse. We were skeptical - it seemed commercial - but we were hungry and tired. Much to our surprise, we had a wonderful and very fairly priced light lunch - I had a special, braised lamb baked in a small earthwenware dish with thinly sliced potatoes browned atop, almost like a crust; my wife had a perfect rendition of her favorite sandwich, good crusty bread, good butter and mild French ham. Delicious. We had a couple of 5 euro glasses of no-name wine from southwest france that was perfect in context, grapey and celery seedy and gulpable. Yum meal.
For dinner, my wife sent me out to collect a picnic for our hotel room. I found a market street in the 16th with a serious seeming small wine store. After some discussion about the merits of red Chassagne, the caviste pointed me to a back room where a bottle of 2010 Angerville Ducs was on sale for 100 euros. I may or may not have yelped with delight. He, and the very helpful man at Androuet, where I got a medley of absurdly cheap, absurdly good cheese,both sent me down the block to Boulangerie Lalos, assuring me that while the bread there was merely good, the pastries were astonishing. And they were. A lemon éclair was simply the best pasty I’ve ever had. We tasted a bunch of sweets during our week in Paris, and nothing came close. Surprising, given that I hadn’t heard about this place before I wandered in.
-
2010 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru (11/29/2015)
Bought for 100 Euros from a store near the closest street to buy cheese and bread. We drank this with a rotisserie chicken - the good sort they have there - some poached salmon and lots of different cheeses and a good baguette.
It is so good. It’s still primary - red pinot fruit, some already-integrated oak spice, lots of florals. And it’s amazingly concentrated given how bright and zingy it is - it’s one of those wines that simultaneously full-bodied and light-bodied - and terrifically mineral. I know this was infanticide but it was an absolute joy to drink - we had to hold back to avoid gulping this down. Not shut down yet. (93 pts.)
The next day, it poured again. Sigh. We went back to Lalos for more pastries - good god, they were good - had a coffee at Bechu down the block, when went to the Orsay. When we came out, still pouring, so we went back to our hotel and saved room for dinner at David Toutain. On the way, we stopped in and picked up a couple of more bottles for our hotel room to sample over the final couple of days of our trip:
-
2002 Duval-Leroy Champagne Brut Vintage Blanc de Blancs - France, Champagne (11/29/2015)
Bought at a local wine store for about 50 euros. Marked as Brut Nature. Live-wire champage; very tart, bright, lemony: essence of Chardonnay. Super long. Has a odd creamy character which helps round out the super-high acid. A real enamel peeler but it’s got stuffing. My wife loved, I mean absolutely adored this bottle; I was a little more put off by the raging acidity but thought it would age extremely well. Very pure and clean. I believe this will eventually reach the US and is a very recently released bottling. Perhaps not the same bottling as the note below, if that’s not for the 2002 BdB Brut Nature. (90 pts.) -
2006 Domaine des Terres Dorées (Jean-Paul Brun) Beaujolais Labeur d’Octobre - France, Burgundy, Beaujolais (11/29/2015)
Bought from a local wine store for 36 euros for a 500ml bottle. I really liked this. It’s curiously a dead ringer for 30 year old Sauternes - darkish gold color, not that sweet, a touch of orange rind, LOTS of botrytal, burnt sugar character, perhaps a hint of not-unpleasant oxidation, good acid so it’s never cloying; great with a pre-dinner terrine and I imagine would be perfect for foie. I’m surprised I’ve never seen this in NYC as I imagine it would sell to the sort of folks who are already buying Brun. (91 pts.)
Dinner at David Toutain was such a disappointment! We had bizarre service, as detailed in a thread over in Epicurean Exploits. Not a good experience despite fine (though not exceptional) food. It seems clear someone took a dislike to us and gave us a C+ meal on purpose, which is not very nice. The burg that we ordered was somewhat disappointing - it would’ve been fine back home, but we generally drank so well off of restaurant lists that we were getting spoiled for what was available for around 100 euros.
-
2012 Domaine Trapet (Jean et Jean-Louis) Gevrey-Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin (11/29/2015)
Off the list at David Toutain. Merely correct. Darkish fruit, touch gamey, a bit short (especially for a 2012). Drinks more like a well-made Bourgogne than a not-inexpensive village wine. Too dark and wine-y for some of the early courses and we had to order some white BTG (name of which I didn’t catch) to rescue it. (87 pts.)
The next day we went to Arpege for lunch. Our meal lasted four hours and was simply the best meal I’ve ever eaten in my life. Incredible service and a warm, personal touch from Chef Passard. I picked up a piece of advice on WB that I will pass along - we ordered a couple of a la carte dishes to share on top of the lunch tasting and the difference in quality between our not-by-the-book meal and those around us was astonishing. Our dishes in the tasting were even modified to better complement the a la carte dishes so the meal worked as a coherent whole. It felt as if Chef Passard was cooking for us privately. I’ve heard that Arpege can be hit or miss but I think we got the A+ game and I simply cannot capture with words how good our experience was and how much we appreciated it, especially after the unpleasantness of the night before. We gave Chef big hugs as we left.
With our meal, we had a perfectly delicious bottle of champagne, but it was like foothills to Passard’s mountain.
-
2008 Chartogne-Taillet Champagne Brut Millésimé - France, Champagne (11/29/2015)
Off the list at Arpege. A bit overshadowed by the best meal of my life, but still a very good champagne. Doesn’t stick out in any way, but middle-of-the-road is not a bad thing when it’s done so well. Has some pinot richness and some chard lemon; I’ll bet this is close to 50/50 blend. Has some gingery character but not really oxidative; has plenty of autolytic character without smelling like a boulangerie; has good 2008 acid and brightness, but with enough dosage that it stands up to beets and squash. (91 pts.)
That night, we shared some more champagne as we digested and rested. I picked this up at the wonderful Castarede boutique, which seems to also be affiliated with Rene Geoffroy. I love Armagnac, and when the shop keeper realized that I liked wine and brandy, she insisted on tasting me through some very old bottles they keep as samples. They were absolutely wonderful. I bought a 20cl bottle of Castarede 1975 to sample over the remaining few days of the trip. It was super.
-
NV René Geoffroy Champagne Volupté Brut Premier Cru - France, Champagne, Vallée de la Marne, Champagne (11/29/2015)
Bought at the Castarede armagnac boutique. (FYI - the Castarede older vintages were terrific - they tasted me through a bunch and they were probably the best Armagnacs I’ve ever had.) I believe this was listed as 2008 vintage on the back label. Very bright and pure - this is delightfully lemony, like biting into a meyer lemon. I believe mostly chardonnay and it shows. Its low dosage but a day after the Duval-Leroy Brut Nature it still seems a bit more balanced and rounded out. Leftovers are really good on day two in a wine-glass; there’s stuffing here underneath the simplicity. Very good champagne; excellent QPR for 35 euros. (90 pts.)
The next day we hopped on an early train to Alsace. We spent the morning visiting the wine villages. They were as beautiful as advertised, but we were put-off by the intensely touristy character. So when lunch hour hit, we improvised, making for Baden-Baden in Germany.
We loved - I mean loved - Baden-Baden. What a cool town. We had a long tea and cake at Brenner’s Hotel, which was the nicest hotel I think I’ve ever visited - and I’ve stayed at my share of world-class places. Felt like a perfect luxury hotel from 30 years ago. Not surprised to learn after the face that Brenners is the flagship of the Oetker chain. At tea, my wife had a glass of methode champensoise sparkler made from Baden pinot. It was excellent, serious stuff - regrettably, I didn’t catch the name.
We drove back to Strasbourg that evening and had dinner at Au Pont du Corbeau. I had no idea it was a serious wine restaurant until I saw the wine list. Holy crap! Tons and tons of rare natural wines. I was all excited to order . . . and then two interesting things happened. First, it turned out that the owner had negative interest in selling a couple of noisy Americans desirable wines. Second, the table next to us overheard our awkward conversations with the owner and started laughing - they also loved wine and we immediately started talking. 2 hours later we finally left after a meal with a ton of laughter thanks to our tablemates (who, in an impossibly gracious gesture, paid for one of our bottles!).
Highlight of this meal came when I ordered Overnoy. The owner refused to serve it to us. Our tablemates then translated for us as we explained to the owner that we had drank overnoy on the first night of our honeymoon. He refused to serve it to us. My wife then said, “You’re not out of the wine, you just wont sell it to us” and the owner responding, more or less “When you own the wine, you can say no!”. At this point we were dying laughing. After more conversation, the owner assured our tablemates that if President Obama himself called, he would not sell Overnoy to a table of Americans. We conceded - the wines he was willing to sell us were pretty damn good as it was.
Note that this guy expressed a deep dislike for 2009 Bojos, which he viewed as overripe and lacking bojo character. When I asked for that vintage (in part because my wife has found some of the 2011s and 2012s a bit lean for her liking) the owner refused to sell me anything other than 2009s and 2003s for the rest of the night, out of disgusted spite.
(In case you can’t tell, I thought this guy was delightful - I have a soft spot for cantankerous old oenophiles. And the food was delicious!)
-
2009 Julie Balagny Fleurie En Remont “Jean Barrat” - France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Fleurie (11/29/2015)
Off the list at Au Pont Corbeau. A natural wine that benefited from being kept in an ice-cold cellar; unlike the notes below, this is clean and impressive; very ripe and grapey, very 2009; almost has a maneschevitz character; good underlying savoriness and the fruitiness is buffered with appropriated acid; full midpalate. I don’t love the grapeyness of Cru Bojo but there’s no denying the quality here, and no brett or biologic to speak of. (89 pts.) -
2003 Gerard Schueller Gewurztraminer Eichberg - France, Alsace, Alsace Grand Cru (11/29/2015)
Off the “list” (and by that, I mean picked out of the owner’s cellar) at Au Pont Corbeau. Another example of a natural wine that really benefitted from great storage - the color here has advanced to a goldish hue but this is otherwise very pure and youthful; I was told that this was picked relatively late (for 2003) to achieve phenolic maturity but then fermented dry so it’s listed at 14.5% abv and tastes every it of it; but frankly, it’s really good, a perfect example of gewurtz with a very, very strong lychee/roses character, the acidity is excellent, the fruit exotic; there’s a touch of a honeyed character but the wine doesn’t show much, if any, botrytis. The grapefruit pith character is there if you look for it but its controlled and the wine isn’t obstrusively bitter. There’s elements of the big glyceriny Alsatian style here, probably b/c of the vintage, but the acidity saves the wine. An excellent surprise. Enjoyed by all of us. (91 pts.)
Finally, the next day we walked around Strasbourg and visited the Christmas markets in the afternoon. Strasbourg is amazingly beautiful and the downtown is mostly limited to pedestrians and trams. It’s a perfect town for a weekend visit. I can’t understand why it doesn’t get more attention here in the States because I liked it a hell of a lot more than some places that are on the “grand tour” of Europe for visiting Americans. Many thanks to those on the board who encouraged me to stay in Strasbourg and block out some time to see the city - it was a highlight of our trip.
For lunch, we ate at Vino Strada, an upscale winebar. The food was good, the wine list OMFG jaw-dropping. We finished the trip with a bang.
-
2008 Clos Rougeard (Foucault) Saumur-Champigny Le Bourg - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur-Champigny (11/29/2015)
Off the list at Vino Strada. Everything it’s cracked up to be. Reminds me of a red fruited Monte Bello. Super concentrated but still great acid / medium-bodied; layers of red fruit, a pleasing faint green pepper character; tobacco; the finest tannins you can imagine. Seamless, complete wine; powerful bouquet, great sweet fruit on the attack, a full, rich midpalate and then the acid and fine tannin structures the finish. What a way to finish the trip. (93 pts.)
That night we boarded the train which delivered us directly to our terminal at CDG. Great trip, great wine, great food, and couldn’t have put it together without the help of this board. Many, many thanks to everyone.
