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n.d.p. in beaujolais: christophe pacalet, cercié
Négoçiants tend to suffer from an enthusiasm gap among wine drinkers. Compared with the vigneron who grows the grapes he or she turns into wine, the arts of the négoçiant can seem coldly mercantile....
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beaujolais harvests 2016
Max Breton's team at the end of day in his old vines at Saint Joseph in Morgon. Anything I post on the blog right now will rightfully be drowned out by the post-election din, i.e. the anguished,...
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yann bertrand's 1st beaujolais nouveau: "ptit bouchon"
Yann Bertrand with his demi-muid's of Beaujolais primeur Fleurie's Yann Bertrand made a Beaujolais Nouveau this year from fruit purchased from Charentay vigneron Romain Jambon. It's stellar - a long,...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: romain des grottes, saint-etienne-des-ouillières
The man standing there with the huge elderflower bush in his vines is Romain des Grottes. He's a métayer, or sharecropper, working 8ha vines belonging to the Château de Lacarelle in...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: nicolas dubost, saint-germain-sur-l'arbesle
"It's crazy, how many young winemakers are setting up in Beaujolais," muses southern Beaujolais winemaker Nicolas Dubost, who attained biodynamic certification for his organic domaine in 2015. "But not...
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in with the old: chez la vieille, 75001
I have never quite understood Daniel Rose' conservative streak. I'm too young to remember the initial, bare-bones Spring in the 9eme arrondissement. By the time I met Rose in 2010, he had already...
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n.d.p. in maconnais: château des rontets, fuissé
The forecast called for rain, but my friend E and I had passed a perfectly calm, sunny day visiting winemakers around Saint-Amour last July. Among the crus of Beaujolais, Saint-Amour is a curious...
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not drinking poison in nice: la merenda
The Native Companion and I were in Nice for New Year's. Before we returned to Paris I was able to convince her to submit to the rigmarole necessary to assure a lunch table at La Merenda, the city's...
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hot bath: le grand bain, 75020
Chef Edward Delling-Williams is a key figure in the diaspora of mostly-Anglophone chefs emanating from the kitchen of restaurant Au Passage. It may have been James Henry's masterstroke to try that...
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small stakes: le desnoyez, 75020
A few years ago during the Loire tasting salons I had a brief but memorable conversation with a friend who was then in the initial stages of preparing to open a natural wine bar in New York. I had...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: gilles paris, chiroubles
I harvested a few days with Chiroubles-based natural winemaker Gilles Paris back in 2015. It was a disorienting experience. It was the hottest weekend of a heat-wave year, which did no favors for the...
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don't change: osteria ferrara, 75011
The similarities with between the restaurant Sicilian chef Fabrizio Ferrara opened last fall - Osteria Ferrara - and his former restaurant, the beloved Caffe dei Cioppi, are easy to recognize. At the...
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out in the street: vignes, 75019
Vignes' opening party, before the terrace seating was installed. The great legacy of the cave-à-manger neologism has been to turn most new Paris wine shops into functional bars. You'd have to be either...
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c'est extra: le bel ordinaire, 75010
The latter-day service-industry explosion of Paris' 10ème arrondissement is remarkable for its enthusiastically globalized aesthetics. You have Asian fusion bistrots, craft beer pizza joints,...
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pork universe: l'avant comptoir du marché, 75006
I stand in awe of the sheer cheek of Yves Camdeborde's L'Avant Comptoir wine bars. Camdeborde had the insight to reproduce San Sebastian pintxos bars in Paris, a city where dining standing up is...
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deck & donohue la terrasse at bob's bake shop, 75018
As of early May, Montreuil micro-brewery Deck & Donohue has teamed up with 18ème-arrondissement vegetarian canteen Bob's Bake Shop to liven up the latter's enormous terrace all summer....
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n.d.p. in lyon: brasserie georges, 69002
To recommend a restaurant on the basis of anything other than food, service, or wine has always seemed very foolish, like recommending a tailor because he plays excellent piano. I still recall my...
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n.d.p. in lyon: le troisième fleuve, 69009
A few Saturdays ago my friend N and I found ourselves staggering north in Lyon after a lunch at Café Comptoir Abel,* where the greatest wine available had been half-pints of Leffe. Desperate for a...
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the île de porquerolles: domaine de l'île, domaine perzinksy & domaine de la...
I sometimes worry I come across as too principled. I so rarely get invited on press junkets. I suspect many PR people imagine me to be a saber-rattling natural wine radical who, if cornered on a...
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a farewell to meat: aux deux amis primeur, 75011
When I first heard that 11ème wine bar Aux Deux Amis proprietor David Loyola had taken on the lease for a large adjacent space on rue Oberkampf, I shook my head in awe of what I assumed would become...
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