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clowns: clown bar, 75011
To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kind of scary. I've wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus, and a clown killed my dad. - Jack Handey My...
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eternal return: le dome café, 75014
Upon arriving in Paris, one can take pleasure in almost any characterful feature of the city, regardless of fame or exclusivity. For six years the bins of Chinese vegetables in Belleville and the...
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buckets, bennes, and quenelles: beaujolais harvests 2015
I moved to Beaujolais in mid-August to research a book I hope to write on the region's wines. I bought a 50cc scooter to get around on and I rented an apartment in Lancié, between the cru villages of...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: georges descombes, vermont
There was a man hanging around in the driveway when my friends and I showed up on bicycles for a rendezvous with Morgon-based winemaker Georges Descombes back in April. We parked the bikes and tried...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: la cuvée des copines 2015
Most wine regions have a colourful word for the traditional end-of-harvest party. In Burgundy it's la paulée. In the Aube it's le chien. In Beaujolais it's called la revole. Chez Yvon Métrasla revole...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: julie balagny, moulin-à-vent
Before I met Julie Balagny in early August, I had presumed she was the reclusive type. I don't know where I got this idea. It may have been her former association with Fleurie vigneron Yvon Métras, a...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: l'auberge du col du truges, le truges
Living in Beaujolais for the past few months has revealed myriad semi-unknown regional charms. What it has not revealed are many good restaurants. The winemakers I know are kind of sho-ga-nai about...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: pierre cotton, odenas
I can think of few better indicators of the stratospheric potential of cru Beaujolais terroir than the nascent career of young Odenas winemaker Pierre Cotton. He returned from his studies to the...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: patrick "jo" cotton, saint-lager
As we toured Brouilly vigneron Patrick Cotton's gently tumescent, unsloped vineyards in Saint-Lager, I remarked that one parcel seemed to be missing a great deal of vines. The vines didn't look that...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: sylvain chanudet, fleurie
The most famous man in Beaujolais is not who you might think. His wines remain under-acknowledged on the market, but in terms of sheer physical presence in the region - in vineyards, at other...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: domaine thillardon, chénas
Paul-Henri Thillardon in the vines he rents from Château Les Boccards. Contemporary Beaujolais is rife with opportunity - overlooked terroirs, abandoned vines, appellations ripe for rehabilitation. But...
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a new age: la cave de belleville, 75019
Gentrification in Paris seems to happen with the handbrake on. There ought to be a different word for it, one with less negative connotations. Our sympathy for displaced bodegas and barber shops...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: yann bertrand, fleurie
During pressing with Yvon and Jules Métras this September we were often joined around apéro hour by Jules' good friend Yann Bertrand, an extremely talented young Fleurie winemaker who lives a stone's...
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the evolution of: ô divin épicerie, 75020
It took me over a year to get around to visiting restaurateur Naoufel Zaïm's miniscule gourmet shop in the high nothingsphere of Jourdain. I arrived to find that Ô Divin Epicerie - indeed, Zaïm's...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: romain zordan, fleurie
Claude Zordan and Romain Zordan Such are the nuances at play within natural winemaking in Beaujolais that the two young winemakers of the two families of the Château de Grand Pré, Romain Zordan and his...
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a quiet revolution: le zingam, 75011
When Voltaire-area greengrocer Le Zingam first opened in April 2014, I gave it a wide berth, because it seemed like yet another overpriced organic-locavore bear-trap. A messenger bicycle forms part of...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: anthony thévenet, villié-morgon
Almost everyone in Beaujolais has at least one nickname. To an outsider, it makes it difficult to follow conversations, because one has to remember all the variations on the ways people refer to any...
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the seven sins of wine and social media
It's that time of year again. The Loire salons are approaching, and with them, the annual tempest of facile social media emissions recording an infinity of superficial encounters between historical...
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n.d.p. in beaujolais: nicolas chemarin, marchampt
Expect to hear a lot of bitching and moaning about Beaujolais in 2015. Alcohol levels are abnormally high for the region, in some cases turning what ought to be elegant, light-spirited wines into the...
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save this bar: jéroboam, 75011
Pity the lonely aficionado. Imagine being possessed of knowledge and good taste, in a given subject, and yet being condemned, for want of similarly-inclined fellowship, to forever share one's passion...
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