Stuff we can't get in the states...

Marc Hanes

Marc Hanes

Marc Hanes
OK, so my sister is going to Paris and has asked me what wine I want her to bring back for me. Soooo, not knowing what is available there and not here in the US (living in Charlotte can do that to a fella) and factoring for availability, any suggestions? I am wide open, geek it to the max, just I'd want to keep it to $50 US or less to be nice to sis. If anyone has a recommendation and knows some specific place where it's available, double bonus. Again, any French wine can work, I tend towards Syrah and Loire stuff in general.

Thanks for any advice, again I am majorly out of the loop.

MH
 
I would download the pdf from cavesauge.com and pick two or three things (in case they're out of your first choice). Personally, I'd pick the amazing 09 Kezako St. Nicolas de Bourgueil by Sebastien David, most unusual in that it undergoes carbonic in barrel. She can combine the visit with a candystruck stroll around the place de la Madeleine.

These are some of the wines I shortlisted for my last visit to Auge:
Muscadet de sèvres et maine amphibolite nature, Landron 2009 ............9,70
Bourgogne, Roumier 2008 ................... 26,80
Bourgogne bedeau, frédéric Cossard 2008 ................... 26,45
Bourgogne bedeau, frédéric Cossard 2009 ................... 27,45
Volnay, Cossard 2008 ............... 46,00
Côte rôtie, Stéphan 2008 ....................... 37,95
Côte rôtie coteau de bassenon, Stéphan 2007 ....................... 52,30
Côte rôtie vieilles vignes en coteau, Stéphan 2007 ....................... 62,55
Côte rôtie coteau de tupin, Stéphan 2007 ....................... 56,40
Chinon clos des roches, Lenoir 2002 .................... 12,10
Saint nicolas de bourgueil kezako, David 2009 .................... 14,95
Saint nicolas de bourgueil huluberlu, David 2009 .................... 12,30
Saint nicolas de bourgueil ni dieu ni maître, David 2007 .................... 19,25
Hermitage, Dard et Ribo 2007 ....................... 47,15
 
Oswaldo - did you pick up/try the Cossard Volnay? I think it is your kind of wine. If I had a case I would try the second bottle a year from Christmas I think, but as I just had the one I picked up at Auge and drank there I won't get the option.

The other recommendation I have for Auge is to let the guys there steer you to stuff, esp. once they've recognized you as natural wine junkies from a request or two - they will point out some interesting things.
 
Benetiere is indeed awesome and is around 45 euros at Lavinia.
Otherwise I second Oswaldo regarding Cossard. I would also add Hirotake Ooka, a very talented japanese winemaker in St Peray who trained with Thierry Allemand.
Try to get some Pacalet as well as they are crazy expensive here.
For stuff you can't really find here, try Domaine Viret (Cotes du Rhone), Casot des Mailloles, Torraccia (Corsica), Dom de Courbissac.
 
originally posted by Steven Spielmann:
Oswaldo - did you pick up/try the Cossard Volnay?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately not, only the whites, which are super. Now I'm dying to.

Arno, the Pacalets were on my list but I crossed them out before posting because the cost/benefit is not so hot. But I like them. I tasted some Brazilian wines with Pacalet two weeks ago (that's my thinning hair)and really liked the guy.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Steven Spielmann:
Oswaldo - did you pick up/try the Cossard Volnay?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately not, only the whites, which are super. Now I'm dying to.

Arno, the Pacalets were on my list but I crossed them out before posting because the cost/benefit is not so hot. But I like them. I tasted some Brazilian wines with Pacalet two weeks ago (that's my thinning hair)and really liked the guy.
Click to expand...

Apropos of next to nothing, Oswaldo, I wish that Portuguese was as easy to understand when spoken as it was when written. Alas, my few attempts to grok spoken Portuguese have been laughable failures.

Mark Lipton
 
I imagine it appears harder than Spanish? If so, it can only be from less familiarity, because it's no harder, intrinsically.

Not that there's anything particularly worth reading in this particular case, but I've found google translate increasingly worthwhile for stuff I wouldn't otherwise have a clue about.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
I imagine it appears harder than Spanish? If so, it can only be from less familiarity, because it's no harder, intrinsically.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I should have explained my perspective, which is that of someone who got 4 years of Spanish in school and spent a summer honing his skills in Mexico*. Written Portuguese is pretty much a total cognate of Spanish for me, but when it's spoken I might as be listening to Martian. FWIW, though, I'm still better off with Portuguese than either Italian or French, which aren't very intelligible to me even in written form (well, I've got much better with French for obvious reasons, but Italian will, alas, always remain beyond my reach).

Mark Lipton

* With partially disastrous consequences since much of the rest of the Spanish-speaking world considers Mexican Spanish to be the equivalent of Brooklynese: uncouth and ill-educated. As one of my Puerto Rican students once put it, "Every other word is a form of chingar in Mexico!"
 
For me spoken italian and spanish are light years easier for me than spoken french and portuguese. And of the 4 the hardest one for me to read by far is french, its a bit better than it used to be, both spoken and reading, but my vocabulary is (understandably) pretty food-centric.

cheers,

Kevin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top