Afleveringen
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Winemaker in English is a stupid word, because I donât see myself as a maker of anything. I mean, we pick the grapes, we press them, we leave them to macerate; of course we do things. So we make stuff. But the wine? If you see the period of time where we actually work the grapes⊠Letâs say we work the grapes for six or seven weeks. Then itâs in barrel for four or five years. - Anders Frederik Steen
Anders Frederik Steen is a Danish vigneron-nĂ©gociant based with his wife and collaborator Anne Bruun Blauert in the southern ArdĂšche village of ValvigniĂšres, where the couple established a winemaking practice throughout the 2010s with the aid of ArdĂšche natural wine progenitors GĂ©rald and Jocelyne Oustric of Domaine du Mazel. Today the couple farm almost 6ha of viognier, sauvignon, grenache blanc, grenache noir, portan, syrah, and serine, supplementing it with an almost equal volume of grape purchases from Domaine du Mazel and from Alsace vigneron StĂ©phane Bannwarth. In 2021, Barcelona-based interiors magazine Apartamento published a very lightly-edited volume compiling seven years of Steenâs tasting observations and notes-to-self, entitled Poetry is Growing in Our Garden.
Steenâs charmed career in natural wine began in 2007, when he worked at Noma under pathbreaking Swedish natural wine sommelier Pontus Eloffson (and alongside another Swedish sommelier Ulf Ringus, now a partner in Sweden natural wine importer Vin & Natur). Steen left two years later to partner in influential Copenhagen restaurants Relae and Manfredâs, a time when he also began importing natural wine to Denmark. His winemaking practice began in 2013, in what was initially envisioned as an ongoing collaboration with the influential radical natural winemaker Jean-Marc Brignot, who at that time had recently left France for Japan. Their partnership lasted three years, by which time Steen had already begun to base himself in ArdĂšche, drawn by the sense of community and camaraderie surrounding the Oustrics at Domaine du Mazel. Steen and Blauert began farming their own parcels in 2017; today the couple live with their two children in center of ValvigniĂšres, where they are in the midst of renovating their own cellar after several years vinifying at Domaine du Mazel.
Although weâve traveled in similar orbits for many years, it wasnât until harvest time at Domaine du Mazel 2019 that I first encountered Steen outside of the context of a natural wine salon. And it wasnât until January of this year that we finally found an occasion to chat and taste some wines together, on an unseasonably spring-like morning before the Montpellier salons. Check out the episode for Steenâs peculiar writing process (it involves text messages); which winemaking techniques he learned from Jean-Marc Brignot; and his dastardly scheme to ensure the coupleâs wines take up as much layout space as possible on restaurant wine lists.
Aaron
This is a free episode of the NOT DRINKING POISON podcast. For access to all the episodes - plus years of vigneron interviews, profiles, news reports, and commentary - please subscribe!
FURTHER READING & LISTENING
Ep. 24: Sune Rosforth of Rosforth & RosforthEp. 26: Martin Ho of Pompette
A long interview with Anders Frederik Steen and Anne Bruun Blauert by Madeleine Willis in Apartamento.
A terrific 2021 profile of Anders Frederik Steen and Anne Bruun Blauert by Alicia in Le Figaro.
Podcast Series III: Les Emigré(e)s - Expat Natural Winemakers in France, Part IPodcast Series III: Les Emigré(e)s - Expat Natural Winemakers in France, Part II
Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part IPodcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part II
Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part IPodcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part II
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I was thinking of when I was really young, five to ten years old, at primary school, [of posters that were] just to explain to us the cycle of a tree, or a flower... I wanted to take that kind of academic way of presentation to explain carbonic maceration to people. - Mathieu Lapierre
Mathieu Lapierre is the co-manager, along with his sister Camille, of famed Morgon estate Domaine Marcel Lapierre, which he has overseen since the passing of his father in 2010. Initially a chef by training, Mathieu Lapierre joined the family estate in 2004 after viticultural studies in Beaune. Few who have met him in his two decades at the estate fail to remark the breadth of his interests, which also include the piano, archaeology, and Legos.
The occasion for our chat in early January was the completion of a pet project he first mentioned to me several years ago: an educational poster about the process of carbonic maceration. I may just be the target audience for this sort of thing, but I suspect Lapierreâs finished poster has an impressive potential to improve the global wine conversation, which remains rife with inaccuracies and mistaken impressions where it concerns carbonic maceration.
It is a situation that persists simply because questions about carbonic maceration most often arise in wine shops, wine bars, and restaurants, where informed staff are often too hurried to effectively explain the process. In such a way, Lapierreâs new poster is an inspired marriage between message and medium: it offers, in the form of a handsome poster illustrated with watercolors by French cartoonist GAB, information that is helpful on the wall of a wine establishment. Check out the podcast for a history of carbonic maceration; the sociopolitical values embedded in its practice; and the link between carbonic maceration and aged meat.
Aaron
This is a free episode of the NOT DRINKING POISON podcast. For access to all the episodes - plus years of vigneron interviews, profiles, news reports, and commentary - please subscribe!
FURTHER READING & LISTENING
Eloi Gros: An Homage to Vanishing Beaujolais-Villages
BOOK REVIEW: Jacques NĂ©auport, Le Dilettante
Podcast Series III: Les Emigré(e)s - Expat Natural Winemakers in France, Part IPodcast Series III: Les Emigré(e)s - Expat Natural Winemakers in France, Part II
Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part IPodcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part II
Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part IPodcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part II
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Despite the fact that I was in art before, I donât perceive tending vines and making wine as art. And therefore I myself donât feel comfortable excusing my prices because itâs a special little artsy thing... Itâs not what Iâve been learning for the last fifteen years. - Stephana Nicolescou
Half-French, half-Romanian, and raised in Chicago, Stephana Nicolescou is a well-traveled natural wine jack-of-all-trades who, since 2017, has been helping run the 5ha ArdÚche estate of her companion, renowned Czech vigneron Andrea Calek. In 2019 and 2020, she also produced négociant micro-cuvées of her own as Une Strop, an ArdÚche cinsault and a Loir-et-Cher cabernet franc, respectively. In addition to her winemaking activities, she is an avid scuba diver and amateur pilot, and routinely organizes a natural wine stand at the Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival in Fontainebleau.
Nicolescou left the USA to attend art school in Paris at age eighteen. Her introduction to natural wine came a few years later, after dropping out, when she managed the popular 1st-arrondissement natural wine bar Le Garde Robe. She left the position in 2011 to embrace wine production, first working in Andalucia for Bodega Cauzon, and later for Clos Roche Blanche and Michel Augé of Les Maisons Brûlées. She moved to ArdÚche in 2014 with her then-companion Samuel Boulay, who had taken up the vineyards of retiring ArdÚche natural wine pioneer Gilles Azzoni. When that relationship ended, she returned to Spain, where she worked for Bodega Marenas, before returning to ArdÚche at the end of 2016 to work for Andrea Calek
I first met Nicolescou shortly after arriving to Paris in 2009, when I worked in central Paris and frequented apĂ©ro hours at Le Garde Robe. I lost track of her when she left for Spain, only to re-encounter her in 2018, when I arrived for a tasting appointment with Calek and was surprised to see another familiar face. Nowadays I make a stop at the coupleâs handsome bioclimatic abode whenever Iâm in the region, most recently before the Montpellier salons in late January, when we recorded this podcast. Check it out for Nicolescouâs plans for her own winemaking; her perspective on the Chicago natural wine scene; and how she intends to survive a zombie apocalypse in ArdĂšche.
Aaron
This is a free episode of the NOT DRINKING POISON podcast. For access to all episodes - plus years of natural wine profiles, reports, and interviews - please subscribe!
FURTHER READING & LISTENING
NDP Podcast Series III: Les Emigré(e)s - Expat Natural Winemakers in FranceEp. 14: Katie Worobeck of Maison MaenadEp. 15: Hannah Fuellenkemper of ABRACADABRAEp. 16: Joe Jefferies of Les Bories JefferiesEp. 17: Jon Purcell of Vin NoéEp. 18: Michele Smith-Chapel of Domaine ChapelEp. 20: Kenji Hodgson of Vins HodgsonEp. 21: Stephen Roberts of Fondugues-PraduguesEp. 22: Oriane Rosner of Ori Vin
A Feb. 2021 piece about disgorging pĂ©t-nat with Stephana Nicolescou. The Legend of Andrea Calekâs Grande Arnaque
NDP Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part INDP Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part II
NDP Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part INDP Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part II
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In Auvergne, the winemakers are very independent. I don't know if it's the Auvergne that makes you like this or if it's the people. Because not a lot of the winemakers in the Auvergne are actually from the Auvergne. They come from somewhere else and I think maybe they come to a place like this because they like to be alone. - Hannah Fuellenkemper
There are, I often say, two ways to fall in love with natural wine, not mutually exclusive. One is to learn about it, taste widely, and begin buying it in favor of all other sorts of wine. The other is to find yourself rearranging your whole life so as to be able to make your own natural wine. Hannah Fuellenkemper, a peripatetic American natural wine négociant now finally somewhat settled in the Auvergne, is a poster-woman for this latter way of falling in love with natural wine.
Born in Germany, raised between the USA and England, Fuellenkemper obtained a law degree in Amsterdam before discovering an interest in natural wine at the cityâs wine bars. She followed her muse to wine salons in France and a revelatory experience harvesting with the Cousin family in Anjou in 2017. She interned for Manuel di Vecchi Staraz at Vinyer de la Ruca in Banyuls before moving her base to the ArdĂšche, where for several seasons she worked on and off for the regionsâ natural vignerons, including Sylvain Bock and Andrea Calek / Stephana Nicolescu. In 2019 she did a season of work in the Loire for François Saint-LĂŽ; the same year, she began making a small quantity of her own nĂ©gociant wine.
Following a series of precarious and improvised cellar situations around Auvergne, Fuellenkemper at last established a stable cellar rental this year near the town of Brioudes. In 2023 she produced an impressive 10â000 bottles of her radically handmade natural nĂ©gociant wines, sourced chiefly from the south of France, and recognizable by the paint spatters they bear in lieu of front labels. Fuellenkemper and I met in 2018 and soon began exchanging wine tips, crash pads, and winemaking labor in the course of our travels around France. I caught up with her in December 2023 as she headed home to America for the holidays. Check out the episode for Fuellenkemperâs memories of sleeping in a cave in Berrie; her list of emergency kit survival items for rural French life; and her experiences with Tinder in Auvergne.
Aaron
This is a free episode of the NOT DRINKING POISON podcast. For access to all the episodes - plus years of vigneron interviews, profiles, tasting reports, and commentary - please subscribe!
FURTHER READING & LISTENING
NDP Podcast Series III: Les Emigré(e)s - Expat Natural Winemakers in FranceEp. 14: Katie Worobeck of Maison MaenadEp. 16: Joe Jefferies of Les Bories JefferiesEp. 17: Jon Purcell of Vin NoéEp. 18: Michele Smith-Chapel of Domaine Chapel
The Art of Aurelien Lefort
NDP Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part INDP Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part II
NDP Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part INDP Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part II
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When my two-year visa was over, I asked the Ganevats to help me with a working visa... During that time, I did receive some job offers in Canada. But there was still nothing that was as exciting as the wines we were making in the Jura. And I [figured] I would rather be a little vineyard donkey doing whatever at [Domaine] Ganevat than be the head honcho somewhere making wines that I donât really believe in. - Katie Worobeck
Katie Worobeck is a Canadian vigneronne (and fellow Substack writer!) based in the village of Orbagna in the Sud Revermont, where since 2022 she farms a 3ha vineyard boasting all five classic Jura varieties in nearby Saint-Laurent-La-Roche. Her French winemaking debut came earlier, in 2019, during her four-year tenure working for Jura natural wine legend Jean-François Ganevat.
Worobeckâs career in wine traces its roots to 2011, when she decided to take a break after obtaining a Masterâs degree in International Political Economy at the University of Toronto to take a trip WOOFFing throughout France, Italy, Croatia, and Turkey. Upon her return to Canada, she worked in restaurants in Ottawa, where an eccentric local farmer encouraged her interest in farming, and a benevolent employer offered to pay for WSET courses. Worobeck followed her burgeoning interest in wine to work at Norman Hardie Winery in Ontario, where fellow cellar hand (and future Ibiza natural wine importer) Cassady Sniatowsky and Montreal wine maven Vanya Filipovic helped spark Worobeckâs interest in natural winemaking. She worked harvest at Bouchard Finlayson in South Africa in 2015, before setting her sights on France, where she arrived to intern at Domaine Ganevat in 2017.
I met Worobeck at a party at German Burgundy nĂ©gociant winemaker Bastian Wolberâs house in 2021. In the years since Iâve had innumerable occasions to be thankful for her friendship and support, whether during visits to the Jura, or at natural wine salons throughout France, or on panel discussions during trips abroad. I joined Worobeck at her home one early evening this past November to chat about living in Jean-François Ganevatâs motherâs apartment; Worobeckâs early winemaking experiences in Prince Edward County; and the time she accidentally attended a Latin dance class in the Jura.
Aaron
This is a free episode of the NOT DRINKING POISON podcast. For access to all the episodes - plus years of vigneron interviews, profiles, tasting reports, and commentary - please subscribe!
FURTHER READING & LISTENING
NDP Podcast Series III: Les Emigré(e)s - Expat Natural Winemakers in FranceEp. 15: Hannah Fuellenkemper of ABRACADABRAEp. 16: Joe Jefferies of Les Bories JefferiesEp. 17: Jon Purcell of Vin NoéEp. 18: Michele Smith-Chapel of Domaine Chapel
Katie Worobeck, the Maenad of OrbagnaPulling Wood at Maison Maenad
NDP Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part INDP Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part II
NDP Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part INDP Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part II
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It takes a whole set of skills to communicate at very big levels [in music.] But you sacrifice communication in certain ways to do that. And I'm sure it's the same with food and wine. You cannot assume that you can convey the [same] subtleties at scale. - Damon Krukowski
Damon Krukowski is a musician and writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Inscribed in the annals of indie rock since his time as drummer in the influential dream-pop band Galaxie 500, Krukowski has since released music with his wife (and former Galaxie 500 bandmate) Naomi Yang as Damon & Naomi. Krukowski is also the author of several poetry collections, and two books on the changing nature of music and listening (2017âs The New Analog: Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World and 2019âs Ways of Hearing). In recent years, he has emerged as a noted advocate for the rights of recordings artists in the face of systematic exploitation by streaming companies.
Krukowski is also a lifelong wine lover, whose tastes were formed during childhood family trips throughout France with his father, a Polish World War II refugee and abiding Francophile. Itâs an interest Krukowski has kept alive throughout his career, whether via the Kermit Lynch newsletter, or through avid exploration of local âgrandfatherâ cuisine during tours abroad.
Following a comically ill-starred Damon & Naomi concert in Paris this past September, Krukowski kindly joined me to talk music and wine over a bottle of Matassa. Check out the episode for Krukowskiâs recollection of seeing Led Zeppelin at age thirteen; his take on Taylor Swiftâs stadium performance technique; and the surprising parallels between the economics of indie rock and those of natural wine.
Aaron
This is a free episode of the NOT DRINKING POISON podcast. For access to all the episodes - plus years of vigneron interviews, profiles, tasting reports, and commentary - please subscribe!
FURTHER READING & LISTENING
Damon Krukowskiâs November 30th piece in The Guardian decrying Spotifyâs recent decision to cease paying artists whose recordings do not reach a certain threshold of streams.
NDP Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part INDP Podcast Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part II
NDP Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part INDP Podcast Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part II
Damon Krukowskiâs excellent Substack: Dada Drummer Almanach
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I realized [natural] winemakers in particular were outsiders in their communities, too, in a way. And Iâve always been kind of an underdog, an outsider. - Crislaine Medina
What does Crislaine Medina, the Cape Verde-born co-proprietor of Paris 19th arrondissement restaurant Le Cheval dâOr, have in common with legendary MCs MF Doom and 21 Savage? She, too, ran into trouble in the USA as a longtime illegal immigrant. In her case, after high school in Bucks Country, Pennsylvania, she found herself ineligible for university tuition aid in the USA. It inspired her to move to Paris, where alongside studies in literature she apprenticed herself to natural wine at Left Bank traditional bistrot Les Pipos. Before taking over the 19th-arrondissement restaurant Le Cheval dâOr with her husband Luis Andrade and their partners Nadim Smair and Hanz Gueco in August 2023, Medina had a star-making turn as the opening sommeliĂšre of 11th-arrondissement yakitori-and-more destination Le Rigmarole.
At Le Cheval dâOr, Medina collaborates with young Japanese sommelier Taiki Sakurai on an unusual natural wine list that aims to integrate as many international influences as their kitchen. (Chef Gueco is Philippino-Australian, while Andrade is Cape Verdean-Portuguese.) Alongside natural wine classics from the Beaujolais and Burgundy, one finds familiar favorites from Italy and newly-minted masterpieces from Moravia. (For the Le Cheval dâOr space itself, the new partnership also represents a rebirth of sorts, coming three years after the tragic passing of its former chef, Taku Sekine, who first brought renown to the site with a Chinese-inspired menu.)
During set-up at Le Cheval dâOr in early December, I joined Medina to talk about her decade of experience in Paris natural wine circles, and how her perspective as a lifelong immigrant has shaped her approach to hospitality, natural wine lists, and menus. Check out the episode for Medinaâs thoughts on her most beloved Beaujolais vigneron; her early challenges selling natural wine in Paris as a foreign black woman speaking limited French at the time; and how she came to consider Paris her true home.
Aaron
FURTHER LISTENING & READING
NDP PODCAST Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part IEp. 7: Oliver Lomeli of Chambre NoireEp. 8: Jessica Yang & Robert Compagnon of Folderol & Le RigmaroleEp. 9: Louis Mesana of Café Montezuma
NDP PODCAST Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part IIEp. 11: Oliver Gage of Rock BottlesEp. 12: Nathan Ratapu of Rerenga Wines
NOT DRINKING POISON PODCAST Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part INOT DRINKING POISON PODCAST Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part II
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I think we started this change, this transition in natural wine in Paris. Because before it was established places, it was more restaurants. And we were more like a wine bar. And we decided to give a fair price⊠So young people could actually drink natural wine. - Oliver Lomeli
Few could have anticipated that Mexico City native Oliver Lomeli, after studying film in Lyon and working as a barista, would emerge as the French capitalâs most dynamic natural wine impresario of the last decade. As radical as they are casual, his Chambre Noire series of wine bars and wine shops has been more responsible than any other restaurant group for bringing a new generation of Parisians to natural wine.
Initially a partner in 11Ăšme Mexican brunch spot CafĂ© Chilango, Lomeli struck off on his own in 2015, founding his first Chambre Noire wine bar in an adjacent space on rue de la Folie MĂ©ricourt. Lomeliâs friend RĂ©mi Kaneko would join him in the business the following year, before departing in 2020 to produce wine in the DrĂŽme as La Ferme du Pasteur. Today Lomeliâs ever-expanding panoply of establishments includes a Chambre Noire wine bar in a newer space on boulevard Jules Ferry (opened 2021); another Chambre Noire wine bar in MĂ©nilmontant (opened 2023), run in collaboration with former La Contre-Etiquette caviste Fabrice Mansouri; a Chambre Noire wine shop on rue de la Folie MĂ©ricourt (opened 2020, further south from the original Chambre Noire location); and, since September, a natural wine and taco restaurant, Furia, in collaboration with chef Gloria Vasquez. In the midst of all this, Lomeli also found the time to become one of the cityâs foremost importers of German natural wines.
Leitmotifs throughout Lomeliâs flurry of entrepreneurism have been the service of exclusively unsulfited, unfiltered natural wines at generously low margins; a no-reservations policy; and artfully brut dĂ©cor, often adorned with fresh flowers. Parisâ natural wine old-guard may call Chambre Noire a âvinegar bar,â but Lomeliâs formula has proven its formidable and durable appeal, as popular with up-and-coming vignerons as it is with radical natural wine lovers young and old. Inside the episode, Lomeli tells us about his first taste of natural Beaujolais; how he got his first loan; and why it makes good business sense to embrace German natural wines.
Aaron
FURTHER READING & LISTENING
NOT DRINKING POISON PODCAST Series II: Contemporary Paris Natural Wine, Part INOT DRINKING POISON PODCAST Ep. 8: Robert Compagnon & Jessica Yang of Folderol & Le RigmaroleNOT DRINKING POISON PODCAST Ep. 9: Louis Mesana of Café Montezuma
NOT DRINKING POISON PODCAST Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part INOT DRINKING POISON PODCAST Series I: Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part II
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It was fantastic to sell natural wines to the crowd in Paris, because it is so international. You have so many people from all over the world⊠I think my role at the time was to pass on the natural wine love to many people, many young people and many older people. - Pierre Jancou
An epoch-defining figure in Paris natural wine circles and natural wine at large, Pierre Jancou is the prolific, media-savvy restaurateur responsible for a slew of the French capitalâs iconic natural wine destinations of the 2000s and 2010s. Taken together, Jancouâs series of bistrots and caves-Ă -manger represent nothing short of an influential artistic oeuvre: their patinated, hand-wrought aesthetic and frank service style is nowadays perceptible in fine natural wine spots around the world.
Jancou began his career as a restaurateur in 1991, opening the Italian restaurant La Boca near Etienne Marcel. His embrace of natural wine came just over a decade later, shortly after his 2001 opening of La CrĂšmerie, the tiny, enchanting 6th arrondissement wine shop that would become a touchstone for the cave-Ă -manger genre. In 2007, Jancou opened Racines, inaugurating his most influential period, when he offered what may have been the worldâs first radical zero-zero natural wine program. Jancou followed this success with Vivant (2011), Vivant Table (2012), Heimat (2015), and Achille (2016), before conflicts with neighbors at this final address spurred him to leave Paris behind. He relocated to the Alpine village of Chatillon-en-Diois, where he ran the CafĂ© des Alpes from 2018-2020.
In 2022, Jancou relocated once again, this time to the remote Aude village of Padern, home also to renowned natural vigneron Fabrice Monnin of La MaziĂšre. Today Jancou runs the local CafĂ© des Sports as a seasonal natural wine bistrot, and is establishing a small winemaking practice, farming 1.5ha of carignan, marsanne, and macabeu in the surrounding jagged limestone hillscape. Check out the episode for the lowdown on Jancouâs first wine; his thoughts on Instagram; and his secret to quitting hard drugs.
Aaron
Pierre Jancouâs CafĂ© des Sports in Padern will reopen for Autumn 2023 on October 20th, offering lunch service Fridays-Mondays until Christmas.
Paid subscribers to NOT DRINKING POISON can access all episodes of the podcast - plus the rest of the newsletterâs winemaker profiles, interviews, breaking news, commentary, and more.
FURTHER LISTENING & READING
Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part I
Ep. 1: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Michel MoulheratEp. 2: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Kevin BlackwellEp. 3: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Olivier CamusEp. 5: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Marie CarmaransEp. 6: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Guillaume Dupré
Pierre Jancou modeling Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Fall-Winter 2000.
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My place was really laid-back, really laissez-faire. The idea was freedom of thought, movement. Also, people were talking about wine at the time. Whereas now itâs like, you go to a wine bar, and nobody talks about wine. - Kevin Blackwell
Originally from Mountain View, California, Kevin Blackwell moved to Paris in 1996, and quickly fell in with the cityâs natural wine aficionados, despite possessing no formal background in wine. He opened a cyber cafĂ© in 2000, only for it to founder in the wake of 9/11 (and the subsequent drop in Paris tourism). Given Blackwellâs nascent love for natural wine, it was, he says, a ânatural transitionâ to transform his erstwhile cyber cafĂ© into the eccentric, homespun bistrot Autour dâUn Verre in 2003.
A self-taught cook and self-taught restaurateur, Blackwellâs no-frills approach embodied the anti-establishment ethos of natural wine in the early 2000s. Visitors to Autour dâUn Verre were typically welcomed by his dog or his cat. His bistrot was also known for its shrimp toast and its lively semi-annual wine tastings, which reliably drew the leading lights of the Roussillon natural wine scene, along with friends like Nicolas Carmarans and Axel PrĂŒfer.
Check out the episode to find out why itâs useful to have a cat in a restaurant; why he only ever spoke French in his bistrot; and why Blackwell is âMr. Southern Carbo.â
Aaron
FURTHER LISTENING & READING
Paris Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 1: Michel MoulheratParis Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 3: Olivier Camus
My November 2010 blog post on Autour dâUn Verre.My December 2010 blog post on a natural wine tasting at Autour dâUn Verre.
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âI like the idea that people were brave enough to say âLetâs try [to make wines with zero sulfite addition]. Weâll lose wine, into vinegar, or weâll dump it in the gutter.' But they still tried hard to learn and pass on their knowledge. To say, we made it: no sulfites from A to Z, and it works. - Michel Moulherat
Now largely retired and living in the Touraine town of Loches, Michel Moulherat saw prominence among the second generation of natural wine advocates in Paris, starting in the mid-nineties at his 15th arrondissement bar LâInsolite (1995-2000), and continuing into the second decade of the new millennium at his 11th arrondissement wine shop La Cave de lâInsolite (2002-2011).
While he was among the early supporters of radical vignerons like RĂ©mi Poujol, Catherine and Gilles VergĂ©, and JĂ©rĂŽme Saurigny, Moulherat professes no personal insistence on zero sulfitage. His own classical wine background is extensive, beginning with two years working for Stephen Spurrier at Les Caves de la Madeleine. Moulherat then spent three years working for two prominent expat restaurateurs, Tim Johnston (of Juveniles) and Mark Williamson (of Williâs Wine Bar). He spent the first half of the 1990s working as a sommelier at the Michelin-starred restaurant of HĂŽtel de Crillon, before opening LâInsolite in 1995.
Check out the episode to learn what sorts of insects he occasionally found in early natural wine bottles; where heâs been drinking 1959 Vin Jaune lately; and why he signed the open letter circulated in defense of scandal-plagued Sancerre vigneron SĂ©bastien Riffault.
Aaron
FURTHER LISTENING & READING
Paris Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 2: Kevin BlackwellParis Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 3: Olivier Camus
A Suggestion for SĂ©bastien Riffault
An October 2010 blog post I wrote about Moulherat and La Cave de lâInsolite.A May 2015 blog post I wrote about Moulherat and La PoudriĂšre, the Issy-lĂšs-Moulineaux bistrot where he was then working.
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