I had this conception that you could get good wine dirt cheap in France. And I think that may be a relic of my first trips, buying cheap stuff, and simply thinking it was good because I didn’t know better. Buy-a-bottle-of-bubbly-for-a-buck-to-blow-the-cork-across-the-street-kind-of-good. Now, I’m not so sure. Great value can be found in France – just not necessarily in Paris. For example. I bought some bottles of Burgundy ‘sur place’ last year [at the Domaine where they’re produced] that cost about 15€. Well those same bottles, bought in Paris from a wine shop, are in the 25€+ price point. Why? Middle men. Damn them. Leading me to the conclusion that value is found in the vineyards, not in Paris. I’d read this before, but finally had a chance to see it first hand. People who know and love wine in France don’t buy from wine shops normally. They buy the wines they love from producers they know as soon as it’s released. Most of the best wines of France therefore do not leave the country, and aren’t even availabe in shops. No need.
I also learned that Parisians in work-a-day 10th arrondissement do not drink ‘fine wine’ after work on a Friday night at the local ‘bar’. They drink cheap mediocre french beer, and mediocre wine. But I’ll give them marks for drinking it with sliced saucisson sec and tiny cubes of fromage. If you’re a regular, that is. Me, obviously not being from there, did not get such culinary accompaniments to my drink. I stood at the bar, awkwardly, amongst a group of mostly men who recognized eachother as this was ‘their place’. I clearly did not fit in. At least I got a nice glass of Alsatian Gewurztraminer out of it.
They [the French] also drink wine to suit the weather. I can’t believe I just realized this. They drink Rosé A LOT in the summer heat. Makes sense. It’s fruity and cold and refreshing. A heavy red in 30 above urban heat isn’t exactly what the doctor ordered. Rosé was everywhere – in people’s glasses at bars and cafés, featured in wine shops, even the tasting I did at Hédiard [posh parisian food/wine store] was a rosé. This adaptation to the weather is something I’ve bought into wholeheartedly, as I ‘get it’ with food. Hearty food works in cool fall and winter days. And light fare works well on hot summer evenings. Temperature influences your tastes and appetite. Wines simply need to follow similar principles.
I also learned about respect for the good stuff. At Cave Augé, where I bought most of the case I brought back, they seriously give a shit about who made the wine, and how it was made. That’s all that matters there. Another customer, who I’ve dubbed ‘James Bond’ due to the copious amounts of charisma he oozed, noticed one of the bottles I’d chosen, and suavely, with his back to me, said ‘Bonne choix’. Yeah, I’m awesome – the guy at the store picked the bottle, not me. I had 9 wines out, and he thought I was clearly buying 9 cases. I corrected him, and he asked if I was tasting in order to import. Yeah, I wish. I told him it was for personal use. James Bond did approve of this, and also realized by this time that I was not french and switched into perfect english. I then was asked if I was bringing them on the plane, under the plane in checked luggage, to which I said yes. And the shock. The horror. I got a discreet suggestion from the employee who’d been helping me select bottles to allow the bottles to sit in a cave for 2 weeks-2 months to allow the bottles to recover from the trauma of the voyage. This sounds like bullshit, I know. But the reality is that the wines I was buying aren’t made like other wines. They’re not sterilized to death with stabilizers [sulphites], not filtered, and simply aren’t as ‘shelf stable’ as mass-produced wines. Luckily my handy new wine box I’d brought over with me did quite a fine job of keeping the bottles protected – not so much so from breakage, but more importantly, from heavy upward temperature fluctations.
So to summarize. If you want kick-ass value in France, head to the countryside and visit the good domaines. If you want to drink like a local, buy a cheap bottle to match the season, and make the best of it. And if you want quality – head to Cave Augé on Boulevard Haussman.