Paris round-up including yet another trip to L'Etiquette

1st time

2nd time

this time

Ever since  trip to Paris when the Seine practically overflowed we take another shot of the Pont Louis Philippe each time we visit Cave L'Etiquette.

Cave L'Etiquette, 10 Rue Jean du Bellay, Paris 4.

Herve

But fortunately some things never change. One of these is the presence of Herve Letheilleux in his lair, dispensing humour, information...and interesting wine. At L'Etiquette, every bottle tells a story and Herve is acquainted with all of them, knowing each producer personally. We particularly look forward to Herve's weekly videos (in French and in English) in which he makes a hilarious pitch for the wine of the week. You should sign up for his newsletter if you haven't already, There is no letter, only these vids.

We had come first of all to pick up 3 bottles of the fantastic Brand Fils dry Muscat Orange wine from Alsace. We had bought this last time and wanted more.

Ths time there was anothe wine from Brand - a rather remarkable one, consisting of a blend of Negrette grapes from Toulouse (70%) and Gamay from Lyon (30%) vinified in Alsace. Unexpected in France where provenance normally outranks grape variety and Terroir is all.

Cave de l'insolite

We hadn't been to the Cave de l'Insolite for years so we paid another visit. It's as well to make regular trips to this kind of caviste because their wines change all the time. As their website has it: Notre sélection de vins change constamment au fil du temps, des découvertes et de nos envies. None of these establishments publishes a winelist or sells their wines online. Most serve food or are actual restaurants.

Here we bought a Jurancon Noir (Folle Noir) (100%) called Rackham, maybe after the Tintin adventure 'Rackham le rouge.' The winemaker is Laurent Cazottes, France's leading producer of Liqueurs and eaux-de-vie. Herve told us he prduces over 70 different varieties of tomato and even makes  tomatoa liqueur which we have tasted by chance. Not bad!

Our visit to the Cave de l'Insolite was also useful as we learned that Serine was not a grape variety as we had hoped but a patois name for Syrah.

L'Epicerie, Rue de la Folie Mericourt, Paris 11

Le Verre vole is another place we had ignored for too long. While our backs were turned they have expanded with an Epicerie and another shop. Their restaurant 67 Rue de Lancry is still going strong. There is even a branch in Tokyo.

Verre vole wine shop, 38 Rue Oberkampf, Paris 11

Wine shop interior.

This is a Jacquere from Savoie

only 12%. A promise of Mountain freshness.

Domaine Giachino also make wines with Altesse, Douce Noire, Gamay, Mondeuse and Persan - all orgainic/biological. They have a delightful range of labels - all with the cartoon character featured here.