Yet another Paris Round Up

1st time

2nd time

3rd time

this time

Our tradition of snapping the Pont Louis Phlippe in Paris on our way to Cave L'Etiquette continues.

This time, Hervé Lethielleux was ready for us. He grabbed this Orbois from the rack as soon as we walked in. We were amazed and thankful even when we discovered later that Orbois is Menu Pineau. We've had Menu Pineau before in an Australian sparkler and found it very tasty.

Hervé  had featured Domaine de l'Etoile du Matin, Fin de Vie, Peinard au Soleil from the Languedoc a while ago in his weekly video and we fell for it as well as the next wine. Hervé had put the two bpttles aside for us. 

The grapes of the Fin de vie are 80% Grenache Gris, with Clairette, Macabeu and Terret Gris (aka Bourret). Up to 1958, Terret Gris was the most planted grape in the Languedoc. There are white and red mutations of Terret too. This assemblage makes a delicious Pet Nat. 13%, organic and without any sulphites or other additional ingedients. Full of life unlike its peculiar name.

Our second Pet Nat also has a peculiar name unless you are old enough to remember the soft drink in France which really had the name Pschitt. This referred to the sound when opening the bottle. It was a more innocent time.

This Pet Nat from fun blend of Grenache Gris, Macabeu and Clairette and is made by an interesting vigneron-cum-museun curator-cum-photographer, Sebastien Godret. His wines consist only of juice. Godret's red fizz is from Grenache Noir and is onlt 12% abv. We like the style as well as the labels. 

One Hervé hadn't mentioned was this Gris D'Aunis by Brendan Tracey. Any wine containing either the word Aunis or Tracey is a green light for us and indeed this blanc de noir was sensational. 

Over to 'Le Nouveau Nez' now more resto than cave but Valerio (above right) had an interesting bottle back in stock.

Seibel is an old French hybrid known mostly in its white incarnations. However, there are no fewer than 56 different Seibels, all produced by crossing Vinifera with native American varieties. They are not much used these days. There are some plantings in Michigan but they are not authorised in France which makes this bottle from Boisset-Saint-Priest near St. Etienne particularly intriguing. 

We had passed this pretty shop front on previous visits but never entered Divvino. It's a nice place - quite traditional but reliably covering all the usual bases.

As so often, even in the not always welcoming city of Paris, there was an amiable and helpful person on hand. This seems to be so especially in the case of wine merchants.

There was one surprise we couldn't resist. A rare bottle of Viuva Gomez's Collares. Amazing.

Seen outside another wine shop: 'Celui qui fait uriner son chien sur cette planche ou table n'ira pas au paradis - Dieu'