Le Domaine Famille Picard - Burgundy

by Paige Donner (photos © 2017)

After enjoying a successful career in marketing with Nike, Francine Picard rejoined her family's Burgundy wine estate the same year that her brother did, too - at the end of the 1990s.  Since 2010 they have cultivated a large part of  their vineyards biodynamically and the rest with a keen eye  to environmental consciousness. The goal being to cultivate vines that yield grapes that make wines that are of the highest quality, exhibiting magnificent precision all the while enjoying a harmonious relationship with nature. 

The following wines are a privilege to enjoy. Most can be found in Paris and also at the family estate in Chassagne-Montrachet.  

Domaine Famille Picard, 5 chemin du Château, 21190 Chassagne-Montrachet, France domainefamillepicard.com 

NOTE:

For a real treat, reserve yourself a table for lunch or dinner at this new Paris restaurant where some of the more exclusive of these bottles are served in perfect accompaniment to the chef's flavor pairings: La Table du Caviste Bio, 55 rue de Prony, Paris 75017 latable@lacaviste.bio 

Le Domaine Famille Picard

• A total of 6 domaines in Bourgogne.  136 Ha. 60% red/  40% white
• 110 ha in the Côte Chalonnaise
• 26 ha in Côte de Beaune
• 41 ha of communales appelations
• 33 ha of Premiers Crus
• .33 ha of Grand Cru

 

Corton Grand Cru, Clos des Fietres, Millésime 2014  (rouge) Estate price: €130

These vines are cultivated biodynamically and are situated in the center of the celebrated village, Aloxe-Corton.  Nose is wild forest strawberries, raspberries and red fruits with hint of coffee.  Mouth is subtle possessing great suaveness and beautiful finesse. Then smoked ham, toasted bread, earthy and slightly saline. 

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Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru, La Garenne, Millésime 2014 (blanc) Estate price €66 

These vines grow right in the village of Puligny-Montrachet at an altitude of about 250M. They have south-southwest exposure.  These are 70 year-old vines and are cultivated biodynamically.  Nose explodes with citrus bouquet of orange, lemon and grapefruit. Mouth expresses energy and balance in this slightly sea-saline and sapid; agreably flavorful. 

 

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Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru, Les Vergers, Millésime 2014, Estate price €66

These soils are filled with Chassagne stones, rich in minerals and white chalky marls. This climat dates from the last centruy only when fruit trees were once planted here. Fifty+ old vines cultivated biodynamically.  Nose offers notes of flint-stone and citrus like lime and grapefruit. The Mouth has welcoming precision, agreeable notes and an enormity of finesse and elegance.  It is aged 17 months in barrels and was bottled in April 2016. 

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Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru, Les Chenevottes, Millésime 2014 (blanc), Estate price €64

This vineyard is actually at a depth of 55 cm. The red soil has traces of iron oxide which hints at the remnants of a tropical ground covering from millions of years ago. 60+ year old vines cultivated with respect to the moon cycles of biodynamic viticulture. NOSE has peppermint, linden blossoms, verveine and some lemon and orange zest with a hint of vanilla. MOUTH plays with a tension between power and tension. Beautiful length and refreshing salinity. 

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Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru, Clos Saint Jean, Millésime 2014 (blanc) Estate price €60

This is one of the oldest climats of Chassagne.  Soil is red from the iron-oxide and the vines have a Southeast exposure.  All harvesting is done by hand of these 60+ old vines, tenderly cultivated biodyanmically. Aged 17 months in barrels and bottled in April, 2016. NOSE is fruits and white flowers like peach and pear and also fresh baked bread like brioche. MOUTH is generous with perfect acidity and balance. 

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Caviar Macaron by Petrossian and Pierre Hermé

by Paige Donner

Just when you're starting to think about the Christmas Cakes that will be the upcoming 2017 holiday season's stars, a little silvery-black treat comes onstage and steals the entire Parisian culinary scene. 

Enter Stage Left - the Macaron Caviar Petrossian 

It is a collaboration between world's best chef patissier, Pierre Hermé and the caviar king himself, Armen Petrossian. 

This little cookie with its delightful ganache center is famous for its elaborate flavors, one of Hermés most famous being litchi-rose. But this one, his newest collab, is made with Caviar Petrossian and Eau de Noix. 

There are tiny seeds of the mouth-watering caviar whose flavors are highlighted by dried fruit aromas and green walnut essence. 

The macaron will be available starting on November 4th at Pierre Hermé boutiques.   pierreherme.com 

And Petrossian Caviar is always available at the boutiques in Paris and worldwide and also online at Petrossian.com 

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Episode 29: Perfect Pairings food+wine by Paris Food And Wine

by Paige Donner

This episode of Paris GOOD food+wine, our season 4 kick-off, is devoted to my very favorite topic, food+wine pairings.

When I'm walking my clients through my food+wine pairing seminar, Perfect Pairings food+wine here in Paris, I always tell them that together, when you do a proper food+wine pairing, The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts, to borrow a phrase from Aristotle.

Meaning, in simple English, that the wonderful tastes of both wine and food, when served in the right combination, are amplified, sometimes exponentially.

However, before we get to the good stuff, namely my interviews with Jaimee Anderson, the newly appointed Wine Director at Paris' La Réserve Palace Hotel followed by my conversation with David Boileau, France's Cognac Bureau's Wine Ambassador, I'd like to start off with some of the Do's and Don'ts, of wine and food pairings....

There are three basic rules of thumb for successful food+wine pairings: 

Those of harmony (where acidities, sugars and weight in the food and wine are equal) and those of opposition (where a wine of high acidity cuts though fatty meat or an off-dry wine goes with spicy food).'

The third thing to remember is, "If it grows together, it goes together."

So join us on this Season 4 kick-off of Paris GOOD food + wine, our September 2017 show, episode 29, as we delve head-long and deep into the world of fine food and wine pairing.

To sign up for one of our Perfect Pairings food+wine 2-Hour seminars here in Paris held 7/7,  late afternoons and early evenings, please Contact Us HERE or use the form below:

 

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All music  - Jazz Bolero  - used is free of rights and royalty-free courtesy FreeSoundTrack.com. Show Intro/ Outro Theme Jazzy Paris background courtesy of BenSound Music.
This episode has been generously brought to you by Paris Food And Wine@ParisFoodWine http://parisfoodandwine.net and also Bordeaux Food & Wine @bordeauxfoodvin http://bordeauxfoodandwine.com

For sponsorship and advertising, contact Paige. Also for hosting, events, and speaking engagements and for media collaborations: http://Paigedonner.info

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Episode 28 : Branding Out of The Box - Paris GOOD food + wine

​by Paige Donner

Host-Producer  Paris GOOD food + wine 

Looking to inspire the next generation of food+wine entrepreneurs, Paris GOOD food + wine takes a closer look at French and European food + wine companies that began as single-visionary entrepreneurs.

A rural English potato farmer who turned his potato chips into a global brand (Tyrrell's); a Bordeaux wine company started by a few brothers in the late 1940s that has gone on to be Europe's biggest wine-selling brand and whose market is 80% French (Castel Frères) ; a cookie and snacks company whose founders got their pastry-making degrees while in business school (Michel & Augustin); a cabaret and restaurant that has been resurrected from the ashes of its 1930's glorious past (Le Bal Blomet); and a fine foods grocery shop that retains its Mom & Pop Provençal feel (Maison Brémond 1830).

This episode has been brought to you by the generous support of Paris Food And Wine. Follow us on Twitter @parisfoodwine, Facebook @ParisFoodAndWine and you can find me on Instagram@PaigeFoodWine

Find this and more episodes of Paris GOOD food + wine on Soundcloud,Stitcher, YouTube, Tune IN Radio and also on iTunes.

Paris GOOD food + wine is the first (and still only) English language radio program and podcast about food and wine produced in Paris, France. This episode, Branding Out of The Box, seeks to inspire budding, next-generation entrepreneurs who might have an idea or a dream and simply require the confidence to pursue it. In an era where big companies are only getting bigger and fast becoming monoliths, the entrepreneurial, small-business dream is still real and still scalable.

Sprouts is a weekly program that features local radio production and stories from many radio stations and local media groups around the world. It is produced in collaboration with community radio stations and independent producers across the country.

All music used is free of rights and royalty-free courtesy FreeSoundTrack.com. This episode features Attacked by Cherubs and also the Sprouts soundtrack Torpedoes on Tuesday by Poison Control. Show Intro/ Outro Theme Jazzy Paris background courtesy of BenSound Music.
This episode has been generously brought to you by Paris Food And Wine@ParisFoodWine http://parisfoodandwine.net and also Bordeaux Food & Wine @bordeauxfoodvin http://bordeauxfoodandwine.com

For sponsorship and advertising, contact Paige. Also for hosting and speaking engagements and for media collaborations: http://Paigedonner.info

More Info @ParisFoodWine
Instagram @PaigeFoodWine

Listen to Paris GOOD food + wine on :

All photos copyright 2017 Paige Donner

iTunes – Paris GOODfood+wine / 

Prints available by contacting http://PaigeDonner.info​

Paris Food And Wine Parisfoodandwine.net

iTunes - Paris GOODfood+wine /  Paige Donner / 

​

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a flask of Chateau Haut-Brion wine

by Paige Donner (all photos copyright 2017 Paige Donner)

As Bordeaux's very first wine château, is it any wonder that Haut-Brion still ranks with such stature in the world's profile of wines and wine estates? Well, a measured answer would be both yes, and no. 

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It's not a given that a wine or a wine estate with such deep-roots and a glorious past would be sheparded forward through the centuries in a fashion that continues to uphold what is best of the property and best for the wine. 

On a recent visit to Château Haut-Brion, my first visit, in fact, I was told by the lovely Turid, the château's press relations manager who has been with the property for 17 years, that Château Haut-Brion is rightfully considered the very first Bordelais wine-producing château as they have come to be known through the ages. Meaning: vineyards, wine production area, chai, vat room, cellars and in Haut-Brion's case, even a cooperage. 

As many French, and it's said the Bordelais in particular, tend to wax eloquent about the history and cultural significance of their properties, I had always taken this singular claim as the original Bordeaux Château with a grain of salt. BUT, I stand to be corrected. As the charming Turid pointed out, and later I was able to verify through my own research, indeed, it was as far back as 1533 that Jean de Pontac bought what was then considered to be a mansion that sat on the locality known as Haut-Brion in the commune of Pessac and united it with his surrounding vineyard land-holdings. 

Thus, it can rightfully be claimed, through historical land records, that Château (& vineyards) Haut-Brion came into existence in 1533. 

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But that is not all that Jean de Pontac did. By 1549 he started building and enlarging on the very site that is still the château today and in fact the north-eastern part of the current château still constitutes this edifice. 

Fast-forward a century or so and the château, always owned by illustrious men of power and King's servants, has gained immeasurable repute for its terroir and its resulting wines. So much so that in 1677 a (famous) philosopher by the name of John Locke, on a visit to the estate, is quoted as saying, 

"The wine of Pontac, so revered in England, is made on a little rise of ground, lieing open most to the west. It is noe thing but pure white sand, mixed with a little gravel.  One wold imagin it scarce fit to beare anything...."

That is probably one of the most remarkable things about Haut-Brion, a Gascon name that derives from its ancient Celtic origins of "Briga," meaning rise or mount, that traces of wine production here date back to the 1st c. AD. Hence as far back as Pax Romana times, this little hillock with its characteristic small white stone gravel soils has been recognized as being especially conducive to growing grape vines. 

First Growth, Bordeaux Grand Cru

On the 25th of May, 1787, America's great lover of wine, Thomas Jefferson, who at the time was the 2nd American Ambassador to France, visited Haut-Brion during a tour of Bordeaux.  According to historical record, this is what Mr. Jefferson had to say about Haut-Brion: 

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La Mission Haut-Brion, A Château With True Soul

by Paige Donner (all photos copyright 2017)

Château La Mission Haut-Brion's chapel for me sums up the essence of the property. It has been for centuries, and still is, a family home. A home where people have worshipped, where they have begun their lives and taken their last breaths, where meals have been shared, verses read, fine wines enjoyed after a day's labor in the vineyards. 

The elegance of Château La Mission Haut-Brion is that it blends its luxury and taste with absolutely no aristocratic airs. These are some of the oldest vineyards of Bordeaux. I count myself as extraordinarily lucky to have been invited to overnight there on a recent trip to Bordeaux. Granted, this is why most of the wine estates keep up their châteaux, yes because of the vineyards surrounding them and the cellars and vinification rooms and all the acoutrements that go with making great Bordeaux wines. But also to welcome guests, usually who work in or for the wine industry or those who are especially loyal appreciators of the wines. Few château owners actually live on their properties themseves, at least not in Bordeaux. 

The entire property still has echoes of piousness threaded into all of its structures and its tasting room feels like one in which a monk would feel at ease. Indeed the owner, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, who re-did the tasting room and its reception area only a few years ago, handpicked art pieces and even the the design of the iron-framed high-backed bishop's chairs that encircle the tasting room table. 

If you ever get lucky enough to gain entry into the chapel, look high above, at the molding just above the authentic and ancient (16th c.) stained glass windows. There you will see the years of the château's Millésimes - vintage years - engraved in a band across the four walls.  After 2015 and 2016 are added, there will be room enough only for a few more. So in another 4 or 5 centuries it would be interesting to see if perhaps the entire walls are engraved with numbers noting good vintage years. 

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Dinner At Château Latour Bordeaux Grand Cru Classé en 1855

Bordeaux, June 18, 2017 

by Paige Donner  (photos copyright 2017)

On a hot summer evening in the Médoc's Pauillac, Bordeaux guests arriving for the 1855 Grands Crus Classés dinner held this year at Château Latour were greeted with a marching Scottish-sounding band and flutes of Roederer champagne (who happens to own the closest neighboring château, Pichon Comtesse). 

The Belle of the Ball, namely Madame Salma Hayak Pinault kept herself demurely sheltered inside the reception hall from the intense heat of the evening that persisted until after the sun went down. Thankfully, her and her Kering husband, François-Henri Pinault, offered the option of mingling in the cellar's anteroom (as opposed to outdoors on the inner patio lawn) which was cleared out, save for an elegant display of the Grands Crus Classés en 1855 wines that were to be served at dinner. As a response to the sweltering heat of those few days in June, this ideally accommodated the several hundred privileged guests. 

These dinners, the official opening of Vinexpo Bordeaux held every two years, are always lavish events. It's where international and French journalists/ wine writers meet and mingle with these prestige wine estate owners and venerable Bordelais families, many of whose roots in the soil of the region run deeper even than U.S. modern history. 

The choice of the chef is always a pivotal statement, too, of how the year's chosen chateau will express their taste and style during the event. This year it was Chef Michel Guérard who ranks among the living legends of French chefs. .. .

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