According to Wikipedia, vermouth is defined as “an Italian aromatized, fortified wine, flavored with various botanicals (roots, barks, flowers, seeds, herbs, and spices) and sometimes colored, produced mainly in Italy, France and Spain. The modern versions of the beverage were first produced in the mid- to late 18th century in Turin, Italy”. Fair enough.

I have been a fan of sweet vermouth as an aperitif for as long as I can remember.  Even before I saw Bill Murray order this apéro in “Groundhog Day”, I had somewhere  along the line picked up an appreciation of the the sweet/bitter combination that vermouth provides, as well as what seemed to me to be the sophistication of this unusual drink.  Ordering a sweet vermouth, on the rocks with a twist of orange, somehow seemed to me very inside baseball, something you had to know what you were doing to pull off. Plus I just love the taste. My first experience with vermouth was, of course, Martini Rossi, the world’s most popular brand of vermouth.  But during recent travels, I have learned that vermouth culture is alive and well, and there is even a growing artisan vermouth culture in France, Spain and Italy.  I have tried a number of different vermouths lately and was pleasantly surprised by the wide variation in flavor profiles and weights.  Vermouths can vary from spicy to herbaceous to flavors of citrus, with a entire palette of flavors in between. They are  more or less sweet, more or less bitter, some benefit from a splash of soda water, some are perfect on their own.

Italy is  undoubtedly the point of origin of vermouth, and specifically the northern town of Torino.  Torino is the home of above mentioned Martini, as well as smaller producers like Punt e Mes, Carpano Antica Formula and many more. The elegant piazzas of Torino, lined with cafes with there white jacketed servers, seem especially appropriate for vermouth. Of the vermouths I tried in Torino, my favorite was del Professore, at once bursting with the flavor of herbs and bitter with citrus, light enough to drink straight but mouthfilling and round. Cin Cin!

We enjoyed apéros on the Piazza del Gesu Nuovo in Napoli, where the tradition of bars serving snacks with your drinks is still very much alive. The vermouth here is Martini Rosso, which I think is a pretty acceptable starting point for learning about vermouth. Competently made, with notes of herbs and spices, neither too heavy nor too sweet. And yes, that is a Campari Spritz in the other glass, completely unavoidable in Italy and most of western Europe these days.

We were in Spain last year, in the area around Segovia, where we discovered a well developed vermouth culture. In addition to the Italian classics, I enjoyed a local artisan vermouth called Dindimut. Much lighter that Italian counterparts with a flavor profile more toward citrus fruits than herbs, with a lively bitterness almost reminiscent of Campari, I found it to be uniquely refreshing in hot weather.

Vermouth culture exists also in France, with some very good French-made vermouths, although, these days, it seems to me that vermouth is used more as a mixer than an actual apéro on its own. Still, if you order a “Martini Rouge” pretty much anywhere in France, the waiter is pretty sure to know what you want. I think that Vermouth Dolin, made in Chambéry, France since 1821, is quite good.  I use their dry white vermouth in cooking – my late father-in-law swore by a marinade of white vermouth, black pepper and garlic for grilling a steak, and he grilled a mighty fine steak! Dolin also makes sweet vermouths in red, white and rosé versions that stand on their own as apéros. Note that the Dolin web site says that the origins of

of vermouth lie in the Alps, where the the wild herbs that give it it’s particular character grow.  A nice image to contemplate as you savor a glass of vermouth!

As we settle into our new life in Orthez, top of mind was to refill our cellar.  So one of the first field trips we planned was to one of our favorite local winemakers,  Domaine les Pentes de Barène in Tursan, about 45 minutes from our house.  If you are a white wine fan, you may recognize the name, as their wines have often been featured on the wine lists at Le Pichet and Cafe Presse, and I wrote about our first visit there a number of years ago.

It was  a pleasure to see winemaker Gaëlle Vergne again and to taste her dry white from 2021, which is labeled under the Tursan appellation, and her sweet white from 2020, which bears the name “Le Doux de Barène” and the IGP Landes.  The sweet white was only recently bottled after spending an extra year on wood for richness.

The ravages of climate change have definitely been felt in the SW of France.  Gaëlle said that last year was very difficult, with spring frost that threatened the flowering vines, and a very hot, dry summer, that saw such a lack of water that birds, deer and rodents were invading the field, seeking the water in the grapes to quench their thirst. She also talked of intense rain the previous winter that caused a landslide that actually swept away about 100 of her vines – Pentes means “slope” and les Pentes de Barène are indeed on a very steep slope facing the Pyrenees.

It is a privilège to be able to support independent artisans who are doing everything right:  Domaine les Pentes de Barène is the smallest producer in Tursan, organic, bio-dynamic and still manages to turn out excellent wines at a very fair price. Hopefully Michael and Marcel will continue to feature their wines at Le Pichet!

New to the wine list at Café Presse and Le Pichet! The “Ju de Vie” rosé from Domaine de la Gravereirette is ideal for summer quaffing or as a match for summer dishes.

Le Domaine de la Gravereirette is located in the heart of Provence, along the sunny southern reaches of the Rhone river, between Avignon and Arles. Winemaker and owner Julien Mus works his 20 hectare property using organic and bio-dynamic methods and is Demeter certified since 2015. His 2018 rosé is made with a blend of Grenache and Syrah grapes, for a wine that is both summer refreshing and mouth filling enough to pair with tomatoes, chicken, pork or oily fishes (sardines, mackerel or salt cod, anyone!).

The summer is short, try it while you can, including during Happy Hour, when all our bottles are available to enjoy here at Take-Out prices!

Cafe Presse Happy Hour from 4pm to 6pm everyday

Le Pichet Happy Hour from 3pm to 5pm Monday to Thursday

Located near where the geological zones of the Bordelais and the Languedoc converge, the tiny wine region of Cabardès has always been a bit of an anomaly. Here, the vines of the two regions coexist and combine to make some very interesting wines.  Find out for yourself when you try this recent addition to our wine list: 
Maison Ventenac “Il etait un fois…” Cuvee Jules 2016 Cabardès
Made from Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, it is full of dark fruit and spice, with a dense, smooth finish
Maison Ventenac is certified sustainable by Terra Vitis  and is in the second year of a three year conversion to full organic.  And its just yummy!

In May of 2017, I wrote a post about a wonderful visit we had to Domaine les Pentes de Barène in Tursan, an tiny wine growing region in the SW of France.  I mentioned that our host, Gaelle Vergnes, had given us two bottles from their first ever bottling of a sweet wine, which they make uniquely from the petit manseng grape.  They call this wine “M de Pentes de Barène” and the entire 2016 production was only 250 bottles.

Sweet wines from this region have the capability to age for a number of years, so, accordingly, one of those bottles is currently slumbering peacefully in a cool spot in our house in Orthez. The other made the trip back to Seattle with us.

Madame Vergnes recommended that this wine not be tasted before August of 2017, so we obediently resisted the temptation to crack it open until this month.  We had our first taste in the company of a platter of the Jambon de Bayonne, the iconic ham from the SW of France.  Délicieux!

If these bottles look familiar to you, it may be because you have ordered one before at Le Pichet or Cafe Presse, where this white wine from the Tursan region in  southwest France is one of our favorites.  I have certainly drunk more than my fair share of this versatile, mouth filling wine recently.  Domaine les Pentes de Barène is a white that has dry acidity to pair well with seafood but also the body and richness to be a great match with a roasted chicken or even pork.

I recently had a chance to visit the Domaine les Pentes de Barène and was surprised to find out just how tiny it is.  At just over 1.5 hectares (about 3.7 acres), les Pentes de Barène is officially the smallest domaine in the Tursan AOC. Owners Daniel and Gaelle Vergnes are the entire staff and together produce about 5000 bottles a year, with nearly every step done by hand.  That includes hand harvesting in multiple passes through the vines to insure that only mature grape bundles are included, and even hand filling, corking and labeling every bottle.

In case you think that merely turning out 5000 bottles of wine a year is light work, consider that Gaelle and Daniel have two children, and in addition to the time they spend working on the domaine, Daniel also works as a vineyard and wine making consultant for other winemakers in the area and Gaelle turns out finely stitched napkins, handkerchiefs and doilies that she offers for sale to visitors. And, by reservation only, they also prepare vineyard dinners for groups of up to 12, served from a table set amid the vines.  Kinda makes me wonder what I do with all my time!

I was thankful for the  detailed instructions Gaelle sent for finding the domaine, because even in it’s tiny town of Pimbo (population 202 souls), you could drive right by the 300 year old barn that houses the Pentes de Barène tasting room if you weren’t looking for it.

The vines themselves cling to a steep south-facing hill with a magnificent view on to  the Pyrenees, but, as they are hidden between a stand of old oaks and a long row of fruit trees. it is hard to get a look at them until you are right among the vines. On this day in early May, the cherry tree was full of ripe red fruit and the noise from the bees busy in the fig, pear, quince and peach trees was palpable.

The vineyards include four varieties of grapes, all used to produce white wine:  gros manseng, petit manseng, sauvignon blanc and baroque.  Gros and petit manseng are the well know white wine grapes of the southwest, most notably in the wines of Jurancon.  Baroque is a local variety that Gaelle said is only grown in Tursan. Daniel and Gaelle turn most of their yield into dry whites, but as of 2016, they also make a limited number for bottles of sweet white wine exclusively from petit manseng…I was lucky enough to receive 2 of the only 250 bottles of sweet wine produced in 2016 as a gift at the end of our visit, with the proviso that it cannot be tasted until after July 2017.

Les Pentes de Barène is not certified organic;  being so small, the costs of certification are outside their budget. However, in practices they are completely organic.  As Gaelle explained, they feel that their primary job is to act as stewards of the land.  If they get that job right, the vines will take care of themselves.  The vineyard is knee deep in grass, wild flowers and clover, which helps the vines stay cool in the summer heat.  The surrounding trees and forest provide wind breaks and habitat for the biodiversity that keep pests to a minimum.  Compared to many vineyards I have visited, where the soil is bare and the landscape is grape vines as far as the eye can see, les Pentes vineyards seem like an idyllic paradise.

As for what happens in the cave, the same philosophy dominates:  let the wine do what it wants without trying to impose a style.  The vinification is in stainless tanks without any time spent on wood.  The result wines that are both lively and mouth filling at the same time. Rich and pale golden, they differ greatly from the leaner wines of neighboring Jurançon and Cotes-de-Gascogne.

After our tour of the vineyards and the cave, as we tasted wine, I couldn’t help but do a little quick math:  With an annual  production of 5000 bottles, I estimate that our guests at Cafe Presse and Le Pichet drank about 15% of last year’s total.  And I  must have drunk .5% of their yield just on my own!  I asked Gaelle if she thought it strange that there could be such a connection between her tiny piece of land in Tursan and my two restaurants in Seattle.  She just smiled and offered another glass.

I took advantage of an old friendship to arrange a visit with a winemaker in the region of Jurançon, which is only 25 minutes or so from the house in Orthez.  Our good friend Gerard Boisseau is a wine professional of impressive stature and a long-time agitator for biologique (organic ) and biodynamique  wine making.  So it was no surprise that he recommended a visit to Chateau Lapuyade – Clos Marie Claire, where winemaker Jean-Joseph Aurisset produces certified biodynamic wines.

Without belaboring the explanation, biodynamic farming is basically an extension organic farming’s prohibition on the use of chemicals and manufactured fertilizers.  To this, the biodynamicist adds farm methods that spring from received peasant knowledge, including working in harmony with the cycles of the moon, the use of plant and mineral “teas” to support the growth of plants and fight maladies, allowing weeds to grown among the vines to encourage biodiversity and a balanced environment, in short viewing nature and all its elements as allies to work with instead of enemies to be battled against.

Jean-Joseph inherited his vineyards and his metier from his grandfather, and it was he who added the “Clos Marie-Louis” to the chateau name in honor of his grandmother.  Today, his two daughters, aged 14 and 16, help in the vineyards and in the cave, even producing their own barrels of wine, but Jean-Joseph stresses that they haven’t yet made up their mind if wine making will be there future (although he makes no secret of his desire to one day pass the chateau on).

Like many small wine domaines that follow biodynamic methods, Chateau Lapuyade is really a working farm. In addition to 8 hectares of vines, the property also includes forest land, pastures and fields of grains and hay for livestock.  The family also make their own jambon de Bayonne, foie gras conserves and dried sausages and Jean-Joseph works part time in his farm-equipment business.  The farm runs on the work of the entire family, including Jean-Joseph’s mom, who graciously offered us a few plates of foie gras toasts, sliced sausage and ham to accompany our tasting.  Even the in-laws lend a hand, being especially adept at the preparation of nettle teas that are a vital part of the biodynamic methods.

In Jurançon, the wines are traditionally whites, both dry and sweet, made from gros manseng and petit manseng grapes.  Both of these at Chateau Lapuyade are excellent, especially the sweet Cuvee Marie-Louise, which is made from grapes left on the vines until well into December and aged in old oak barrels for 3-4 years before release (the chateau purchases used oak barrels from Chateau d’Yquem).  Last year the chateau produced only 600 bottles of this cuvée.

Jean-Joseph also makes a not very common Jurançon rouge, from tannat and cabernet franc grapes, a wine he claims is just to amuse himself, and for home drinking.  I found it a  nicely balanced, medium body wine, ideal with the local specialty confit de porc, pork loin slow cooked in porc fat and served with roasted potatoes tossed with chopped parsley and garlic.

Some other astuces described by Jean-Joseph;

*Spraying with teas made from ferns foraged on his property helps ward off mildew on leaves for grapes.

*Before his conversion to biodynamic farming practices, Jean-Joseph decided when to harvest based on chemical analysis of the sugar content of his grapes.  Now, as soon as he sees the birds begin to eat the grapes, he knows it is time to harvest.

His biodynamic teas are all made with spring water from a natural source at 1500 meters altitude in the Pyrenees.

*He never undertakes any activity involving nature, meaning just about everything on the farm, during a new moon.

*Applications of fermented seaweed around the base of the vines activates  their energy.

You get the idea.

Currently available in limited quantities on the wine list at Le Pichet and
to take home with you.  Special take-out wine prices apply to go bottle purchases,  including 10% discount on orders of 6 or more bottles with pre-order.

Please call Le Pichet for availability and special August pricing for this wine.

A perfectly roasted chicken may be my favorite thing to eat bar none.   It combines absolute simplicity of preparation, an absolute minimum of  ingredients and and an absolute reliance on the quality of the star attraction, the chicken…it encapsulates in a single dish the ideal esthetic of simple, well prepared food.  Because it is so simple, there is no hiding any imperfections in technique or in the quality of product.  Because it is so easy to do (although some people, including some professional cooks, still contrive to do it badly), one can find wonderfully delicious roasted chickens in a wide range of settings.   Whether it is purchased from the rotisserie in front of a Paris butcher shop and enjoyed on a sheet of paper in the nearest park, or roasted in an impeccably spotless copper pan and carved table side at a three star restaurant or hacked into manageable pieces and served with handmade tortillas, avocado and lime at a fonda in Zihuatanejo or just roasted at home on a quiet evening ….man those all sound so good, I forgot what point I was making.

Anyhow, the fact is I eat a lot of roasted chicken and have consequently eaten roasted chicken accompanied by many different wines.  I think that, with the chickens described above, the accompanying wines were, in order, a light Cabernet Franc from the Touraine, a powerful, well aged white from Graves in Bordeaux, a Pacifico with lime, and a modest Macon chardonnay (at least the  last time I roasted chicken at home).  Clearly there are many good choices to go with roast chicken.  

Being a cook and not a wine professional, I have developed a shorthand method of matching wines with food that has served me well over the years.  The governing premise of this method is that the food and wine from a certain region always make a harmonious pairing.  Its easy;  just figure out where the dish is from and match it with the wine from the same region.  With grilled sardines stuffed with chard and ricotta in the nicoise fashion?  Try a  rosé from the hills above the Cote d’Azur.  With  a crispy duck leg, a specialty of the southwest of France?  How about a Madiran or a Tursan from the same region.  You get the idea.  Its not foolproof, but nearly.

So when it comes to selecting wine to accompany a roasted chicken, my first though was to look for a wine from the region around Lyon, where the poulet de Bresse, the most highly esteemed chicken in France, is raised.  This leads in short order to Beaujolais, the wine of choice in the rustic  bouchons (traditional Lyonnais bistros) one finds there.  So would my wine selection method be up to the task?  Is Beaujolais a good choice with roasted chicken?

I posed this question to Cafe Presse and Le Pichet wine director and co-owner Joanne Herron who agreed that Beaujolais is a successful pairing.  She recommended a Morgon that is currently on the wine list at Le Pichet.  Morgon is a wine growing commune in the Beaujolais region .  Wine from the Beaujolais region is sold under many appellations (that is, designations awarded by the French wine authorities)  and very broadly speaking, the more regionally specific the appellation (or AOC), the better the quality of the wine.  In Beaujolais, the most general AOC is “Beaujolais”, above that there is “Beaujolais Village”, and highest of all are the wines that bear the actual name of the commune where they are produced, like “Morgon”.

When I think of Beaujolais, what jumps to mind are light, fruity wines for quaffing, cool from the barrel, with a plate of charcuterie, preferably while standing at the zinc at some wine bar in Paris or even better in Lyon, but if those are not at hand, here in Seattle.  All AOC red wines from Beaujolais are made from 100% gamay, a grape known for its youthful vivacity but not so much for its structure, firmness or elegance.  But the wines from certain communes in Beaujolais, including Morgon  can have a much more muscular character that not only stands up well to hearty fare, but can even benefit from some aging.

Joanne’s recommendation for a  roasted chicken is  the 2009 Domaine Louis-Claude Desvignes “La Voute Saint-Vincent” Morgon.  This wine is made by the Desvignes family with grapes from their own property (as the name implies, the family has been in wine making for many generations).   This  property is in the Montagne de Py, which is at the center of the commune of Morgon and is considered to be the premier section.  The grapes are hand harvested, and  vinified in small batches by father-daughter winemaker team  Louis-Claude and Claude-Emmanuelle Desvignes using only indigenous yeasts (in other words, no laboratory produced yeast is added).   They employe a longer, slower fermentation process than is typical in Beaujolais to get maximum color and flavor from the grapes.  The result is a dark, intense wine much  different from the raspberry colored wines of Beaujolais Nouveau parties.  Joanne thinks that this wine is very good right now but that it has the structure to improve with 4-5 years  of age, during which time the she expects that it will mellow with a grace and elegance reminiscent of wines made in neighboring Burgundy from pinot noir.

I think that this wine makes a very nice match with the current roasted chicken preparation at Le Pichet, which features a sort of summer succotash of flageolet beans, corn, bacon, scallions and Forme d’Ambert bleu cheese.  Yummy.  The richness of the bleu cheese needs a wine with a firm structure that will stand up to it and the Morgon from Domaine Louis-Cluade Devignes certainly fills the bill.  Joanne says that she thinks that this wine would be excellent with warm Saucisse de Lyon served on a potato gratin.  These sausages, which are made with 100% pork studded with pistachios and simmered in broth, are a staple of Lyonnais cookery.

So I guess that could be called another success for my wine pairing method.

PS To see good friend Bob Peterson’s photos from a 2009 visit with the Desvignes family, check out this post.