Vive les guingettes!

An admirable website, Matching Food and Wine, but a bit short on singalongs. Could we begin by joining in lustily, therefore, altogether now...

Vive la friture! Vive le goujon!
Non, je vous l’assure, rien n’est aussi bon!

Horrible. Never mind, the point is the French fete nationale, the 14th of July, has just passed, with its big outdoor dances, and the annual Paris-Plages programme of pop-up beach entertainments is just starting. Both feature events themed on the old riverside dancehall /restaurants known as guinguettes. We’re talking accordions, waltzes, javas, paso dobles, the classic repertoire of the bal-musette culture of working class vieux Paris transposed to the banks of the Seine and the Marne, with food added.

Although the once great stock of guinguettes continues to decline, periodic revivals keep interest alive, and we’re in the middle of one now, thanks to characters like Melina Sadi, aka la Baronne, bal impresaria extraordinaire, and the excellent musette revival band Mimile et les Ramulots. And clich though it may be, the guinguette is a gastronomic institution worth reviving, like anything French and functional to do with catering.

The banks of the Marne east of Bastille and Bercy are prime guinguette territory. Although the earliest forerunners sprang up in Paris, they’d moved by the Golden Age of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries to the suburbs, originally to avoid the capital’s duty on alcohol.

This year the departement of the Val de Marne inaugurated a new guinguette festival based around the suburbs of Nogent-sur-Marne, Champigny and Joinville-le-Pont. The verdant banks of the river here are dotted with derelict ex- dancehalls, some in the lovely half-timbered neo-Normand style, while Joinville is still home to the great brick buildings which once housed the studios responsible for the cinematic mythologizing of the Golden Age guinguettes.

The last representatives of that age still function here, too, notably Chez Gegene, overpriced, culinarily to be given a wide berth, but still spectacular. Gegene is nowadays rivalled by the leading light from the neo-guinguette revival of the Nineties, the Guinguette de l’Isle du Martin- Pecheur. Here you find a curious mix of elderly waltzing couples, Come Dancing exhibitionists, retro-fashionistas, working class families, jazz fans, bikers and the occasional intrepid tourist.

But what about the food and wine? Well, as we just warbled so tunelessly, fish was traditionally the big attraction. Especially fried fish, the classic petite friture once caught prolifically on the doorsteps of the guinguettes; goujons (gurnard), and eperlans (smelt). Eperlans are still to be found, though the examples I tried were disappointingly dry and lacklustre, rather worse than the similarly degenerate British whitebait, and like them caught now in the North Sea and frozen.

The other great classics of the guinguette repertoire have all but disappeared. These were the robust stews made with eels, assorted river fish and wine, onions, and roux, the matelotes and gibelottes. “We’ve tried putting them on the menu” said Jean-Yves Dupin, founder of the Martin-Pecheur, “but people aren’t interested anymore.” The best that seems to be available now is moules frites, the occasional fricasse of eels, and a few OK brasserie dishes.

As for wine, well, time first for another tune. A one, a two, a one, two, three ...

Ah! Le petit vin blanc! Qu’on boit sous les tonnelles,
Quand les filles sont belles, Du cote de Nogent!

God that was even worse. The petit vin blanc of Jean Drejac’s famous music hall number still exists, so I went to meet its producers, the Confrerie de Vin Blanc de Nogent This is one of around thirty such associations leading another renaissance: that of wine production in the Ile de France, the region surrounding the capital.

On a Saturday morning I found Philippe Jouvin, a retired banker and current Grand Maitre of the confrerie, hoeing in the sunshine in the corner plot of the magnificent chateau grounds donated by the municipality. Up to the eighteenth century, Nogent was part of one of the largest vignobles in the country, producing the cheap white wine known as guinguet which probably gave the guinguettes their name. By the mid twentieth century, wine making here had almost died out. Then in the 1980s individuals began to replant plots of vines. The wine of Saint Maur des Fosses, celebrated in the Middle Ages, is now produced again from vines in a private garden, and wins prizes. Le petit vin blanc of Nogent is made from Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Blanc grapes vinified by confrere Stephane Pessin, a Burgundy man, currently accountant at the Intercontinetal Hotel in Paris. Frustratingly, I was unable to taste it. Last year’s vintage wasn’t bottled yet, and in any event, the wine of Nogent is a vin culturel, consumed only at special private events, and not for sale. For the same reason, the white wine washing down the North Sea friture at the Martin Pecheur, for example, is Muscadet.

This would not have bothered the great gastronome Curnonsky, who opined that fried goujons should only be eaten on the banks of the Seine, accompanied by Chablis and buttered bread. However, in view of the current mode for consuming local, it reinforces the necessity of reviving the whole gastronomy of the guinguettes, in the same way the musical side has been rejuvenated. This means local wines en pichet, a rediscovery of the matelote, and serious attention to sourcing and frying proper river fish. What could be more desirable? What are the French waiting for?

In anticipation, shall we try that first number again? You can keep your Bob Dylans and your Carla Sarkozys, this is what I call a lyric. Vive la friture! Vive le goujon!

For information on the guinguettes of the Val de Marne visit www.tourisme-valdemarne.com

Philip Sweeney is a food, travel and music writer. He has his own blog The Boulevardier.

 

Gorgeous green Oregon

If I had to live anywhere in the US it would be Oregon. Admittedly the last couple of days have been unbelievably beautiful but I think it’s more that it’s comfortingly familiar - with green rolling hills and woods and flower-strewn hedgerows. Very much like Burgundy, the spiritual home of most Oregonian winemakers.

Oregon winemaking is green through and through. Apparently a third of the wineries have some kind of certification - most under the LIVE (Low Input Viticulture and Enology) program which covers both viticulture and wineries or the umbrella organisation OCSW (Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine) which seems to have more stringent requirements still. There’s a parallel movement protecting farmed salmon and their fisheries called Salmon Safe. I’m still trying to get my head round all these schemes.

On top of that some producers are organic and others biodynamic. The latter is the most controversial, as elsewhere with its proponents claiming they can see improved vitality and purity in their wines and others pointing out it doesn’t necessarily involve sustainable practice in the vineyards. But everyone I’ve spoken too - admittedly some of the best in the state - is thoughtful and philosophic about the way they’re making wine.

After an early visit to one of the Willamette Valley pioneers Bethel Heights (above) we had lunch today with the guys from Cristom (sustainable not organic or biodynamic) and two visiting winemakers from New Zealand who had also been at IPNC - Matthew Donaldson and Lynette Hudson from Pegasus Bay. Matthew reckons that Oregon is 10 years ahead of New Zealand in terms of sustainability which is saying something given that as from this year New Zealand wineries have to be sustainable if they want an export certificate.

It must also have been the only winery lunch I’ve been to which was cooked by a sales & marketing director - John D’Anna (right) who turns out to be quite some chef. We had panzanella with heirloom tomatoes, a hot smoked salmon and pepper salad on corn cakes (great with both the 2008 Cristom Pinot Gris and ’08 Germaine Vineyard Chardonnay), braised lamb with pomegranate and beans - a stellar match for winemaker Steve Doerner’s 2007 Sommers Reserve Pinot Noir and some hastily snatched local cheeses before we headed back to Portland for a final 24 hours checking out the restaurant and food truck scene. It was such a perfect winemaker’s lunch I’m trying to persuade John to share the recipes.

Apparently the 2007 Pinots got trashed in the US press but I'm loving the way they’re showing - really savoury, complex and meaty. Very much to the ‘old world’ palate - if there is such a thing these days.

 

 

 

 

What the IPNC is really like

So the International Pinot Noir Celebration aka IPNC has pretty well been and gone apart from today’s brunch and it’s fair to say it’s very different from what I expected.

Firstly it’s HUGE. There are 600+ people here - mainly paying punters, mainly rich - or reasonably rich - Americans, mainly, it has to be said, seniors but, let’s face it, drinking Pinot is not a bad way to spend your retirement.

Then there are the local winery crowd - gratifyingly as you’d expect from Oregon: the winemakers with long hair, beards and crumpled shorts, the marketing team young, funky and tattooed. (Sooo many tattoos.) There are visiting winemakers: the French stick out a mile wandering around in a slightly disconsolate fashion as well they might. Oregon’s pinots are becoming more than a match for Burgundy.

Secondly it’s HOT. Anyone who thinks Oregon is a cool climate region should have sat at lunch in the direct sun yesterday. I think it reached 36C and the same is predicted for today. It feels much hotter than Washington too because it’s more humid. Cold though at night as I’ve mentioned.

Thirdly the food is amazing. Just incredible for these numbers although I have to admit the best meal we had was at Belle Pente for a group of, I’d say, around 50 cooked by a Portland restaurant called Beaker and Flask. The famous salmon bake (above) was great too though more for the brilliantly creative salads than the salmon which didn’t taste as much of smoke as I expected from being strapped over open coals (the salmon, not me, happily). Fantastic cheese too.

Fourth - it’s like the biggest, flashiest BYO ever. It’s hard to keep up with the wine never mind the pairings. At the big meals sommeliers or winemakers bring round a new bottle every 5 minutes or so, some seriously old vintages. Tragically I’ve lost track of many of them. To get to taste the latest you have to dump the last which given the quality of the wines really doesn’t seem right

Fifth it’s geeky. Particularly on the vineyard visit where the conversation is dotted with rootstock and clone numbers. They lost me, I confess

Sixth it’s challenging. Not because of the amount of alcohol and food consumed (though that too) but because it busts open your preconceptions about being a Pinot aficionado. At the blending session at Belle Pente where six tables of us had 3 different barrel samples to work with we all came up with a different blend. And when I judged them I picked out a completely different wine to the one our table had blended which tasted far too oaky. It’s renewed my respect for winemakers.

Even the seminar on food and wine matching, on which I’ll be reporting separately, made me think about wine pairing in a different way. I’ve come across so many unexpectedly good matches I wouldn’t have predicted, so many ingredients that make Pinot taste great.

And the wines? Wonderful. We’ve had the opportunity to taste pinots from all over the world but I have to say the Oregon pinots have really stood out for their sheer deliciousness. Not a very technical tasting term, I admit, but hey, this has been the most hedonistic, halcyon wine experience imaginable. Get in early if you want to go to the 25th IPNC next year (bookings for which open in January 2011 if I remember right)

On the road in the Pacific North West: Day 4

What happened to days 2 and 3 you may be asking and indeed that’s what I’m asking myself. We swept through Eastern Washington as fast as a tornado, barely pausing to sleep, never mind write.

The area has changed so much since I last visited some 11-12 years ago with about 10 times the number of vineyards. There are some amazing wines now - of every conceivable kind which is both Washington’s strength and its weakness. There the Cabs and Merlots I remember but also Mourvdre, Counoise and - would you believe? - Gruner Veltliner.

Great food too especially eating with winemakers at their homes. (An epic never-to-be-forgotten lunch with the legendary Charles Smith, the Alice Cooper of the wine world, whose (awesome) flagship wine is called The Creator. More of that in due course - suffice it to say it involved a black Rolls Royce . . . )

Yesterday we finally arrived at McMinnville for the International Pinot Noir Celebration, an event I’ve wanted to come to for years. If you want to understand why Oregon Pinot is as great as it is we were basking in 30°C heat in the afternoon and wrapping up warm to eat under the stars a few hours later.

Our dinner - there are several - was a fundraising benefit for Salud a great Oregon initiative which negotiates the tortuous US health service on behalf of the immigrant vineyard workers who do most of the picking in the state and provides regular screenings. A model for every other wine producing country and region

Wines were provided by Dominique Lafon, Evening Land Vineyards where Lafon also consults and the Westrey Wine Company whose proprietor Amy Wesselman is a former director of IPNC. They were matched with food by Naomi Pomeroy of Beast in Portland and introduced by the irrepressible Evan Goldstein, author of Daring Pairings, who has the best shtick on food and wine matching I’ve come across.

Standout pairings were Westrey Wine Company’s 2004 Chardonnay Reserve with scallop and foie gras wrapped in puff pastry (all the Chardonnays were good tho’), 1994 Westrey Willamette Valley Pinot Noir with quail with summer chanterelles (but the 2001 Comtes Lafon Meursault ‘Desirée’ was fantastic too) and Evening Land Vineyards La Source 2008 (my favourite wine of the evening which eclipsed even a Lafon Volnay) with mesquite grilled lamb chop.

Today we’re off to blend wines at a mystery winery and there’s the Grand Dinner tonight, with, I’m sure, the odd glass of Pinot.

Incidentally I’ve only just discovered that IPNC has a great blog which you can follow and that there was a dinner last night called Counter Culture pairing Pinot and other wines with street cart food at Anne Amie Vineyards. Shame to have missed that but you can't be everywhere . . .

Image © David Gn - Fotolia.com