Luxury

I feel as though I just purchased the most affordable luxury item of the year: $14 250 gram butter. It is labelled ‘La Baratte des Gourmets’ from Celles-sur-Belle, not far from the Muscadet region in France. The butter is spiked with grey salt. It is perhaps one of the most distinctive butters that I have ever tasted. Ramona and I got a baguette from here (equally stunning baguette is available from here also) and spread a thick slap of the cold butter on the bread. We sort of made a butter sandwich.  We also prepared some simple salad based on vinaigrette & shallot. We had the WHOLE ensemble with steely Chablis. It felt restorative. Life is grand!

The butter is available at Les Amis du Fromage on the second avenue.  Les Amis du Fromage also carries a few other French butters that you may want to try - an affordable luxury item for this festive season.

Something About a Morning Coffee in Paris

I had a couple days to recover from the jet lag in Paris before I hit the wine road. Believe or not, it is not easy to find a good cup of coffee in Paris. It appears as though it is not only me who is having this unnatural trouble. See the Paris coffee story here and here.  I had my luck when I discovered this neighbourhood wine bistro, Le Café Nouvelle de la Mairie in the Latin Quarter, near my hotel. Café Nouvelle de la Mairie opens for breakfast. The breakfast menu is simple – latté, espresso, fresh squeezed orange juice, croissant, and baguette with butter and jam.  The place is full of Parisian charm, facing a small, tree-lined square. The place has that peaceful morning quietness.  Being close to the universities in the Latin Quarter, the place is frequented by university students and professors. Every now and then, here is even a wine importer amongst the patrons.

There is something about enjoying a good morning coffee and croissant in Paris - lingering, planning for the day, or simply having a second cup of coffee.  The moments feel collapsed without the significance of time.  It feels as though the present moment is something from the past, a scene vaguely familiar from an old movie or novel.  The next time you are in Paris, I hope you will find your moments to linger at a local café.

Le Cafe Nouvelle de la Mairie
19, rue des Fosses-Saint-Jacques, Paris, France
5th Arr
Tel: 01 44 07 04 41
Phone ahead to find out the opening hours.

 

PS:  The place also serves genuine foods and wines in the evenings.  It is decidedly more boisterous in the evenings – in a good way.

A Short Version of How I Became a Wine Importer

I remember trying a red wine for the first time. I was in my early twenties. I remember holding my breath just to get the forsaken liquid down by throat so as to be polite in front of family and guests at the dinner table. You see, I grew up in a family where wine was not a part of the meal. Being an immigrant Korean, the daily dinner table was full of condiments consisting of burning hot peppers, pungent vinegars and sesame seed oil.  All very tasty but not exactly the ingredients that beckon one to declare: “Well, with those dishes, I should go down to the cellar and retrieve a bottle of Les Amoureuse or Morgon”.  

Fast forward ten years. Cooking always has been my hobby. When I started delving into cooking the classic French dishes, the topic of wines kept coming up. It didn't take long before I was immersed in wine.  I even took a part time consulting assignment for a local wine agency. It was inevitable that the course of my life would see me choose something related to wine

Deciding to become a wine importer was easy.  I struggled for a long time with the thought of what would a wine importer represent or what does a portfolio of wines say about an importer.  I only knew what I did not want as a wine importer. The thought of chasing after hot wines of the moment never appealed to me because I personally don’t drink them and I never saw wine as fashion.   The thought of chasing after highly rated wines never appealed to me either.  It used to.  But I noticed the high scored wines simply sat in the neglected corner of my cellar.  I did not want those wines anymore.  They tended to be oaky fruit bombs. I didn’t like putting bombs in my mouth. Asking someone else to drink something I wouldn't does not sit well with me.

A Rabbit Terrine, Salad &  Charcuterie at Racines in Paris in 2007 with Artisanal Beaujolais

Then, a lightning struck across my consciousness when my wife and I took a vacation in Paris in 2007.  We somehow ended up in a series of bistros that were serving most delicious food and wine from the producers and regions that I never heard of - Ploussard, Pineau d’Anis, Trousseau, Savoie, Bugey, and Pupillon. The list went on. I must have looked like a child seeing a candy jar in a corner store for the first time because the owner Pierre Jancou at Racines, a wine bistro, poured me samples of wines to taste.  I never have forgotten that moment and the generosity of Pierre.  The name Racine Wine Imports is in honour of that man. Racine means ‘root’ or ‘to take root’ in French. 

I thought such wines must only exist in Paris. Taking a trip to New York and San Francisco was an eye-opener.  Similar wines were available there, too.  If you ever visited accessible, friendly places like Nopa or Terroirs in San Francisco or Chambers Street Wines, Balthazar or the Ten Bells in New York, you know what I mean. 

With the trips in Paris, San Francisco and New York, I was beginning to know what I wanted as a wine importer.  I wanted to represent the winegrowers who work the land responsibly, making honest wines - the wines that are pure, balanced and delicious.  The winegrowers that I believe in and can stand behind. These are the wines that my wife and I would like to drink with friends and families at a dinner table with foods.