Le Gavroche puts the spotlight on the wines of France
By John Schreiner
December 6, 2005
It is no secret that French wines are struggling.
In France, the wine industry’s efforts to turn its fortunes around have recently included some fairly irrational activities. There is, as an example, a group of wine terrorists calling itself Comité Régional d’Action Viticole that has been attacking shipments of foreign wine coming into France.
There was an even more irrational incident in the south of France recently, in which masked militants smashed storage vats containing French wine. Some 730,000 litres of wine was lost.
Against a background of such turmoil in what still may be the world’s most renowned wine industry, I would like to tip my hat to the efforts of the venerable Le Gavroche restaurant in Vancouver on behalf of French wine.
Indeed, I tip my hat to all of Vancouver’s excellent French restaurants. Without the showcase that these provide, French wine sales in this market would have lost even more ground to the competition.
I am focusing on Le Gavroche because the restaurant (which has been around for an amazing 28 years) is doing a series of wine dinners on French themes. These dinners, at $95 a person, are a departure from the pattern of the many other wine dinners in Vancouver. The usual pattern sees restaurants turned over entirely to a winemaker and his or her wines for the evening.
The Le Gavroche dinners (I have been a guest at one) are low-key and intimate. There are no speeches and no formalities. Guests may even order off the regular menu, should they wish. Those who come for the wine dinner are offered a five-course menu and, typically, two wines with each course. The wine servings are generous enough that it is prudent to ride home in a taxi.
In November, the theme dinner was built around wines from the Rhone and the Loire. On December 15, the dinner features Champagne and Beaujolais. On January 19, Burgundies will be served and on February 16, it will be the turn of the Bordeaux. The price may vary, depending on the cost of the wines being served.
These dinners draw attention to French wines in the weeks leading to the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival from February 27 to March 6 in 2006. The theme region is France, with more than 60 French wineries at the Festival. Undoubtedly, this will be the largest group of French producers in Vancouver ever. It should provide a much needed lift to French wines in this market; and it should create fresh interest in the city’s French dining rooms.
While the wine list at Le Gavroche includes many favourites from British Columbia and California, it is deep with French wines, some of them vintages so rare that one can only dream. Some of the jaw-dropping examples:
* Château Latour 1947, at $8,500.
* Château Mouton Rothschild 1924, at $2,600.
* Château Haut-Brion 1928 at $875.
* Bollinger Grand Année R.D. 1975 at $2,700 for a Methuselah, which contains eight standard bottles of Champagne.
These are not the wines you should expect at one of the wine dinners, obviously. Restaurant owner Manuel Ferreira offers practical choices – wines that you can actually go out and buy next day either from the provincial liquor stores or from good private stores. The Champagne dinner, for example, includes three wines currently listed: Baron Fuente Brut Reserve ($39 in the LDB), De Venoges Cordon Bleu Brut ($45) and Moët $ Chandon Nectar ($65). The Beaujolais wines all represent various top growths of Beaujolais, wines that are head and shoulders ahead of the quality of standard quaffing Beaujolais.
The odds of making a wine discovery or two are good. One of my discoveries at the Rhone/Loire dinner was a terrific rosé, Château Silex 2003, only $17 in the liquor stores. It is a deep-coloured wine, packed with fruit, with a good body and a crisp finish. It would look very festive in the holiday table and it certainly will pair well with turkey.
The French wine industry has a dedicated supporter in Le Gavroche.
goodgrog@shaw.ca
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