KRUG: The Art of Blending Pleasure

by Paige Donner

Can't think of a better Christmas present this year than a cellar tour
and tasting at Krug.

Isn't it too true that oftentimes « the best » is shrouded in mystery
? People tell you something is the best but unless you try it for
yourself and unless you have the same tastes as the tastemakers, how
do you ever really know if « the best » is the best in your estimation
?

See Full Photo SlideShow On Local Food And Wine
http://localfoodandwine.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/krug-the-art-of-blending-pleasure/


Krug Cellars Reims, photo c. Paige Donner

« Taste is subjective, » says Julie Murez, Krug's Hospitality Manager.
For a House that has a global reputation of being the best champagne,
at least, say, Top Ten, this was a refreshingly humble statement to
hear from someone representing a champagne house.

For my upcoming report for World Radio Paris – see my program World of
Wine http://www.worldradioparis.com/ – I will dive more into the
details of the house and its philosophy, but here I'd like to remain
within the comfort of first impressions. And these first impressions
were very comforting.

Pleasure. Their emphasis on the pleasure of the experience of drinking
a glass of Krug champagne feels so right. Nevermind why it tastes so
good and goes down so easily, let's just focus on how darned good it
makes your senses tingle and feel. That is, receive a glass of Krug
with your emotions, less with your intellect, and you will grasp
better its goodness.

Playfulness. I had not expected this underlying tone of playfulness
within such a dignified house, one of the most established in Reims.
But there it was : Playfulness. From hearing how the Tasting Committee
tastes each wine from each unique plot (nearly 250) as well as the 150
reserve wines kept in their cellars and how no hard and fast blending
rules are obeyed – rather a dance with nature is what is achieved.
What nature has given that year is what is respected, recognized and
then « mis en valeur » that fantastic French phrase that means cast in
the best possible of lights.

History. In many contexts the word history can feel stuffy and evokes
images and feelings of austere, untouchable, distant, encased in
something that makes it removed from life today. But there at Krug,
the new President, « Maggie » as this Argentinian woman is apparently
known to all the staff, mined the nuggets of the house's history when
she arrived in 2009. With these nuggets, they assembled a rich human
history of just how Joseph Krug, who once worked for Jacquesson
Champagnes, in its day the biggest champagne producer in the region,
married his boss's English wife's sister and then, for his love of and
loyalty to quality before all else, felt impelled to start his own
champagne house. And this is how Krug was born.

"Our unconventional approach, the way we make choices that are not the
easiest ones and go beyond the rules when needed illustrate our vision
– a constant since the very foundation of the House of Krug." -
Olivier Krug, Director of Krug, Sixth Generation

See Full Photo SlideShow On Local Food And Wine
http://localfoodandwine.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/krug-the-art-of-blending-pleasure/

There were many more surprises, all good, all enjoyable, that awaited
me that wintry morning on my Krug Cellar visit…That the cuvées,
regardless of their price, are not seen as better than the other. «
There's no hierarchy at Krug, » repeated Julie several times ; Their
oak barrels that they keep in a pyramid formation ; And their two wine
libraries, one of bottles that date back to 1880 and the other that
house tenderly cultivated grapes that have been gently pressed into
juice and then fermented into wines that will be the blends of their
champagne in the years and decades to come.

Enjoy the photos. And yes, be good to yourself, open up and enjoy a
bottle of Krug with yourself and someone who appreciates you a whole
lot. And then decide for yourself if a champagne that the world deems
« the best » is really the best for you.

And Good Heavens, don't forget that before all else there's a huge
dose of pleasure to be had in each bottle of Krug.

KrugLovers.com

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♥Chérie Du Vin

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Dallet's Tropical Fruit Macaron

by Paige Donner

All photos and media c. Paige Donner, Local Food And Wine.

 Vincent Dallet is one of the not-to-miss patisseries and chocolatiers in the Champagne region. With shops in both Épernay and Reims his chocolate confections, his melt-in-your-mouth chocolate almond croissants, and, of course, his patisserie perfect cakes and macarons all sell out every Sunday morning and each day of the week he's open as well.

See Full Slideshow on Local Food And Wine 

 

Photo c. Paige Donner Local Food And Wine

 

His wife works the cash register and is always kind and welcoming. Mr. Dallet's gift to the region, and to gastronomes everywhere with a sweet tooth who happen to find out about his creations, is the « Maca'Bulle » which is a macaron made with an ivory champagne flavored ganache center sunk into a flute of champagne, a sort of macaron-champagne float.

See Full Slideshow on Local Food And Wine 

In these photos you'll see him demonstrating how to make a tropical fruit flavored macaron with a pineapple, mango, passion-fruit coulis. Two guiding priciples he says are to choose fruit at its perfectly ripe perfection – for pineapples this means using your nose and picking the one that smells like honey. And the other secret to perfect macarons is using the right finely ground almonds ; He sources his from a region in Spain that grows the best almonds in the world, he swears by it.

In Reims his shop is called Chocolaterie des Sacres and can be found at 47, cours Jean-Baptiste Langlet.  Chocolaterie-des-Sacres.com.

@LocalFoodWine

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♥Chérie Du Vin

Brulerie Daval - Paris's Best Coffee Roasters

by Paige Donner

Brulerie Daval

It's taken years but I've finally found the hands down, absolute best coffee shop in Paris. It's the Brulerie Daval, just off the Bastille in the idyllically pleasant and peaceful Passage Damoye. It translates to Daval Coffee Roasters.

When Madame's husband opened their shop here in 1947 the Passage was still home mainly to the vestiges of furniture craftsman who worked in the furniture shops that the neighborhood around the Bastille had come to be famous for. Real craftsman who turned out exceptional quality furniture, the kind that lasts generations.

She explained to me that all the flats in the buildings of the Passage were therefore cold water, workmen's flats with shared lavatories on the floor corridors. That was before Americans moved in a few years ago, starting in the early 2000s and with their swarm, apparently mostly young internet tycoons and techies from SF, they renovated the buildings and the flats and turned most of them into posh condos. Still, many of the buildings do not have elevators. Madame's is one of them.

Brulerie Daval

I've often thought that Paris would not be the easiest of cities to grow old in. Any big city really. Places like Paris and Manhattan and San Francisco where everyone is rushing to get somewhere, literally and figuratively, raising young families, dealing with bills, and stress and jobs and carrying heavy bags of groceries up stairwells and the daily commutes on and off of buses and subways and trams and commuter trains.

Holiday seasons drive this point home. Wintry and lonely sometimes I observe the elderly of Paris and wonder where they find any comfort, if they do at all ? France is probably a bit better than, say, Manhattan, as the sense of family is still so strong here in this country. Family ties are solid. But you can never use that as a blanket statement. Because then we risk desensitizing ourselves to the exceptions, and there are always exceptions.

Chatting with Madame about her shop and the history of the quarter, while buying some Christmas Blend Tea from one of the hundreds of canisters of teas that line her shelves, just behind the stacks and stacks (oh, I'd say at least about 50) of whole roasted coffee beans in burlap sacks, I asked how often her children are able to help out in the shop. She told me she had none. Given the era she's from, already married in 1947 and her sort of Southern dark looks,  it would have been altogether too easy to assume, indeed I did assume, that she would have several progeny. And even progeny of those progeny. But this widow has not one.

That's when she got to telling me about her trip a few years back to California – to Hollywood, to Beverly Hills and then even over to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. We mutually agreed that the Eiffel Tower in Vegas is nothing in comparison to the one here in Paris. She told me she loved driving past all the stars' homes in her tour bus with the 50 or so other elderly she'd taken the trip with. Of course I didn't ask her age but jusging from appearances she had to have been past 80 already when she did that trip.

This brief conversation, during which we each chattered away, a sure hint of two kindred city souls, has kept turning in my mind. And it's gotten me to resolve to be particularly kind and generous and thoughtful to the elderly this holiday season whose paths I cross. Lord knows the lives they've had and the struggles they face daily. Madame, for example, hurt her hip a couple years ago so now rather than going up the stairs to her kitchen for lunch each day – the stairs being too much to navigate more than once in a day – she relies on someone to bring her her lunch which she eats in the shop. That's a long day for anybody, 10 – 7 :30. And no comfy chairs to recline on, just a little old wooden table and a couple of rickety stools.

So this is my wish this Holiday Season (Santa are you listening ?) that all elderly people living alone and without family in big cities this Christmas and Hannukah and Kwanzaa, feel the warmth, joy and love of people's, young and old's, appreciation for who they are and the contribution they've made to our world during their years so far spent here on this Earth.

Peace Joy Love and Blessings to All. And don't forget to pick up your Christmas Blend coffee and tea at Brulerie Daval in Passage Damoye, Metro Bastille. In fact, pick up two or three packs and give them as gifts ! People will surely appreciate you for it.

12 rue Daval (Passage Damoye) 75011 Paris   + 33 (0) 1 48 05 29 46

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♥Chérie Du Vin