Languedoc-Roussillon…Here I Come!!!

Hoo-hah! Big news! I am getting into bed with Languedoc-Roussillon!

I have long been fascinated by the wines, the red wines in particular, of this vast territory in south-central France (click here for my complete overview of the region, written in 2010).

And…as you perhaps know…I made the decision a year ago to start working on wine imports (I’ll STILL be wearing my journalist hat at the same time, of course!). I was just gettin’ tired of seeing the kinds of wines I love for food…so little available in the U.S.! So I grouped the hard-to-find, food-lovin’ wines into ten categories.

One of the ten categories I have targeted for import is this one:

#7: THE PARTY
Young, bouncy, juicy reds (other wines of the world in the sappy Beaujolais mode, usually ignored on these shores)

I have been diligently searching in European caves for a great example of rollickin’ red to import.

In January 2013…I found it!!! Languedocien!

I was at an organic wine fair in Montpellier, in the Languedoc region, when one wine started screaming at me:

2012 Opi d’Aqui, Les Cliquets
(from Clermont l’Herault, inland from the sea, forming a small triangle with Montpellier to the southeast, and the great Mediterranean oyster town, Beziers, to the southwest)

It is a gorgeous young and lively Grenache (100%), made in the carbonic maceration style: the grapes crush themselves by their weight, which leads to more wildly fruity wine. But in this case, there’s more than just a great party drink, and a fabulously gentle wine for food: the wine has a devastating complexity to it, haunting, with aromas of eaux-de-vie and kirsch, aromas of grilled nuts. I love it!

As I explored the import possibilities, I discovered something intriguing: the winery has a commercial link to Alain Coumont…the brilliant international restaurateur who owns 200 bakery/restaurants world-wide. His place, started in Belgium…is Le Pain Quotidien! You may know it well, since there are approximately 60 of them in the U.S.

Alain is looking to intensify his wine focus at Le Pain Quotidien…and, in support of this, he has allowed me to import into the U.S. 2012 Les Cliquets from the Languedoc, some of which will be available at Le Pain Quotidien!

I’m telling you all of this for two reasons:

1) This great Languedoc wine, Les Cliquets 2012, will soon be available for YOU to taste…I’ll be selling it from this web site!

2) My collaboration with Alain is part of a larger celebration of Languedoc wines that is about to take place in New York City, sponsored by the French government agency called Sud de France. I want you to know about the upcoming Sud de France parties devoted to the region…and my participation in them!

Every year the Maison de la Région Languedoc-Roussillon, a beautiful facility in midtown Manhattan, and an important French government office, stages a Sud De France festival in June. This year, they are going all out with a series of dinners this month that…brilliantly!…is taking place at some of the most exciting restaurants in a crazy-good new crop of informal French restaurants in New York. You must try these perfectly-chosen places!

For the parties, Sud de France is meticulously designing southern French environments…oilcloths for the outside tables, orange trees for the entrances, hammocks, wooden crates filled with Mediterranean-type vegetables, etc.

And at each restaurant the chef will present his or her own version of southern French specialties–keeping in mind the season, and the host city.

The round of parties, which began on June 2, continues on June 11 with a dinner at Calliope–a new East Village restaurant that I have come to know well! And love! In fact, I was going to write a separate piece about Calliope…until the opportunity came up to incorporate it into this Sud de France story.

I find the work of Calliope’s chef, Eric Korsh, a New Yorker who has cooked his way around lots of French kitchens (like Picholine in NYC), to be dazzling! It is so-right-on real French brasserie food with soul…but with just the right adjustment for diners today (which is to say…not too much!)

I first fell in love with Eric’s treatments of charcuterie. Usually, he slices things thinly (like an amazing oxtail terrine, a head-of-pork roll), then showers with sprightly lightening elements. Here’s a look at a cold tongue dish I had just the other night, with tatsoi leaves on top….

Another Eric charcuterie treat is his torchon of foie gras (the revived French specialty of foie gras poached inside a cheese cloth roll-up, then chilled and sliced). Yeah, yeah, there are torchons everywhere…but this is at the tippy-top of the New York torchon food chain.

The foie gras has that elusive texture I always seek: bouncy, alive, wet, almost like you’re biting into a raw organ…but it’s cooked. The gem lettuce on the side (there’s that sprightly factor again) is a beautiful example of a newly trendy lettuce variety, kind of like butter lettuce and romaine lettuce combined in a compact, miniature head.

Next thing to love: Eric’s refusal to remove the rich-and-creamy from French food! But his food never feels heavy. I am in lust with his simple boiled eggs with mayonnaise: the wet, orange yolks, and the fearless sea of delicious saffron-yellow mayo (no saffron, just the color) tell all that’s wonderful about France.

But there’s more in this vein: you will find the menu shot through with touches of French excess, in exquisite balancing act after exquisite balancing act. Last week, I had an appetizer that was clearly an homage to the Troisgros brothers, the great chefs who popularized salmon with sorrel in the 1970s.

There are two extraordinary things about this dish:

1) The salmon is reminiscent of something from a top-notch sushi bar, with the velvety texture of superior sashimi…though there is a tad of cooking involved

2) The surrounding Hollandaise does not stint on rich egginess…but the inclusion of so much sorrel cuts through the richness, adding its own spring-green acidity to the blend.

The last big Eric thing I noticed is his love for vegetables. One of my favorite recent dishes was a righteous chunk of halibut cooked in milk…to preserve the moist, creaminess of the fish…served on a plate surging with beautiful late-winter/early spring vegetables…including some of the most delicious carrots I’ve ever tasted.

I have in my possession Eric’s menu for the big Sud de France kick-off party on June 11…for which you can buy tickets. I’ve got mine…I’ll be there!

Here’s the menu:

Anchoïade and tapenade toasts with French breakfast radishes and sweet butter

Caillette, potato purée and little gem lettuces (caillette is a wonderful southern French charcuterie specialty, rounded little påtés, something like flattened meatballs gone French)

Whole Dourade for two with tomatoes and Lucques olives

Stone fruit tart, whipped crème fraîche

And, of course, there’ll be a Languedoc-Roussillon wine for each course…ending with the great Roussillon dessert wine, Muscat de Rivesaltes.

The next Sud de France dinner will be on June 23 at The Pines, the super-buzzy new place in the newly-trendy Gowanus section of Brooklyn, not far from Carroll Street. Marianne Fabre-Lanvin, head of the Sud de France organization in the U.S.–who introduced me to Calliope!–says that this is the most exciting new restaurant in New York for creative food.

There are others too; you can get the full list from: http://sud-de-france-festival.ticketleap.com/

One other I’d like to flag is a pop-up brunch at Donna, the cool bar in Williamsburg–executed by new chef Max Sussman, who soared at the ever-popular Roberta’s. Here’s what the New York Times had to say about the feel of this very special place:

“Last week, the Haslegraves were finishing up their ninth project, a bar called Donna in Williamsburg with a lovely Art Deco-ish bar, a vaulted ceiling and typically intriguing lighting. The building dates to 1850, and was once a flophouse, said Leif Young Huckman, 30, Donna’s owner. ‘An elegant space for dirty kids’ is how Mr. Huckman articulated his vision. ‘Meaning a place for someone like me. Someone who likes nice things but doesn’t have to dress up to get them.’ ”

Obviously a great environment in which to drink wine!

Please check here for upcoming Languedoc-Roussillon events beyond June…some of which will include my new wine, Les Cliquets (it is not arriving until later this summer). There may even be a Pain Quotidien/Rosengarten Import event soon at La Maison de la Région Languedoc-Roussillon in NY!

To those who don’t drink red wine in the summer: man, are you missing out!

Again, the site where you can procure tickets: http://sud-de-francefestival.ticketleap.com

First two photographs courtesy of BigStock, party photograph courtesy of Sud-de-France