A few days in Paris
Paris
Tasted Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - Sunday, July 23, 2006 by psmith with 852 views
Introduction
We finished our 16-day trip with five nights in Paris. To be sure, we planned on drinking here, but I was more interested in the food than the wine and we had a number of great reservations lined up. Unfortunately, these didn't include the day we arrived so we discussed where to eat that night over a nice Champagne:
Flight 1 (1 Note)
Flight 2 (1 Note)
We decided on dinner at l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. Not a bad restaurant to be sure, and I suppose it accomplishes what it sets out to do, but I couldn't help help but to be disappointed on leaving. Firstly, the wine list was overpriced enough that I was content to drink water and a single glass of Champagne. The eight-course degustation was all well done to be sure, but nothing that made me say "wow", no really great or especially interesting dishes, and not particularly good service. It just seemed like the sort of boring, trendy, place, with a fashionable name that pops up in every major city - the food being the only real variable. The fact that we came late and sat facing the wall rather than the bar didn't help, though the restaurant can't really be blamed for that.
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Lunch the next day was at Taillevent, an old-guard 3* known for its exceptional service and wine program. These folks have service down to an art and, coupled with the extremely charismatic and gracious Jean-Claude Vrinat, it makes up the core of the restaurant’s success. Waiters float around the room in an almost symphonic manner, seemingly reading the minds of the patrons. I left feeling like they could have put a Big-Mac on my plate, charged me $1000, and I would have happily paid it. Fortunately the food was much better than that, everything was excellent really, though in hindsight I can't remember a single dish that I'd call truly great. While they offer a full wine list I opted for the condensed version with 300 or so generally well-priced selections to avoid making Jen angry while I searched the full list for the "perfect wine". I settled on a spectacular Chablis:
Flight 3 (2 Notes)
As might be expected, the digestif list at Taillevent is pretty extensive as well. We finished lunch with a wonderful 1921 Michel Huard Calvados and a 1976 Chateau de Ravignan Armagnac 'Selection Taillevent'. As a side note, this was the only 3* we went to that seemed happy to accommodate Jen's dietary restrictions in their degustation, cementing it at the top of her list of Paris restaurants.
It may have been lunchtime, but we had essentially eaten dinner as they weren't offering their lunch menu that day. The rest of the day we lived off of snacks and enjoyed a few more wines:
Flight 4 (1 Note)
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We opted for lunch the next day at Arpege after deciding against the 420€/person anniversary dinner menu. I have to say, Alain Passard does things with vegetables that I would never have believed possible and the lunch was absolutely superb. While the execution was clearly at a higher level than Taillevent, the service was a huge step down, the staff dropping the ball on a few requests. The wine list is frightfully expensive with the norm being a 5-10x markup. I settled on one of the cheapest wines on the list, a Trimbach Frederic Emile for the bargain price of 112€, only about 4x what I can get it for in the United States:
Flight 5 (1 Note)
A 40€ glass of grappa that runs about that price per bottle in the US finished the meal.
Again, we ate cheap for dinner and finished the day up with another tasty champagne:
Flight 6 (2 Notes)
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I was really looking forward to dinner at Pierre Gagnaire the next day and it didn't disappoint. The man simply has an uncanny command of ingredients and the dishes he constructs are among the most intellectual and complex I've had. Critics say his highs are very high and his lows quite low, and I can see that, but this was clearly the highest level of cooking that we had seen on our trip, the service not Taillevent good but still quite good, and the wine list not cheap but not bad either. The restaurant was offering 1996 Salon for the very reasonable price of 28€/glass, and the Lafon Meursault was at a good enough price:
Closing
Pierre Gagnaire was my favorite restaurant of the trip - really a unique experience that I'll hopefully get a chance to do again. The rest of our Paris trip involved bistros and wines I didn't take notes on.
1998 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Millésimé 93 Points
France, Champagne
(7/18/2006)
Ripe, crisp apple pie and yeast notes with some nutty flavors. Crisp and well supported by a vibrant acidity. Quite rich for such a young Blanc de Blancs. Oxidative traces. Excellent wine.
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