you turn me upside down d ross 1980 My two favorite restaurants closed within the last few weeks. First Great Lake. Then City Provisions. And I use the term restaurant carefully. They were so much more than that. Or you might say they were, each in their own way, closer to original sense of the French word restaurant (go ahead say it with a French accent) -- public dining halls in pre-revolutionary France to which both men and women went to drink -- wait for it -- bouillon, a pure, restorative, heath-giving broth. (Read The Table Comes First by Adam Gopnik for more on that. Best food book since Bill Buford’s Heat). It’s sad that we have two fewer places to find such restoration (culinary or otherwise) in Chicago. Bummer. But, here’s the thing. When it seems as though nothing can escape the crushing maw of big commerce, little windows of difference spring up like wild flowers in the cracks of the sidewalk. You don’t need a PhD in economics to appreciate structural inefficiency. You simply have to know where to look. (Is it any wonder that the forager meme is so important in the food world right now?) Lydia and Nick at Great Lake are moving on to something different and better. And we definitely haven’t heard the last of Cleetus at City Provision. I am here to tell you that restorative, health-giving, vinous draughts do in fact blossom within the cracks of the industrially made wine path and it’s out there for the pickin’. It requires a little foraging. I give you Chateau d’Oupia. Andé Iché inherited a 13th century castle in the arid, hilly, scrub land of Minervois in southwestern France. He made bulk wine as was the common practice in the area in the 60’s and 70’s. He did well. 15 years ago a visiting winemaker from Burgundy suggested he bottle his own wine. So he did. He purchased additional parcels, sometimes for a token amount of money -- one franc! -- because they were abandoned, hard-to-work, high elevation, old-vine parcels that didn’t pencil in the bulk wine industrial ag economy that dominated (and still dominates) the Languedoc-Roussillon area. He restored his centenarian vineyards to something closer to their pre-industrial wild scrub biome. He called for a Minervois A.O.C. His neighbors thought he was bananas. But he did it and he survived the economic crash in bulk wine in Languedoc in the 80’s. He befriended Joe Dressner and Denyse Louis in 1989, who became his sole U.S. importers and have remained so ever since. Iché died in 2007. His daughter Marie-Pierre carries on her father’s work. Maybe you’ve already finished the story in your head. From bulk wine to cult wine. Not really. The 2010 estate wine from Chateau d’Oupia costs less than $15 a bottle. $11.99 at Fischman’s. That’s what’s crazy to me. Not that Iché had the guts to revert to natural farming practices in the middle of bulk wine country. That turned out to be a shrewd decision. What’s nuts is that an estate wine made from 100+ year old Carignan vines planted on serious terroir -- rocky clay over limestone -- that smells and tastes as good as it does costs less twelve U.S. dollars. That’s what’s nuts. As you read this, there are at least a couple of pallets of Oupia sitting in a cold warehouse near O’Hare waiting to be foraged. That’s structural inefficiency. If more than 100 people in Chicago knew just how special and affordable this wine is, you wouldn’t be reading this email because the wine would have sold out months ago, before it landed at the distributor’s warehouse. It’s mind-boggling really, but I guess it’s a symptom of how upside down the wine market is, not just here in Chicago, but everywhere. It’s too busy chasing the next malbec, the next big score, the next skinny girl, pink moscato which is gonna be the next white zinfandel. And so it goes. A dog chasing it’s own yellow tail. A few weeks ago, I was tasting the 2010 Chateau d’Oupia Minervois with James and Shanna at Fischman’s with Yes and Thin Lizzy blasting on the jukebox thinking, man, this wine is really great. Not just on an instant gratification level -- like it tastes good I will drink another glass and it’s not expensive I might buy another bottle -- no, on the level of a wine you want to take some time to contemplate, as in there’s a lot going on here, aromatically, texturally, and taste-wise. It’s southern to be sure: it’s dark, opaque purple and fully infused with that intoxicating smell of sun-baked, roasted herbs -- garrigue. But at the same time the fruit is totally sapid and fresh which I have to think has everything to do with the age of the vines and the natural farming -- not only have that the vines been allowed to penetrate deep into the limestone substrate, but the absence of chemical inputs means the soil is alive with mycorrhizal fungus and without going too deeply into plant-fungus pathology, let’s just say there is some serious chelation of trace minerals happening around those root tips. You don’t need to be a botanist or a sommelier to appreciate the uncanny mineral filigree in this wine because you can taste it. It’s completely tactile. Sorry this does not occur in cheap wine. It just don’t. So there you have it. A vinous restorative for $11.99 a bottle. Even less if you mix up a case. Go on, my forager friends, take advantage of this blind spot in the wine market and grab a case. Or two. (Jeez. I feel like I’m giving away my best morel spots, but you’re my friends, so it’s ok.) 2010 Chateau d’Oupia AOC Minervois $11.99 a bottle @ Fischman’s 10% off mixed cases --- JOE WINE @ TAP THIS James Kenna of Maverick Wine Company and I will be tapping bottles of 2010 d’Oupia at Fischman’s next Thursday night (Feb. 7) from 6-8pm during their next Tap This event. It also happens to be the one year anniversary of Tap This so Gus and Shanna are doubling down: Boulevard Rye on Rye, Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee Imperial Stout, Evil Twin Freudian Slip, Dogfish Head Olde School, Rogue Old Crustacean, and To Øl Mine is Bigger than Yours Barley Wines, all on tap (!!!); an armada of Chicago’s best food trucks -- Wagyu Wagon, Southern Mac ‘n Cheese, Schnitzel Wagon and Duck ‘n Roll. And live music. Come keep me and James company while we drink a bunch of wine and binge on wagyu burgers, schnitzel and banh mi. Here’s the playlist foraged from a cold warehouse outside of O’Hare: 2009 Kohler-Ruprecht Kallstadter Trocken Kabinett (A crunchy Riesling salad of wild spring greens. No stainless steel. Fermented and aged in old wood. Pfalz) $17 2011 Elena Walch Pinot Bianco (the Alpine embodiment of the negative capability of Pinot Blanc -- deceptively neutral at first, then mineral, then a late bloom of tea, honey and nervy acid rising like sap in the vine. Grigio it is not. Alto Adige) $18 2011 Tami Frappato (Volcanic levitation potion at 12.5% alcohol by volume. I was going to suggest drinking this instead of trying to economize on Pinot Noir. But this isn't merely an acceptable substitute for Pinot; it's something else altogether. Beautiful, translucent, and weightless. Sicily) $17 2010 Chateau d’Oupia (See above) $12 2011 Ricardo Santos “La Madras” Malbec (Roasty old school Malbec in a throwback jersey. The shock of recognizing that works so well after tasting so many flabby oak infused examples. Mendoza) $19 NV Camille Braun Crémant d’Alsace (Methode traditionelle, aged for 3 years (!!!) in the bottle. Biodynamic farming. Master French wine forager Michael Corso found this small domaine and brought some back for us. Pinot Blanc and Auxerrois. Sometimes the crémant needle points to simple. This points to serious. Champagne serious. The super-fine bubble leaves a comet trail. Uncanny. Delicious.) $21 plus special guest: Maison de Larmantie Cassis de Bourgogne (Ultra-traditional Cassis recipe. Currants macerated in sugar and alcohol. One bottle ought to keep your Kir Royale tres authentique for about a year). $30 Can’t make it? Buy a case or more (mix or match) and I’ll get it out to you. It doesn’t get any easier. Just reply to the email. Ok the kid just woke up for his nap. Time to go sledding. Have a great weekend. Hope to see some familiar faces this Thursday at Fischman's. Stay golden. Joe E Man
