We crossed France for wine. Here’s what surprised us.

So we've just returned back from an epic two-week trip across France, where we conquered Jura, Burgundy, Champagne, and of course a little bit of Paris too!

We kickstarted it off in Paris and went to see some of our favourite little places, including Delicatessen Cave. This time we also bought a bottle of wine to drink in the tiny bar next door to it called Delicatessen Place, where we unexpectedly had some of the best meatballs of our lives too!

We had a fantastic night there and met some fun strangers (now friends) to share and swap bottles with as well, which is always one of the nicest experiences with this beautiful natural wine scene, right? Lots of “I got this, have a glass to try - what do you think?” alongside the fun of drinking wines blind.

Afterwards, we ended up in a restaurant that we had previously enjoyed, but unfortunately this time it really let us down - oh well, it happens! Anyway, Paris is always fun either way, and we ended the night with a bottle of Champagne that we got at great restaurant Verre Vole to take away.

We sat by the canal with dozens of other people enjoying the hot summer night, legs dangling over the canal, soaking all the atmosphere in before we headed to the vineyards...

The next day we made our way to Burgundy, where we visited Carol & Julien Altaber from Domaine Sextant and Domaine Derain, who we recently stocked up on their vibrant and well priced Burgundy wines around Saint Aubin. 

One thing we found really interesting to learn walking the various vineyards they own was that the traditional appellation systems in Burgundy are maybe not as valid now as they were 20, 30, or 40 years ago due to climate change. So what might have been seen as an amazing Grand Cru plot is not as desirable now as it was before due to changing weather and temperatures.

In the evening, we visited writer, winemaker and bar owner Aaron Ayscough (of Not Drinking Poison) and his little bar called Le Cave du Centre where we had some impressive food and wine there.

This joy eased the pain of the 12 minute taxi there which cost 70 euros - countryside rides ain’t cheap! 

We also managed to finally get our hands on the paperback copy of Valentin Morel’s book ‘Another Wine’, which we're very excited to be selling for pre-order, and is already selling fast thanks to some interesting Instagram reels perhaps. We were very impressed with Aaron’s place, and we ended our night in Burgundy gazing at the sky full of stars and even saw one or two shooting stars as well. Saint Aubin treated us with some magic.

The next day we went off to Jura, where we immediately met up with Philippe Chatillon, whose wines we absolutely adore for their precision and refinement. He showed us his plots in Château Chalon, which was really great to see, nice and high up under the beautiful Château Chalon village up above.

Whilst a difficult time of year to meet winemakers (many of whom go on holiday just before harvest), we managed to meet up with some winemaker friends Alice Bouvot of L’Octavin, Didier Grappe, Evelyne Clairet of Tournelle (documentary coming soon) and our friend Adam from ASM to enjoy a lovely dinner and night of blind wines at local Jura hotspot Auberge de Bellevie - a wonderful restaurant and guesthouse that is essential to visit in Jura.

The next day we woke up to go and visit Caveau du Val de l’Amour, which we stand by is one of the most underrated producers in the whole of the Jura!

Interestingly, the winemaker Sylvain Jacquot doesn't really like to be filmed or caught on camera, and he doesn't even want his wines sold in his own region of Jura! He prefers just to focus on export and spend his time in the vineyard rather than doing small deliveries for different venues across France. Thats a benefit for us I guess!

After seeing his cellar and vines, we then stopped by Domaine de la Tournelle and caught a gorgeous sunset where we enjoyed some bottles and dinner with our friend Adam and Evelyne together.

The next day we met up with Florine from wonderful Jura winery Les Bottes Rouges (also just restocked!) for a drink at a local bar and then headed off to La Tournelle to see a DJ set that Adam was doing with Evelyne from Tournelle on the double bass, which was really fun!

Slightly hungover but still in good shape, the next morning we wandered over to also have lunch with Florine at Les Bottes Rouges, which was really, really great to get to know her better. We also went and saw the famous waterfalls, where all three of us, yes, including Bacon, went for a little mini dip with our feet and admired the beautiful water. The dip was definitely needed, as temperatures in France had been consistently above 34°.

A lot of winemakers are very concerned about the heat this year. Looking at the grapes in the vineyards, a lot of the Pinot Noir and the Savagnin were tiny, almost the size of small blueberries! The Poulsard was looking healthy, but everyone is moving their harvest forward in order to cope with this tough, hot vintage…

We started off the next week by visiting a relatively new winemaker called Jean-François Essler in the south of Jura, right in Grusse, where iconic unicorn domaine Domaine des Miroirs is also based.

It was very interesting to try some of his barrel samples, and then we zipped back up north to see Didier Grappe, who was already in full harvest mode harvesting his delicious hybrid grapes. We got to try a few of those as well - tasting great!

Didier pointed out a huge crack in the ground, almost like an earthquake had split it in two, and said that in the whole 30 years he's had this plot, he's never seen this crack happen! This was purely because of the drought, and a sharp visual of how the climate is really not as suitable for winegrowers in this region as it used to be...

 

For him, this is one of the reasons why he farms with hybrid grapes, because he knows the climate will change so much in the next 20 years that some traditional Jura varietals will not work as they have in the past 20 years.

Seeing that it was the last night for us in Jura, we decided to pack together a little picnic and took some friends up to a viewing point in the small village of Pupillin to enjoy some bread, cheese and wine whilst watching the sun go down over Jura. It was nice to see Seb from Seb and Amelie join us and showcase some of his new bottles as well.

We then made our way back to Burgundy joined by our friend Adam, and had a stop-off at Clos des Vignes Du Maynes, one of the oldest holistic domaines in Burgundy and situated in the Southern Macon region. This was a very interesting place, as wine has been made there since 910 AD and we even saw part of the cellar built on a roman wall ! We were welcomed with open arms and joined the family for a nice big French lunch before sampling all of Julien Guillot's current vintages. What a lovely man he was!

We were staying in the beautiful town of Beaune, and whilst we had some appointments made, sadly some of them had to be rescheduled because the hot season meant that harvest help was needed a lot earlier than expected.

We were really happy to catch up with German born (and co-founder of Wasenhaus) winemaker Bastian Wolber, who showed us some of his lovely vines in various iconic villages as well as his cellar. Some of these wines will be coming to MORE Natural Wine later in the year…

Next up was Champagne, and so we swung by Burgundy’s Chablis to check out the famous white stones before heading up to the southern Champagne sub-region Côte des Bars, specifically the village of Polisot to see Champagne Piollot and Champagne Petit Clergeot.

We loved these visits, but one thing we realised planning our way back up north to the more well known Epernay is that Champagne is really, really big!

In fact, it took us two and a half hours to get up north to the main northern part of Champagne! And there mainly was what felt like just wheat fields all the way up… so it really does feel like the Côte des Bars is an extra add on to the appellation rather than lots of vineyards going on inbetween. Googling it, our thoughts were confirmed and there is a 100-kilometer gap of pretty much nothing inbetween the south and the north!

The next day, up in Epernay and small town of Ay we were really thrilled to visit young hotshot Antoine Bouvet whose wines we adored. Maybe something on MORE Natural Wine in the future...

Just opposite, we joined Fabrice Pouillon, who showed us some really exciting techniques they do in order to create the best juice and make the best natural champagne he can, including separating the different pressures of the grape press to secure only the pulp press…and fermenting each part separately so they can blend them back together in the proportions they want. Videos coming soon of this on our Youtube…

We finished our night in Epernay at the wonderful Sacre Bistro with a lovely burger and a bottle of Katie Worobeck chardonnay. Well worth a visit if you are in the area!

It was then time for one last night of fun in Paris, where we tapped up this amazing taco restaurant called Furia (we have never been to Mexico but these were perhaps the best tacos we ever had?!?!) and enjoyed some lovely Alsace orange wines and a bottle of Maison Valette. 

We then went to say a quick last hello to our friends at The Butcher of Paris and enjoyed some last glasses wine there before rest and getting back on the trains to Berlin the next day to ship out your wines. What a trip it's been!

Check out the wines of the producers we visited below!