I was visiting with a friend who recently purchased her first home and has been remodeling it herself. It’s a bit of a fixer-upper, so with a workshop in the garage and a small arsenal of tools, she’s been knocking out walls, replumbing lines, laying tile, building cabinetry (from scratch, mind you, not even a kit)—now that’s some serious sweat equity! I asked her, How are you managing to do all of this yourself?! Her reply: “Takeout. Lots of takeout.” She’s barely made a meal in her kitchen since moving in—it’s practically a hard-hat area—so dinners have been a rotation of local delivery to the rescue. When I asked if she’s eager to get cooking again, she mused, “I’m looking forward to taking it easy on myself for a while—so more takeout, perhaps!”
     In the spirit of taking it easy and giving ourselves a deserved break from kitchen duty, our values this month thread the needle between all manner of deliciously effortless grub.

Every so often, I take a sip of a “humble” regional wine that makes me question everything. With a glass of this in hand, I think to myself, who cares about grand cru Burgundy? Or, why would I ever drink anything else? Or, surely this is the bottle I’d choose to fill my cooler with if I were stranded on a desert island.
     When I’m able to think rationally again, of course I’d pounce on a bottle of the grand cru Corton Rognet on page 5 or the majestic Condrieu I write about on page 10 of this newsletter. And variety is everything, so I wouldn’t fill my island cooler with just Jean Foillard’s Beaujolais-Villages. But this kind of red makes you suspend reason for a moment and devote yourself to it, at least while the wine’s still in your glass.
     After all, Beaujolais-Villages has no business being this good, but Jean Foillard is an extraordinary vigneron. A decade or so ago, Jean made Beaujolais Nouveau that he would expedite to us each November to meet the deadline of the worldwide Nouveau celebration. That Nouveau was outstanding and he didn’t need to change anything, but he had an epiphany that only the most ambitious sort of grower has: the grapes he was using were of high enough quality to make a cuvée with more depth and complexity, so he proposed taking his time to produce a Beaujolais-Villages instead of a hurried Nouveau.
     Blending grapes from high-elevation, granite-heavy terroirs barely outside the region’s crus, and with a patient élevage that’s very close to that of his world-class Morgons, this wine is silky and seductive, with notes of rose petals, red fruit, pomegranate, and stones. With just the right amount of tannin and acidity, and lots of class, it is perfect for all occasions.

I sometimes think of Saint-Joseph and Condrieu as the fraternal twins of the northern Rhône, under the radar compared to their siblings Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie, and Cornas. In Condrieu’s case, the appellation is tiny and the lone grape planted here is Viognier, a white variety that reaches its soaring heights only on the steep slopes that cascade down toward the Rhône River. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Saint-Joseph can be hard to pin down because it stretches across 1,400 hectares from Côte-Rôtie to Cornas and encompasses all kinds of terroirs that include near-vertical inclines, gently rolling plateaus above them, and the lower and gentler slopes below, resulting in a wide variety of wine styles and quality.
     In recent years, though, both Saint-Joseph and Condrieu have fully stepped out of their more famous siblings’ shadows, thanks to a handful of family domaines making some of the greatest red and white wines in all of France. Few growers have raised the bar in these appellations more than André Perret, whose domaine is located in Chavanay on the western bank of the Rhône, an hour south of Lyon. These days, André and his daughter Marie work together to craft exquisite Saint-Josephs and truly awe-inspiring Condrieus.

Saturday, June 21 • 12 to 5 PM
Presented by Chez Panisse

Join us as we toast to long summer days with an array of rosés, featuring a variety of regions and styles to sample.
We’ll have wines by the glass and small bites in the café space next to our shop.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
1603 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA