A good French winemerchant?
Since retiring as a wine merchant and importer of French Regional wines, we have drunk well-enough from the modest cellar accumulated over 15 years of tasting and buying. But I confess to missing the buying and tasting trips which always provided delights, surprises and sometimes disappointments.Not least in meeting winemakers with their passions and idiosyncracies.
Until now I had never rated French wine merchants - the Nicolas chain probably one unexciting exception, and predominantly found in and around Paris.
But other independent wine merchants were often disappointing - usually a reasonable selection of local wines, but inevitably a predominance of fine Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne, Seldom much from elsewhere in France, and certainly no more than a token from outside Fran
A recent article bemoaned the absence of Languedoc wines on many French restaurant lists, and yet the wines of the Languedoc are gaining an increasingly impressive reputation for superb quality and great value for money - even in the higher price brackets.
I was therefore pleasantly surprised (and even a little envious) of a new discovery in the small village of Montcuq in the Lot departement (46 Midi-Pytrenees).
Now admittedly this area tends to attract a rather more cosmopolitan crowd than some other parts of the South West,but few businesses will survive if they rely only on northern European visitos and second-home owners. So inevitably the a proportion of the customers throughout the year will be local French.
And yes the Vins et Saveurs shop on rue de la Promenade (tel:05 65 35 57 15) does stock an impressive range of the local Cahors AC wines, but only a modest selection of well-choses Bordeaux and Burgundy - matched by an impressive selection of wines from elsewhere in France (little from outside France) - especially the Languedoc - such as the superb wines of Domaine Piccinini in St Jean de Minervois AC. Chateau l'Hortus in Pic St Loup AC, the Madirans of Chateau d'Aydie, Basque wines from Iroleguy AC plus Loire, Rhone, Alsace and Beaujolais - and all at reasonable prices.
Jerome, the genial owner clearly knows his stuff, and works on the same principle as I used at Allez Vins! - i,e, he only sells wines he likes!! He is very approachable. very knowledgeable and his English is good - so don;t hesitate to ask for his recommendations.
I'm tempted to ask for a job there - doing something I could enjoy in a quiet part of South West France - don't tempt!
Montcuq has a small but lively farmers market on a Sunday morning which is well worth a visit - fresh fruit and vegetables, local Agen prunes, Cabecou cheeses, Quercy Melons - even a couple of wine stalls selling Cahors and Coteaux du Quercy wines from small independent producers.
The official in charge of French road safety has promised to increase the number of speed cameras to 2000 this year (2007), as the casualty figures have fallen quite dramatically since the crack down on speeding was initiated several years ago. France had one of the worst records for road safety, and tended to traat road accidents with a rather gallic shrug - but it meant that France was the "lanterne rouge" - the back marker - in European road death statistics. Now she is 8th out of 27, and aims to make up for the late start with some vigour. (The UK has 5000 speed cameras, of which 700 are in London)
Bordeaux can be overpriced and boring! If you separate out some of the finest and most expensive wines in the world, the remaining huge bulk of Bordeaux wines can have a tendency to rely on history, name recognition and reputation with a certain gallic arrogance. That has to be an outrageous over-simplification, but I have so often been disappointed with affordable Bordeaux that I have tended to look elsewhere in France to excite my palate and save my bank balance. 
France prides itself on its seafood - and a Plateau des Fruits de Mer is a visual as well as a gastronomic tour-de-force. Moules Frites - or mussels and chips - is a more common feature on many menus - there is even a fast food chain "Leon de Bruxelles" which majors on Mussels!
Every summer the city of Toulouse (31 Haut-Garonne, Midi Pyrenees) holds a world music festival, and for 2007 the focus is on Spain - flamenco, guitar,dancing, salsa etc -
Contrary to expectation, the département of the Loire in France is close to its source in the Massif Central in the Rhône-Alpes Region, rather than in the wide, gentle valley full of chateaux which we tend to think of. And rather strangely the wines of this area are classified as Loire Valley wines, when they really are quite distinctively different to the rest of the Loire Valley vineyards.
However, the wines we tasted then were OK, but a bit light in body and structure - and I had rather dismissed them as a pleasant if unexciting alternative to Beaujolais - albeit with the added value of knowing where the wines came from.
Being an ardent fan of the Malbec wines of Cahors in South West France I am always delighted to find domaines which are innovative in the presentation of their wines, whilst more traditional in the way they are made. The French have a tendency to be very proud of their produce, and are wary of demeaning the history and tradition by adopting brash modern marketing techniques. But sometimes this means that excellent wines can be pretty impenetrable to the necomer, especially when it seems much easier to switch to a bottle with a more familiar name, an attractive label and informative backlabel. 
An article in the weekend press draws a strange contrast between the history and the current state of Languedoc wines. In the 
