A visit to Cairanne and lunch at Le Tourne au Verre Restaurant

As I have told you previously, we were in Sablet last fall with our Michigan friends Steve and Mary. The wines of Cairanne have recently been elevated to cru status—placing them in the same category as those of Gigondas and Châteauneuf-du-Pape (though they cost far less).

Our friends had not tasted in Cairanne so we headed there one morning to explore the village and taste the wines. Cairanne is an old village set in the heart of wine country, on the D8 road crossing the broad Aigues River valley, northeast of Orange and 8 kms west of Sablet.

The oldest part of the village seen below sits on a low hilltop with a magnificent view out across the broad landscape of fields and vineyards, with views of other tiny villages scattered out in the distance. The old village is beautifully restored, keeping the feeling of when the Knights Hospitalers lived here in the 12th century. Only some of the walls remain from the days of the Knights.

The newer part of Cairanne which includes a few shops, the Town Hall, and school sits below the old village on the top of the hill.

Cairanne

Cairanne church

Cairanne defensive wall and tower

The Saint Roch Chapel, built into the old wall besides the Autanne Gate seen below was constructed in 1726 at the end of an epidemic of plague that spared Cairanne. The chapel was dedicated to Saint Roch the patron saint of plagues.

Autanne Gate

The ancient bell tower seen below belonged to the Knights Hospitalers. It dates from the 11th century. The building houses a wine museum. It is the oldest building in the village. The door was built at a height that was only accessible by ladder.

Ancient tower of the Templar Hospitaliers

The restaurant Le Tourne au Verre is in a strategic location in the center of new Cairanne on Route de Sainte Cécile which is where we headed for lunch. Le Tourne au Verre is a restaurant wine bar with a terrace shaded with 100 year old Sycamores for outdoor dining and a large bar where lunch is served and an adjoining dining room.

Le Tourne au Verre Restaurant

The menu changes daily and is presented on a blackboard. There are three choices for starters, main course and dessert. We chose the three course option for 17€, about 18 USD. Diners can also get one course for 14€ or two courses for 15.50€. Prices are higher at dinner.

The restaurant offers over 350 selections of wine by the bottle representing all of the terroirs of the region and over 30 choices of wine by the glass.

Shirley seated at the table while we make up our minds about what to order

For our first course we chose the pepper terrine with aioli sauce with greens and

Pepper terrine with aioli sauce with greens

the beet and chopped egg salad.

Beet and chopped egg salad with greens

For main courses, we chose the fresh tagliatelle with a creamy salmon sauce

Fresh tagliatelle with a creamy salmon sauce

and the Charolais beef fillet with frites. This dish had a supplemental charge of 4.50€.

Charolais beef with frites

For dessert we chose the chocolate mousse

Chocolate mousse

and the prune tart

Prune tart

and finally the apple clafoutis.

Apple clafoutis

This is simple cooking using locally sourced and seasonal products. Le Tourne au Verre Restaurant provides excellent value in terms of food quality, portions and presentation for the very reasonable price charged for the menu.

As a result, reservations are strongly recommended as the dining rooms fills rapidly. I have called to make reservations on short notice a number of times and heard the words "nous sommes complets" (translated we are fully booked).

Le Tourne au Verre
5 Route de Carpentras
84290 Cairanne
Tel: 04 90 30 72 18
www.letourneauverre.com

Le Tourne au Verre Restaurant, Cairanne

We arrived in Sablet as winter's cold and rain gave way to clear skies and warm weather heralding the arrival of spring in Provence. Every time a local would say how lucky we were with the weather, I would say "we brought the weather from California."

I usually arrive with a list of villages to visit, restaurants to try, and wines to taste, this time was no exception. Le Barroux, a small village on a hilltop east of Sablet where I had learned my grandfather owned a house topped the list. We have been to the saffron farm near Le Barroux but never visited the village. This was our plan for the first Monday. But first there was déjeuner (lunch) to attend to.

View toward Cairanne over the vineyards

Cairanne is a small village in the middle of the Côtes du Rhône about 8 kms northwest of Sablet. The newer part of Cairanne which includes a few shops, the Town Hall, and school sits below the old village up on the top of the hill. Cairanne was a fortified village of the Knights Hospitallers in Medieval times.

The restaurant Le Tourne au Verre is also in the center of new Cairanne on Route de Sainte Cécile which is where we headed for lunch.

Fountain in the center of Cairanne

Le Tourne au Verre is a restaurant wine bar with a terrace for outdoor dining and a large bar where lunch is served and an adjoining dining room for dinner. We have eaten here on several previous occasions but it was several years back.

Le Tourne au Verre Restaurant

Upon entering, I noted the bar area seemed brighter and prettier than I recalled. We were seated at a small table by a pretty woman, with short blond hair. The menu changes daily and is presented on a blackboard. There are three choices for starters, main course and dessert. We chose the three course option for 16€, about 22 USD. At dinner, the three course option is 28€.

Daily blackboard menu at Le Tourne au Verre Restaurant

Dining room at Le Tourne au Verre Restaurant

The starters we chose included salt cod with salad greens and pepper vinaigrette; and

Salt cod with salad greens and pepper vinaigrette

green salad with goat cheese and tapenade on toast.

Green salad with goat cheese and tapenade on toast

For our main courses, we chose fillet of trout over rice with herb vinaigrette; and

Fillet of trout over rice with herb vinaigrette

and grilled duck breast over mashed potatoes with mushroom sauce.

Grilled duck breast over mashed potatoes with mushroom sauce

For dessert, we selected the cassis parfait; and

Cassis parfait

and apple tart.

Apple tart

Our friend Kari decided she wanted cheese which came with an assortment of greens instead of dessert.

Assortment of local cheeses with greens

All of the food was delicious, excellent ingredients, cooked perfectly, so good we returned twice, once for lunch and then for dinner, during our sojourn in Sablet. The price was a bargain and especially for ingredients and cooking this good.

The blond server was super friendly and gave Shirley and Kari samples of the locally made soaps and hand lotion they sold there. As we were leaving the restaurant after dinner our last night, I told her we were leaving the next day but we would be back in the fall.

She responded sweetly that they would not be at Le Tourne au Verre Restaurant when we came back as they had sold the restaurant and would be leaving at the end of March. She said she didn't know what they would be doing after that besides taking time off.

I hope the new owners have maintained the quality of cooking and prices but won't know till we return in the fall. If any of you who read Our House in Provence blog have eaten at Le Tourne au Verre since ownership changed, please let me know. I would love to know.

I had a problem with my computer plus I have been super busy so I have not been blogging. Hopefully, I can catch up soon. Have a great week. Chat soon.

Le Tourne au Verre
Route Sainte Cécile
84290 Cairanne
Tel: 04 90 30 72 18
www.letourneauverre.com

Domaine Catherine Le Goeuil in Cairanne, an outstanding producer of organic wines

Small villages dot the hillsides throughout the Northern Vaucluse, a geographic area bordered by the Rhône river near Orange in the west and the Dentelles de Montmirail, a small chain of mountains with dramatically jagged peaks in the east just to the south of Vaison-la-Romaine.

The Northern Vaucluse is the heart of the Southern Côte du Rhône wine region with famous wine villages like Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, and Vacqueyras and lesser known villages like Rasteau, Séguret and our own Sablet, the village we call home in Provence.

Cairanne is a village on a small hill east of Sablet known for producing very good wines. The lower part of the village is newer with a few shops, the Town Hall, and school. The oldest part of the village is on top of the hill. Cairanne was a fortified village of the Knights Hospitallers in Medieval times.

As I told you here, there is a hierarchy of wines in the Côtes du Rhône. Cairanne is classified at the third level, Côtes du Rhône-Villages (named village), which means Cairanne along with 17 other villages including our own Sablet, are authorised to put their village name on wine labels.

We recently added a red wine from Domaine Catherine Le Goeuil in Cairanne to our wine list at Bistro Des Copains, the small French bistro I co-own with friend Cluney in west Sonoma County California. Although we tasted the wine before adding it to the list, I had never visited the winery.

So one day earlier this year, I called and set a rendez-vous (made an appointment) with Madame Le Goeuil to visit the winery and déguster (taste) her wines.

Born to French parents in the Congo, Catherine returned to her homeland and in 1993 having lots of determination but not much experience, she and her family bought the 6 hectares (nearly 15 acres) domaine in Cairanne.

Friend Greg, Catherine Le Goeuil, and me

Shortly after applying one of their first chemical treatments to the vines, Catherine became very ill. Convinced the illness was caused by the chemicals, she decided that going forward, she would farm as naturally as possible. Over time, she converted to organic farming and in 1999 was organic certified.

The Mistral wind blows often on the vineyards which rids the vines of excess moisture when it is not wreaking havoc on her flowers. As is typical for organic farming, there is a grassy cover crop in between the vineyard rows that provides nutrients and microbiotic growth and well-aerated soils in a typically tough and relatively impermeable sandy soil.

Stainless steel tanks for fermenting white wine

Friends Julia and Jennifer with Catherine's helper

We have the 2010 Domaine Catherine Le Goeuil Côtes du Rhône-Villages Cairanne red wine seen below on our list at Bistro Des Copains. The wine is a blend of Grenache (51%), Syrah and Mourvèdre.

The grapes are harvested by hand from 50 year old vines and naturally fermented with indigenous yeasts. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered which makes it more flavorful but also prone to more sediment.

Wine we have on list at Bistro Des Copains

Showing Catherine pictures of Bistro Des Copains

Lots of flowers

Friends Julia and Jennifer

She doesn't make a lot of wine, only 1600 - 2100 cases a year, so it may be hard to find. If you are in Sonoma County, come to the Bistro and enjoy it with dinner; its a great food wine. If you are lucky enough to be in the Southern Côte du Rhône wine region, you should visit Domaine Catherine Le Goeuil. You will be warmly received.

Domaine Catherine Le Goeuil
Quartier les Sablières
84290 Cairanne
Tel: 04 90 30 82 38

We hope you are enjoying the holiday season. Have a great weekend. Chat soon.

Côteaux et Fourchettes, a Wonderful Place to Dine in the Northern Vaucluse

After wandering around Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes and loading our basket with fruits and vegetables at the "marché" I told you about here, it was time for "déjeuner" (lunch). Seeing table after table piled with ripe fruits and vegetables, olives, sausages, meat and fish, and smelling chicken and pork roasting on spits and big pans of paella redolent of saffron makes you hungry.

So we headed back to Sablet by way of the village of Cairanne to see if we could get seated without a reservation at Côteaux et Fourchettes, a restaurant designated a Bib Gourmand (“Inspectors' Favorites for Good Value") in the 2013 Michelin Guide. Bib Gourmand "Restos" offer a three-course meal (starter, main course and dessert) for €31 or less. But I digress.

Cairanne is a small village in the heart of the Côtes du Rhône wine country about 8 kms northwest of Sablet. The newer part of Cairanne is below the old village on a low hilltop with great views across the landscape of fields and vineyards and tiny villages and the Dentelles de Montmirail in the distance.

Cairanne

Côteaux et Fourchettes restaurant is located south of Cairanne at the roundabout where the D975 and D8 intersect in an area surrounded by a sea of vineyards that stretch across the Plan de Dieu. Côteaux et Fourchettes is both a restaurant and wine store that sells wines on the restaurant's 250 bottle wine list at producer prices. The chef is Cyril Glémot.

Côteaux et Fourchettes Restaurant

We were offered the last table in the cool, understated dining room. Large sliding doors connect to an outside dining area with tables set amongst trees and shrubs.

Côteaux et Fourchettes Dining Room

Chef Glémot offers two fixed-price menus: Côteaux and Fourchette. We chose the three-course Côteaux menu for €31 and a bottle of 2010 Domaine la Soumade Rasteau.

Wine Selection

To warm up our appetites, as if we needed any help, the chef sent out shot glasses of chilled Heart of Beef Tomato Soup with Brousse de Brebis Fromage for amuse bouche.

Chilled Heart of Beef Tomato Soup with Brousse de Brebis Fromage

Shirley eats fish but no seafood, poultry or meat. There were no fish or vegetarian options for starter that day, so the chef prepared an arugula and cherry tomato salad for her.

Arugula Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

It is now illegal to produce or sell foie gras in California so I choose it almost every time I get a chance in Provence. Chef Glémot offered Foie Gras with Pineapple Ginger Marmalade that day as one of the starter options, one of the best preparations I have had in a long time.

Foie Gras with Pineapple Ginger Marmalade

For main course, Shirley chose the Pan-roasted Daurade over Quinoa with Fava Beans and Carrots.

Pan-roasted Daurade over Quinoa with Fava Beans and Carrots

I chose the 1/2 Roasted Pigeon over Sautéed Red Cabbage with Asparagus, Red Pepper and Saffron Clafoutis.

1/2 Roasted Pigeon over Sautéed Red Cabbage with Asparagus, Red Pepper and Saffron Clafoutis

To finish, I chose the Chocolate Mousse in a Tuile with Grillot Sorbet.

Chocolate Mousse in Tuile with Grillot Sorbet

Shirley chose the Plate of Cheese from Josiane Deal with two cheeses made from goats milk, two from sheep's milk and two from cow's milk.

Cheese Plate from Josiane Deal with Duos of Cheese Made From Goat, Sheep and Cows' Milk

If your live or visit the Northern Vaucluse and are looking for a very good place to eat, you should not hesitate to go to Côteaux et Fourchettes.

Côteaux et Fourchettes
Croisement de la Couronçonne
84290 Cairanne
04 90 66 35 99
info@coteauxetfourchettes.com

Bonne journée mes amis et à bientôt.