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

Le Tourne au Verre, Cairanne

If you are a regular reader of Our House in Provence blog, you know that wife Shirley and I eat in restaurants often when we are in Provence. Some of that is because we don't get to eat out in restaurants in California much because I am usually at Bistro Des Copains, the French country bistro that I co-own in Occidental California.

We usually go to restaurants that have been recommended to us, I have read about on one of the blogs I follow or the restaurant is in a restaurant guide such as Bonnes Petites Tables du guide MICHELIN, a guide to 600 restaurants throughout France that offer a great three-course meal for less than €29 Euros.

Some time back Julie Mautner at The Provence Post wrote "Where Would Patrica Wells Eat." Patricia is a cookbook author and cooking teacher who lives near Sablet in Vaison la Romaine. For 25 years, Patricia was the restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune. I have a very large collection of cookbooks and among my favorites are seven of Patricia Wells books.

So when I saw that one of the restaurants on Patricia Well's list was in nearby Cairanne, we decided to go try it out. Cairanne sits on a hill with a view east towards Sablet and the vineyards between the village and the Dentelles de Montmirail. Wines produced in the commune are designated Côtes du Rhône-Villages.

We found restaurant Le Tourne au Verre in the center of Cairanne on Route de Sainte Cécile.

Le Tourne au Verre is a restaurant wine bar with a terrace for dining outdoors in nice weather and a large bar and adjoining dining room. We went in the evening and it was sort of cool outside so we chose to sit in the dining room.

Now when we got to the restaurant we discovered that the Le Tourne au Verre offers a four-course menu with amuse-bouche, entrée, plat, and dessert for 25,00 Euros. A great value, only trouble is you have to be an adventuresome diner with no dietary restrictions to fully enjoy it as they only list one choice for each part of the menu.

The wine list is large with 580 selections; we chose a bottle of 2006 Domaine de Mourchon Séguret Grande Réserve. Made from grapes of 60 year old vines, the wine is a blend of Grenache (65%) and Syrah (35%).

For entrée - starter, that night, the restaurant was serving encornets farcis a la brandade haddock, sauce aux poivrons - squid stuffed with haddock brandade sitting on a red pepper sauce.

As I said, Le Tourne au Verre is best suited for adventuresome diners and those with no dietary restrictions. Shirley eats fish but not seafood so the chef prepared her a simple green salad.

For plat - main course, the chef was serving foie de veau, sauce aux raisins, purée de rutabaga et brocolis - braised calf liver with raisin sauce, mashed rutabagas and broccoli.

Again, the chef came through for Shirley with roast salmon with the same raisin sauce and mashed rutabagas and broccoli.

For dessert,we were served cappuccino maison - coffee gelatin pudding, milk chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream.

All the dishes were very well prepared. However, I am not a lover myself of squid or calf liver so I can't say it was a memorable meal. However, I am sure I will return again. The menu changes daily and they have a large well priced wine list.

Bon appétit et a bientôt.