Ep. 2: Kevin Blackwell

07/27/23 • 54 min

My place was really laid-back, really laissez-faire. The idea was freedom of thought, movement. Also, people were talking about wine at the time. Whereas now it’s like, you go to a wine bar, and nobody talks about wine. - Kevin Blackwell

Originally from Mountain View, California, Kevin Blackwell moved to Paris in 1996, and quickly fell in with the city’s natural wine aficionados, despite possessing no formal background in wine. He opened a cyber café in 2000, only for it to founder in the wake of 9/11 (and the subsequent drop in Paris tourism). Given Blackwell’s nascent love for natural wine, it was, he says, a “natural transition” to transform his erstwhile cyber café into the eccentric, homespun bistrot Autour d’Un Verre in 2003.

A self-taught cook and self-taught restaurateur, Blackwell’s no-frills approach embodied the anti-establishment ethos of natural wine in the early 2000s. Visitors to Autour d’Un Verre were typically welcomed by his dog or his cat. His bistrot was also known for its shrimp toast and its lively semi-annual wine tastings, which reliably drew the leading lights of the Roussillon natural wine scene, along with friends like Nicolas Carmarans and Axel Prüfer.

Check out the episode to find out why it’s useful to have a cat in a restaurant; why he only ever spoke French in his bistrot; and why Blackwell is “Mr. Southern Carbo.”

Aaron

FURTHER LISTENING & READING

Paris Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 1: Michel MoulheratParis Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 3: Olivier Camus

My November 2010 blog post on Autour d’Un Verre.My December 2010 blog post on a natural wine tasting at Autour d’Un Verre.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notdrinkingpoison.substack.com/subscribe

Check out the episode to find out why it’s useful to have a cat in a restaurant; why he only ever spoke French in his bistrot; and why Blackwell is “Mr. Southern Carbo.”

Aaron

FURTHER LISTENING & READING

Paris Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 1: Michel MoulheratParis Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 3: Olivier Camus

My November 2010 blog post on Autour d’Un Verre.My December 2010 blog post on a natural wine tasting at Autour d’Un Verre.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notdrinkingpoison.substack.com/subscribe

Previous Episode

Ep. 1: Michel Moulherat

“I like the idea that people were brave enough to say ‘Let’s try [to make wines with zero sulfite addition]. We’ll lose wine, into vinegar, or we’ll dump it in the gutter.' But they still tried hard to learn and pass on their knowledge. To say, we made it: no sulfites from A to Z, and it works. - Michel Moulherat

Now largely retired and living in the Touraine town of Loches, Michel Moulherat saw prominence among the second generation of natural wine advocates in Paris, starting in the mid-nineties at his 15th arrondissement bar L’Insolite (1995-2000), and continuing into the second decade of the new millennium at his 11th arrondissement wine shop La Cave de l’Insolite (2002-2011).

While he was among the early supporters of radical vignerons like Rémi Poujol, Catherine and Gilles Vergé, and Jérôme Saurigny, Moulherat professes no personal insistence on zero sulfitage. His own classical wine background is extensive, beginning with two years working for Stephen Spurrier at Les Caves de la Madeleine. Moulherat then spent three years working for two prominent expat restaurateurs, Tim Johnston (of Juveniles) and Mark Williamson (of Willi’s Wine Bar). He spent the first half of the 1990s working as a sommelier at the Michelin-starred restaurant of Hôtel de Crillon, before opening L’Insolite in 1995.

Check out the episode to learn what sorts of insects he occasionally found in early natural wine bottles; where he’s been drinking 1959 Vin Jaune lately; and why he signed the open letter circulated in defense of scandal-plagued Sancerre vigneron Sébastien Riffault.

Aaron

FURTHER LISTENING & READING

Paris Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 2: Kevin BlackwellParis Natural Wine Lifers Ep. 3: Olivier Camus

A Suggestion for Sébastien Riffault

An October 2010 blog post I wrote about Moulherat and La Cave de l’Insolite.A May 2015 blog post I wrote about Moulherat and La Poudrière, the Issy-lès-Moulineaux bistrot where he was then working.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notdrinkingpoison.substack.com/subscribe

Next Episode

Ep. 4: Pierre Jancou

It was fantastic to sell natural wines to the crowd in Paris, because it is so international. You have so many people from all over the world... I think my role at the time was to pass on the natural wine love to many people, many young people and many older people. - Pierre Jancou

An epoch-defining figure in Paris natural wine circles and natural wine at large, Pierre Jancou is the prolific, media-savvy restaurateur responsible for a slew of the French capital’s iconic natural wine destinations of the 2000s and 2010s. Taken together, Jancou’s series of bistrots and caves-à-manger represent nothing short of an influential artistic oeuvre: their patinated, hand-wrought aesthetic and frank service style is nowadays perceptible in fine natural wine spots around the world.

Jancou began his career as a restaurateur in 1991, opening the Italian restaurant La Boca near Etienne Marcel. His embrace of natural wine came just over a decade later, shortly after his 2001 opening of La Crèmerie, the tiny, enchanting 6th arrondissement wine shop that would become a touchstone for the cave-à-manger genre. In 2007, Jancou opened Racines, inaugurating his most influential period, when he offered what may have been the world’s first radical zero-zero natural wine program. Jancou followed this success with Vivant (2011), Vivant Table (2012), Heimat (2015), and Achille (2016), before conflicts with neighbors at this final address spurred him to leave Paris behind. He relocated to the Alpine village of Chatillon-en-Diois, where he ran the Café des Alpes from 2018-2020.

In 2022, Jancou relocated once again, this time to the remote Aude village of Padern, home also to renowned natural vigneron Fabrice Monnin of La Mazière. Today Jancou runs the local Café des Sports as a seasonal natural wine bistrot, and is establishing a small winemaking practice, farming 1.5ha of carignan, marsanne, and macabeu in the surrounding jagged limestone hillscape. Check out the episode for the lowdown on Jancou’s first wine; his thoughts on Instagram; and his secret to quitting hard drugs.

Aaron

Pierre Jancou’s Café des Sports in Padern will reopen for Autumn 2023 on October 20th, offering lunch service Fridays-Mondays until Christmas.

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FURTHER LISTENING & READING

Paris Natural Wine Lifers, Part I

Ep. 1: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Michel MoulheratEp. 2: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Kevin BlackwellEp. 3: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Olivier CamusEp. 5: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Marie CarmaransEp. 6: Paris Natural Wine Lifers - Guillaume Dupré

Pierre Jancou modeling