Lauraine Jacobs

Food Writer and Author of Delicious Books

Lauraine’s blog

15 May 2014

A TASTE OF CHABLIS

For lovers of good wine, I am going to share a secret.

Last night my husband booked us to a Chablis tasting at Maison Vauron in McColl St in Newmarket. For those who don’t know this culinary destination in the back streets, this may be the fastest way to get to France without buying an airplane ticket. Jean Christophe and Scotty run a little café/wine warehouse where downstairs you can have a coffee, buy French inspired snacks, experience the most amazing selection of French cheeses and feel very Parisien. Upstairs the warehouse is stacked with a huge array of everything good that comes out of a bottle in France – wine! But not the expensive snobby stuff that is waxed on about by Robert Parker. No.

Jean Christophe and Scotty go to France several times a year and find absolute treasures from small producers in a range of prices to suit every good palate without breaking the bank. And they are such neat guys. Every so often they organise tastings like our Chablis tasting.

We worked our way through nine wines. And we learned so much about Chablis. JC is so funny, almost without knowing it. He told us Chablis is the Sacre Coeur of Burgundy – the star that shines above all else just like the famous church does over Paris. We tasted one ‘Petit Chablis’, two ‘Chablis’ three ‘Premier Cru Chablis’ and three magnificent ‘Grand Cru Chablis’ wines. They are priced from $31 to $80 and my favourite was the Denis Race Chablis Grand Cru Blanchots 2011 - a wine I could have happily sipped away on forever.

But there was more! We were served Clevedon Coast oysters in the shell to start, then one warm oyster Florentine topped with champagne sabayon. With the second flight of wines, a very generous portion of flaky ocean fresh hapuku with vegetable julienne. The third flight were the Grand Cru wines, accompanied by fabulous cheese. Oozy Chaource from Burgundy and the wonderfully savoury Comte from the Savoie.

An amazing evening. Get on Maison Vauron’s mailing list for future wine tastings, and in the meantime go visit this little corner of France at 5 McColl St, Newmarket 1023, T 09-529 0157