Chez François
Our summer menus and summer hours will be in effect beginning Tuesday June 8, 2004.

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555 Main St.
Vermilion, Oh
44089

440-967-0630

Beaujolais Nouveau Dinner 2004
“Kysela’s offerings tend to be pure, ripe, fruity wines…in short faithful reflections of their appellations.” Robert Parker

Thursday, November 18, and
Friday, November 19, 2004
6:45 pm

The Evening's Menu

The Seine and the Rhone may be the most scenic rivers in France but the river that Frenchmen love best is the Beaujolais. The Beaujolais, of course, is a river of wine, and there are many who say that this is the freshest, simplest and most delightful red wine made anywhere in the world. Every year, on the third Thursday of November, the Beaujolais river overflows its proverbial banks with the wine known as Beaujolais Nouveau when the Gamay grapes harvested just a few weeks earlier complete their first fermentation. From that moment, wine producers compete with each other to bottle the new, fresh wine and send it to Paris, London, New York and Tokyo, where millions of bottles will be opened and sampled on the same date all over the world. At the simplest wine bars and most prestigious restaurants, people will patiently stand in line until the first glasses are filled, and then thirstily gulp down their first glass. Second, third and fourth glasses will then be ordered, all accompanied by loud discussions about the quality of the wine, comparing this year’s wine to last, reminiscing about how great the wine of 1985 was, and dreaming about how truly great the wine of next year will be.

It should be clearly understood that no one considers Beaujolais Nouveau a “serious wine.” Young and fresh, its color is light, its taste is extraordinarily fruity and it should be just as well chilled as a white wine when drunk. Nor is this a wine for gentle sipping. The wine is made by the process known as carbonic maceration, which means that whole bunches of grapes are allowed to ferment in sealed containers with carbon dioxide gas, this in turn allows the wine to have lots of fruit and color and little tannin. What this translates into is a light, crisp, fresh Nouveau Beaujolais that is so easy to drink that many consider it at its best when served lightly chilled and drunk not in small sips but in large mouthfuls..

Join us Thursday November 18, 2004 and Friday November 19, 2004 as we celebrate our 16th annual Beaujolais Nouveau Celebration. Joining us for the tenth year is Master Sommelier and Importer Fran Kysela. A native of Rocky River, Fran started his import company twelve years ago. He first started importing French wine, but has expanded his portfolio with wines from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Australia. We will showcase seven of Fran’s favorite wines from around the world along with the 2004 Beaujolais Nouveau.

A Taste of Southern France
Elegance and smoothness! ”Syrah dominates with its ripen aromas and its intense colour, Grenache and Mourvèdre bring richness and complexity, and for this vintage, soft spicy notes. Intensive pleasure guaranteed!” Pierre Clavel

Sunday, October 24, 2004 5:30 PM

The Evening’s Menu

Join us on Sunday, October 24, 2004 as we explore the wines of Southern France. We will feature a “walk around” event with wines from Roussilon, Provence, Languedoc and the Rhône Valley. Then we will sit down to a dinner featuring the wines of Domain Clavel led by our co-host Pierre Clavel. Domaine Clavel is run by Pierre Clavel. His father, Jean Clavel, was once director of the Syndicat des Coteaux du Languedoc, and consequently an influential figure in the region. Despite this, the family did not own any vineyards until Pierre established himself at what was called Mas Calage, but is now Domaine Clavel. The estate is located in Méjanelle, one of the five communes surrounding Montpellier that make up the subregional zone of the Coteaux du Languedoc called Grès de Montpellier.

Pierre Clavel is considered one of the Languedoc’s top three producers by many wine reviewers today. His vineyards in the La Mejanelle region are compared to those of the famous Chateauneuf-du-pape appelation of the Southern Rhone. Robert Parker has given the red wines of Domaine Clavel 90+ scores for vintages throughout the 1990’s and 2000. We welcome Pierre to Chez François to share his enthusiasm and humorous tales of the Southern French wine regions. He is sure to entertain and educate us about his wonderful wines that will be paired with a six-course Southern French dinner.

An Australian Wine Dinner
with TORBRECK & Winemaker David Powell
“…Torbreck is making some of the most exciting wines produced not only in Australia, but in the world.” Robert Parker

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 • 6:45 pm

The Evening's Menu

“[Powell’s] are wines of enormous strength, but also riveting individuality and extraordinary purity and symmetry… These wines not only make for compelling drinking, but they are also a huge amount of fun, and isn’t that what it’s all about? If I had to give an award to Australia’s finest winemaker in 2001, it would be hard not to consider Dave Powell.”

“The spectacular current and upcoming releases are among the most exciting wines being made on planet Earth, that’s how good this guy is.” Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate

Torbreck began in 1995 when Dave Powell crushed three ton of grapes and fermented them into wine in a shed on his 12-hectare Marananga property. He named his wine “Torbreck” after a forest in Scotland where he worked as a lumberjack. It would be hard to adduce another winery or winemaker – not even among the cult cast of California - that has achieved such stardom in such a short period. Like nearly any of the world’s most successful vintners, Powell launched his winery with a tradition, a vision, and great fruit. “Tradition”… That he lifted from the Rhone. In fact, the vision and inspiration of the first “Run Rig” was Dave Powell’s reverence for Marcel Guigal and Guigal’s great Côte Rôties. The fruit of old vines Barossa shiraz ratchets up the overall intensity found in nearly any Northern Rhone Syrah, and the marriage with viognier, traditional in Côte Rotie, when practiced by Powell only raises the aromatic and glyceral stakes. Soon, Powell assembled a collection of very old grenache, mataro (a.k.a. mourvedre) and shiraz vines for an homage to the great wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

A Taste of the Pacific Northwest
featuring wines of Oregon and Washington State
If you love pinot noir you will not want to miss this dinner. We will showcase seven top pinot noirs from Oregon.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

The Evening’s Menu

Join us Thursday, September 23, 2004 as we feature ten wines from Oregon and five wines from Washington State. Our co-hosts for this dinner will be Mark Mayer and Reed Hinman of Cutting Edge. We will continue with a new twist to our dinners by having a walk around tasting of six boutique, reserve and single vineyard Oregon Pinot Noirs. Then we will sit down for a seven-course dinner prepared by Chef John D’Amico.

The US wine scene is so dominated by California that it’s easy to forget that other US states also produce some world-class wines. And now is certainly a good time to venture out of California, because the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon and Washington really are on a roll. Washington State for instance, is the second largest wine producer in the USA, with 48,000 acres in vines and 125 wineries in 1999 (a figure that is still increasing by 20 a year). Back in 1970 there were just two wineries there, and as recently as 1980 this figure was just 22. Neighboring state Oregon isn’t as big a player as Washington, with only 9,000 acres of vineyard, but it does boast around 120 wineries.

That’s no small feat for an industry that didn’t really exist before the 1960s. Indeed, this is the most exciting feature of the wine scene in these states–it has come a long way in a relatively short period, and there is undoubtedly plenty of room for it to develop further as the quality-minded producers work out what grows best where and experiment further, and as their ranks are swelled by well-funded newcomers.

“There is actually a standard definition of wine, drawn up by the Wine & Spirit Association: ‘Wine is the alcholic beverage obtained from the fermentation of freshly gathered grapes, the fermentaion of which has been carried through in the district of origin, according to local traditions and practice… But it’s a bit lacking.

It says nothing about the pleasures of wine: the complexities of colours, tastes, smells, associations. It says nothing about the glow that a good wine can give you, or about its being a natural (some say, living) product.
Its says nothing about it being good for you; above all, I wish it said something about the way wine makes you happy.”
- John Baldwinson

Our fall line-up of wine dinners takes us west to California, then down-under to Australia, then off to merry old France. We have a great line-up of wine dinners planned.

For more detailed menus and facts about each wine dinner check out the links above.

We hope to see you this Fall!