Everybody was talking about Folderol in Paris on reddit - the only platform I trust with natural wine bar recommendations.
Not only is it an awesome natural wine bar. It is also a gelato place. Put these two of my favourite things together and I believe we can expect some debauchery.
It was our last night in Paris.
We just made it out of Crazy Horse - the sexiest spot in all of Paris.
Drunk on Champagne and feeling a little horny (without immediate prospects of getting laid) - we wanted some more wine and action!
Natural wine bars in Paris are great but they tend to close relatively early - at least by Toronto standards.
I frantically searched my curated Paris google map for something that was open for a night cap.
Folderol!
It is open until 11 pm on Wednesdays. What a novelty!
Folderol was packed when we got there at around 10 pm. We weren’t the only ones struggling to find a spot to drink, it appears.
It was all locals - looking chic in their vintage coats with laptop bags casually at their feet.
We barely found a place to park our feet. And our struggle to pick a gelato began.
The list of options is on the mirror by the front entrance. It is impressively long and eclectic.
How do you choose between sobacha, carahuete, black sugar, spice pumpkin and ginger? Life is tough I tell ya.
I finally went for prune sorbet and my sister got herself olive oil gelato. Both were as divine and unique as they sound.
Now - for the wine.
We asked the guy behind the bar to recommend us something. He said he had “un truc intéressant” from Sicily, but it was expensive - 10 euros per glass.
We each took a glass cause we never count money when it comes to life’s necessities like wine.
It turned out to be an incredibly wild beauty - an orange wine that complemented both of our dessert choices.
Bianco 2021 by Viteadovest - organic and biodynamic producer from the Marsala region of Sicily.
This wine is made from Sicily’s most prolific white skinned varieties - Catarrato and Grillo. 2 weeks on skins.
Armed with dessert and wine, we engaged in a perfectly inappropriate - yet legal - activity of watching locals in their natural habitat.
It’s true that the Parisians come across as snobby. But once the ice is cracked - you are their best friend.
The same thing happened at Folderol. We felt like we were crashing the party at the beginning. By the end - the party was around us.
We bonded over our wine choices and practised our drawing skills on the bar.
Our newly found French pots were drinking a very interesting wine.
A Chardonnay from Giverny.
Giverny is about an hour NorthWest of Paris. And it is not an area known for wine. Just try searching for the Coteaux de Giverny appellation. Even wine-searcher doesn't have a page on it.
This wine is made by a very young lady called Camille Ravinet. And she makes it just the way we like it - care and respect in the vines, minimum sulphur at press, native yeast fermentation, unfined and unfiltered.
The grapes for this wine come from a very old plot that lies in the hills along the Seine river. It was under vines before Phylloxera hit at the end of the 19th century.
In fact, Paris and the area around the city were at one time richly planted with vines.
There is still a little plot of vines left in Paris - on the butte de Montmartre.
It is purely symbolic. The plot produces around 1000 bottles which get auctioned off. The joke is that it is the most expensive bad wine produced in and around Paris.
We were among the last ones to stumble out of Folderol, our sexual cravings satisfied by a healthy dose of sweetness.
It was a magical end to an already magical day and a magical vacation. Don’t you just love those!
10 Rue du Grand Prieuré, 75011 Paris, France