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Le Bonheur Suit Son Cours
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Restaurant
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Vaison-la-Romaine
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Price:
Moderate
Score (/20):
13.5
Reviewed By
Sue Dyson and Roger McShane
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Phone Number:
+33 4 90 46 45 27
Address:
Cours de Taulignan
Vaison-la-Romaine, Provence, 84110
Country:
France
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Le Bonheur Suit Son Cours in the pretty Romanesque village of Vaison-la-Romaine in Vaucluse serves interesting dishes that are not at all pretentious to accompany the very well-chosen selection of biodynamic and natural wines.They have many of the more interesting 'new' wines of France. We go there to buy the wonderful Anjou Cabernet blend of Agnes and Rene Mosse, the silky Syrah of Herve Souhart from the Ardeche, the fabulous natural wines of Domaine Gramenon or the Breton's great reds from the Loire. They even have Drappier zero dosage Champagne!And speaking of this champagne, we dropped in for a quick lunch recently and started with a glass of the zero-dosage Drappier. It was excellent! Bracingly acidic, but with a lovely yeasty, creamy mouthfeel. And the food was as pleasant as ever. A tartare of organic beef was presented with a well-dressed lettuce salad on one side and fried potato crisps on the other. The tartare had lots of capers chopped through and a bottle of Tabasco was served on the side for additional spice. Our other dish was a Saucisse Grillee which was a nicely-flavoured, dense sausage served in the same manner as the tartare but with mustard and tomato sauce on the side.We accompanied the two meat dishes with a sensational bottle of Domaine Prieuré Roch Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire Gamay 2009. This was a stunning bottle of totally natural wine with a freshness and liveliness that was immensely appealing. The Grand Ordinaire appellation allows vignerons to make a 100% Gamay even though it is classified as a Burgundy. Don't get your hopes up for trying this wine any time soon (unless you go to Bonheurs) because only 937 bottles were made.For dessert we enjoyed a strawberry soup (being late April the famous Carpentras strawberries are readily available and had ripened beautifully in the warm weather) and a technically perfect crème brulée.This is how we like to eat in France. Simple food done well and a choice of natural wines is as good as it gets.A few more words about the wine list. The wines are all classified by their level of commitment to natural vineyard management. There is one smiley face if they are in conversion, two if they are organic and three if they are biodynamic or practice cosmoculture (such as Viret). Wines are awarded a 'sun' symbol if they are 'sans soufre' at 20 milligrams per litre or less and two symbols if they are less than 10 milligrams per litre.
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