Auberge du Vieux Puits No. 1

“VuDuSud” is a family story that brings together wood, design and the optician's trade. Mélanie designs, Sylvain builds: a duo that combines passion with their respective skills. Their unique creations are 100% made in France and made entirely from noble woods: plane, padauk, rosewood, walnut and bubinga. The workmanship is meticulous, and some pieces take eight hours of work. It is an innovative concept that you can discover in the very heart of Narbonne.

Sophie Fabre heads a coffee-roasting business that has stayed in the family since 1925. To offer her customers a varied range of coffees with character, she has travelled the world in search of the best growths. She works with great subtlety on origins, varieties and blends to bring out the best of the aromas. After roasting, the coffees are immediately packed in vacuum bags, an important step that preserves the optimal quality of the products. “Cafés La Tour” offers lovers of black gold a fine palette of coffees, from organic and fairtrade single origins (Ethiopia, Guatemala, Peru and more) to intense, balanced blends. To serve its customers better, the shop at the Perpignan factory is open to the public.

Drawing its strength from both its roots and its creativity is what gives the Champagnes Taittinger style its distinctive voice. A bond with the land and an unwavering command of quality have always been the foundations of this house and its great champagnes. The “Comtes de Champagne Taittinger” cuvées are the quintessence of its style. Blanc de Blancs or, in exceptional years, sometimes Rosé: certain vintages become timeless and enter the legend of the finest that Champagne can produce.

Thanks to constant work in the vineyard over several generations, the wines of this estate are known for their complexity and finesse. They are listed by the finest restaurants and wine merchants, who particularly enjoy the Corbières Boutenac “Cuvée Romain Pauc”, an intense, complex wine with aromas of dark fruit (black cherry, blackcurrant, blackberry, prune, fig), spice (pepper, liquorice), garrigue (thyme, rosemary) and musk, with notes of cocoa and tobacco. On the palate it is refined and velvety, its substance full of character, with lovely freshness and a lingering finish.

Set in the heart of the Corbières, this historic family estate offers the vine a climate entirely favourable to its flourishing and produces wines with presence, in a fine balance of subtle fruit, freshness and roundness. Ageing for 12 months in oak barrels also reinforces the aromatic framework of the wines made here. The emblematic, historic “Cuvée Prestige” is the perfect example: you find red fruit and blackberry with a touch of oak, hints of liquorice and vanilla. After a fresh, clean attack, the wine unfolds with breadth and finesse.

Hygiene and product traceability remain a sensitive subject for the world of gastronomy and for consumers alike. European regulation is time-consuming and complex, requiring a food safety management plan to be kept up every day to guarantee hygiene and quality and to optimise food safety. To simplify these constraints, “CHR Numérique” offers a pioneering solution, a leader in France: “ePack Hygiene”. This one tool saves time every day, and brings safety and peace of mind.

The “Coutellerie Nontronnaise” is at once the ancestral expertise of artisan cutlery and the creativity of contemporary designers. This marriage of past and present produces quite remarkable reinterpretations of the knife. That is why Georges Blanc, Hélène Darroze and Gilles Goujon, among others, have turned to this manufacturer to create unique collections. Join in “La Fête du Couteau” every summer in Nontron, and visit the workshop free of charge all year round to discover every stage in the making of a knife. The creations are also available through the website.

The 2012 “Cendrillon N°1” cuvée is a superb blend of mourvèdre, syrah and grenache aged in large oak vats. On the nose, this wine is an ode to the scents of the garrigue, followed by notes of black pepper and blond tobacco, and finally opening onto hints of blackberry, blackcurrant, charcoal and a fine saline minerality. The palate is ample and fleshy, without excess, with soft tannins. The finish is lifted and of rare elegance.

We love “La Cuvée Annie” from Domaine Serres-Mazard, with a red colour that conveys all the wild character of the terroir. Aged for 18 months in oak barrels, this cuvée shows a thoroughly Mediterranean aromatic range of very ripe dark fruit, roasting notes, chocolate, thyme and rosemary. The palate is velvety and flavourful, extending into a finish with aromas of tapenade. A very fine balance, with plenty of personality and generosity.

The eco-responsible concept behind this remarkable organoleptic water, “CRYO”, relies on a very high-density pure carbon filtration system. The water, filtered in this way, is energised and purified of all insoluble and unwanted elements. It is produced by micro-purification on site at the restaurant. The concept is also available for private customers under the name “Cryo-Box”. It is a concept very much of the moment, one that cares for our health and for the planet. No more water bottles to transport and no more recycling problems...

A leader for 30 years in equipping professional kitchens of every size, the innovations of the “Enodis” brand have revolutionised the world of cooking. Its overall view of what great chefs expect is essential to optimising performance, guaranteeing quality and offering the best working conditions to the whole brigade, and to laying out kitchens that are as compact and functional as possible while using little energy. A fast installation service and ultra-reliable technical support make it the indispensable partner.

La Maison Faye is an essential partner thanks to the richness of its products, which are rigorously controlled. Chefs especially like to work with the black truffle, regarded as the queen of truffles, which delivers a very subtle taste on the palate. It is a reference house for the great starred tables of the world. There is also a showroom boutique in Paris for gourmets.

The “Fromagerie Betty”, an emblematic Toulouse establishment, is among the Gault&Millau top 10 of French cheesemongers. Stéphane Murcia, who fell into the milk vat as a small child, is driven every day by his support for the traditional cheese sector: attentive to farming that respects animal welfare, a finder of talented young producers, and a champion of forgotten cheeses. Maturing, an essential stage in making a cheese, is overseen by the head of the cellar in the workshop at Saint Jean, near Toulouse. The action of time brings excellence, giving birth to the “Garde de L'atelier” cheeses such as Laguiole, Roquefort and Salers… true gems of our maturing house.

Everyone knows the “Metro France” brand, the leading major supplier to independent restaurants. What is less known to the general public is that for several years now it has focused on selecting very high-end products to meet the demands of leading Michelin-starred chefs. A fine rapport has grown up in these exchanges, always pushing further towards excellence. The products on offer are sought out by the brand from small producers who care about the environment and have unique expertise. With its “Origine France” charter, the brand backs national producers and encourages all restaurateurs to follow the movement.

In Touraine, for ten generations, Eric Roy has grown mini vegetables on rich silty soils, and they have become his great speciality. These “Lilliputians” are harvested every day before they become too mature, preserving maximum tenderness with little fibre, at the moment when the aromas are most present. Eric Roy supplies leading multi-starred chefs, and many of them can no longer do without, among other things, his punnets of Parisian carrots, pencil leeks, round turnips, hammer turnips, golden ball turnips, red and yellow chioggia beetroot and mini parsnips. This master craftsman lavishes care on seven and a half hectares, twelve months of the year.

“Le Salin de Gruissan” is a labyrinth of basins and channels on the edge of the Mediterranean, near the old village. Here salt-making is part of history: more than a hundred years before Christ, Gruissan was already known for its salt production. We love working with this supplier's fine artisan range: fleur de sel, liquid salt, coarse salt for salt-crust cooking, flavoured salts… It is also a shop, a restaurant, an ice-cream bar and a wine library, not forgetting the eco-museum, an invitation to relive the salt harvest of the early 20th century.

This oyster farmer has raised the oysters of the Étang de Thau to the highest level. Through a unique biomimetic innovation, based on imitating and amplifying the natural movement of the tides, the oyster is made to build more muscle, so that it is meatier, crunchier and richer in flavour. The “Tarbouriech” house also runs unusual places on the Étang de Thau: a counter, “Le St Barth”, and, more recently, in collaboration with the University of Montpellier, an estate devoted to well-being, with treatments based on ostreatherapy.

In Béziers, an extra-large fishmonger, “La Maison Barba”, stands next to a brasserie that cooks only fish and shellfish. Valérie Barba, head chef, prepares them simply, accompanied by a fine list of regional wines. The offer changes with the seasons: blue lobster, scallops, local bluefin tuna, sea cucumber, Palamós prawns and live spiny lobster. Another fishmonger can be found at Valras-Plage, on the harbour.

True to its traditions, the company “Spiegelau” puts the emphasis on technical progress. The brand's collections are the finest there is in terms of delicacy and elegance in machine-made glassware. Its oenological qualities are astonishing, thanks to the large surface of the bowl (the part of the glass that holds the wine), which leaves plenty of space and aeration, and to the narrow rim (the part on which the lips rest), which captures the most subtle aromas. Great durability makes it a perfect glass at an affordable cost. “Ravinet D'Arc” is responsible for all of Spiegelau's activities in France, and is an essential partner for many leading restaurants.

A charcutier from father to son, Thibault Gonzales reinvents the know-how of the elders and has specialised in raising free-range, organic Gascon Black pigs. Mastery of the whole chain, from birth to final processing, guarantees unique products with inimitable flavours. This constant quest for good taste has earned him the recognition of the greatest gastronomic chefs, as well as that of our own establishment. You will find him at the market in Thuir or in his shop in Ponteilla, from Wednesday to Sunday lunchtime.