Maisons Gilles Goujon No. 2

“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.

For more than 180 years, the Maison Deutz, a founding member of the former and prestigious “Syndicat des Grandes Marques”, has produced great champagnes with a style combining finesse, vinosity and complexity. In the heart of the Maison’s cellars in Aÿ, thirty metres underground, in galleries (known as Berceaux) beneath the hillsides honoured as a “UNESCO World Heritage Site”, the wines benefit from a long and rare ageing.

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.

The house of “Valrhona” travels the world to find the finest raw materials and selects the greatest varieties of beans. Many pastry chefs love working with this great classic of the brand, “Guanaja 70%”, with its bitter yet elegant flavour and a range of warm aromatic notes, ideal for pastries. We also like “Blond Orelys 35%”, a creamy white chocolate with a hint of liquorice.

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.

Nestled at the entrance to the village of Auriol, this artisan miller owns one of the oldest mills in the region still in operation. So, from the passionate amateur to the professional olive grower, everyone can have their own olive harvest pressed. As for the oils produced at the “Domaine la Michelle”, they are sold within the year to preserve all their nutritional richness. A health food par excellence, to be enjoyed without restraint!

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 fine food market meets consumers’ new aspirations: a growing interest in “homemade”, “eating well”, gastronomy and regional produce. This new clientele is very demanding and vigilant about the quality and origin of the food it buys, and is looking for innovative and authentic products. This company has understood this well, constantly offering a selection of the finest culinary products approved by the greatest chefs of French gastronomy.

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.

For more than half a century, the name “Guasch” has been associated with the meat trade, and more precisely with slaughtering, cutting and processing meat, making Catalan charcuterie and trading poultry. Still family-run, it has never stopped growing and developing. For several years it has maintained a very close partnership with the “Coopérative Catalane” of livestock farmers in Occitanie.

“La Coopérative Catalane des Éleveurs” brings together 200 members across the Pyrénées-Orientales, the Aude and the Ariège, rearing cattle, sheep, pigs and horses. Organic meat production is increasingly developed, particularly veal and beef, and supplies organic shops as well as school restaurant kitchens. This major player is the preferred partner of the company “Guasch”, which specialises in slaughtering, cutting and processing meat, as well as in making Catalan charcuterie and festive and gastronomic products, and in trading poultry.

“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.

In Pornic, between land and sea, the Bourreau family looks after an exceptional pigeon farm that many chefs love to work with. The open aviaries, the oceanic climate and all the care given from the egg to delivery are priceless guarantees of reliability, ensuring products of the very highest quality. Marie-Samuelle has recently begun making delicious jars, very delicious indeed, based on pigeon, which can be found in delicatessens between Pornic and Nantes.

This oyster farmer has raised the oyster of the Étang de Thau to its 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 house of “Tarbouriech” also runs unusual venues 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 built around treatments derived from oyster therapy.

The acropolis of Béziers is undergoing a transformation to restore its heritage to pride of place and so organise new events around and within its emblematic sites, such as the 9 locks of Fonseranes (a work by Paul Riquet), redeveloped into a true place for living and relaxing, or the creation of paths in the Orpellières nature reserve… Events and activities abound all year round in the city and the region, making it hard to choose… The team at the city’s Tourist Office is there to guide you and advise you on bespoke stays.

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.

Mr Imanol Jaca, a butcher by birth, is quite simply the best in the world. This recognition is due to a rigorous selection of animals: his work involves travelling to secret places in search of perfectly mature cows and oxen, up to fifteen to twenty years old. Recently, to the delight of discerning gourmets, his online shop has made it possible to order these exceptional meats within 24 or 48 hours.