The Best Deal in Town
Posted by Adam C. Vignola on Oct 8, 2004 - 1:37:00 PM
Canyon Vines
By Adam Vignola
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Finding love is akin to a great pairing in food and wine. “If it’s a good pair…you want to keep it and try it again and again.” Who better to make that claim then a Frenchmen, Guillaume Akouka, the wine expert at Monsieur Marcel (MM) in the Farmers Market. Born in Marseilles France he came to the US 3 ½ years ago for, “Love. My girlfriend was living here and we decided to get married. So, I moved to LA to be with her.”
MM is located in the southeast corner of the Farmers Market on Fairfax and Third. In 2001 The Grove was set to open next door and Stephane Strouk the owner of this gourmet market decided it was time for a new look as well.
Voila. From artisnal French chesses, and imported olives to a Parisian-style café, equipped with a wine bar that has a 300 bottle wine list and serves 42 wines by the glass.
The sign says “Pain, Vin et Fromage” - Bread, wine, and cheese, and you get just that every Wed. & Thurs. between 6:30 to 8 pm. “The best deal in town for wine tasting,” says Guillaume to me unflinching in his resolve. “You pay between 20 or 30 dollars and try six different wines paired with cheeses and breads, and then the money you paid can be applied to the wines and cheeses you taste afterwards.”
What makes Guillaume the man to come to for wine advice? “In France drinking wine is part of the culture. You have wine at almost every meal. I had my first taste of wine at 5 years old.” Not sold on his expertise, yet? Prior to coming to LA he was pursuing a degree in enology and viticulture and doing his work-study at a vineyard in the Rhone Valley. “I started out working in the cellar. I did the planting, harvesting, bottling…everything.”
The word is out on this new look for Mr. Marcel: “Killer wine list,” reads the LA Weekly. “…the simple hearty dishes served in petit cafes in every town,” writes Venice magazine. In recent tasting of French rose’ the LA Times found that Guillaume had stocked MM with some of the best rose’ the panel tasted.
Good publicist? Nope. Stephane gave Guillaume the job of running the wine program for the market, and for the café that would be built in 2001, and now everyone is talking about the excellent work he’s done. “I try to have the best selection I can. I taste every wine before I bring the best quality, at that price level, into the store.”
I visit a lot of wines shops and I can tell you MM boasts one of the best selections of regional French wines in town, but not at the expense of California. “We have a lot of tourist so I try and have the big Californian names well represented in my inventory.”
The weekly tasting varies from wines from a country or a region, to a single varietal blind tasting from around the world. “This way the label doesn’t influence your opinion.” At a recent tasting I was treated to the Koehler Wineries 2001 Monterey Pinot Noir: aromas of earth and berries and complex flavors of vanilla, cola, and plum in a layered finish.
“I pushed Stephane to have tastings. Reading wine reviews is good, but experience is really a key to finding out what you like.” If you love wine, than find your way into Monsieur Marcel. It’s a good pair for any wine lover to try.
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Tasting: Cotes du Ventoux 2002: Guillaume worked in the Rhone and is a fan of these wines and this is why - An easy drinking blend of Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault, and Mouvedre. An excellent wine to pair Nicoise salad or a little Roquefort cheese on a cracker with a quiet afternoon. At Monsieur Marcel for $12.99
Monsieur Marcel, Farmers Market Third & Fairfax Los Angeles, CA 323-939-7792
Tasting every Wed. & Thurs: 6:30 to 8 pm www.mrmarcel.com
You can contact me at adam@canyon-news.com
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