Brussels by Crozes-Hermitage is a webmag featuring people, reports and stories where wine is the common thread. It is dedicated to Crozes-Hermitage and to Brussels, a city where wine is synonymous with relaxed, shared moments. You could say they were birds of a feather. In fact, there are many bridges between the French appellation and the Belgian capital, as you will find out along our travels through a city where the vibrancy of life triumphs over everything else.
Alex Visorek
Belgian humour(ist)
Between trips from Paris to Brussels and back, the whirlwind humorist welcomed us to his home in Ixelles. We discovered a passionate wine enthusiast.
You have now secured recognition with daily programmes on the French radio station France Inter…
I have been working with France Inter for a few years now and it’s still a great pleasure. The programme I host with Charline Vanhoenacker is a resounding success, but it’s also extremely stressful for Charline and myself!
Let’s talk about your engagement with wine.
To start with, there are similarities between humorists and wine enthusiasts in that they both involve creating the right setting.
Before you tell a joke, it’s a bit like the run-up to tasting wine. To fully savour it, you need to create the right atmosphere, get people in the mood…
What is your favourite wine bar?
In Brussels, the number of good quality bistros means there is no lack of choice. If you take La Mirabelle, near the cemetery in Ixelles, the venue is top quality and it stays open quite late. You can enjoy dishes like steak and chips with béarnaise sauce. In fact, I think they have at least one Crozes-Hermitage on the wine list, if not several!
« Syrah from Crozes-Hermitage has this ability to provide pleasure »
It has been nearly three years since sommelier Maxim de Muynck joined L’Air du Temps, Sang Hoon Degeimbre’s two-star restaurant and a location that really gets those creative juices flowing.
Why did you decide to join the chef at L’Air du Temps?
“I love Sang Hoon Degeimbre’s cuisine which is inspired by the plant kingdom. Floral accents, fruity notes and mineral scents fuse on the plate and take on a dimension that is akin to the balance in wine. The texture, freshness, aromas, length, fat and indulgent flavours are arranged harmoniously and recall the framework of a red wine and the tension of a white. Finding a suitable bottle that will be enjoyed by all is a pretty tall order”.
Your wine list features several Crozes-Hermitage. What is it about them that appeals to you?
“I have six Crozes-Hermitage on the wine list. It’s an appellation I like. The tannins are refined, the acidity is great but so are the roundness, aroma, flavour and this lightness and faintly razor-sharp finish”.
In terms of food pairings, which matches do you prefer?
“Syrah from Crozes-Hermitage has this ability to provide pleasure, to offer an indulgent experience yet at the same time retain a dynamic character and restrained energy which, once again, are a good match for Sang’s recipes. One pairing I find easy to suggest is a mouth-filling white with fresh pineapple, foie gras and smoked eel – it is a pairing that revolves around sharing and conversation with a sensitively-chosen turn of phrase. When a wine is tense, I would opt for scallop nibbles macerated in dongchimi, lacto-fermented recipes such as sauerkraut, pureed Jerusalem artichoke and lemon meringue.
Art and wine, a marriage made in indulgence
In a city that has unquestionably got back its appetite for art, both the eyes and the tastebuds are in for a treat as the pendulum starts to swing between the two.
Could you call it a local tradition? Probably not. As you visit the city’s museums, it seems quite obvious that wine and art have not always made natural bedfellows. At least not here. There is the odd veiled reference, which may be admirable from a pictorial perspective but is certainly not a bundle of laughs visually speaking. In both versions of The Temptation of St Anthony, Jérôme Bosch’s imbibers are quite troubling whilst Ensor’s drunks are downright sinister.
The excitement over modern art that is gripping Brussels, the proliferation of art centres and galleries, the success of the major fairs and the emergence of young artists may well cause a sea change.
One example is the creation of a master’s degree in food design at the Royal Academy of Arts. But bistros and concept stores are really where a new style of conviviality is burgeoning, where creativity and indulgence form the perfect combination. A social lubricant that has the ability to keep a low profile, wine stands its ground here but without blowing its own trumpet. It won’t be long before some fashion guru recognises the trend and magnifies it. Before the female bloggers or pocket-sized maps of arty wine bars spot it too, here are a few tips.
The increasingly popular gastropubs
Not everyone waited for the latest Paris fashion to arrive and had been expecting this to happen for a long time – gastropubs are gaining traction and becoming a social phenomenon.
Take a bistro/pub atmosphere with a blackboard menu and wine by the glass. Add some simple, local, fresh and inventive cuisine. Season with a selection of wines focusing on artisanal bottlings, independent producers and natural wines and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a gastropub.
The formula, which came from France, is catching on in Brussels – and who’s complaining? City dwellers are increasingly savouring some cool dishes concocted by laid-back chefs in the Ixelles district or rue de Flandre, the location for some of the most exciting venues at the moment. A Mecca for lovers of quality products, gastropubs now belong to the collective heritage of Brussels dwellers.
“Cooking has become a religion in Belgium”.
