Casablanca had Rick’s Café Américain and Paris has Juan’s La Dernière Goutte, our favorite Paris wine shop.

The refugees that gather on Saturday afternoons at this 6th arrondissement destination when owner Juan Sanchez welcomes one or two of his wine and cognac suppliers for complimentary degustations are not seeking asylum from Nazis-they have come for the joie de vivre that still informs life in the City of Light.

On any given day you will meet university professors from Columbia, journalists and students from California, authors like Diane Johnson and John Baxter, food writers and journalists like Patricia Wells and Dorie Greenspan or just repatriated Anglophones who buy all of their wine from Juan and look forward to the opportunity to meet winemakers and sample their offerings.

Recent tastings included Cognac from Audry and red wines from Domaine de Rapatel near Nimes.

AUDRY Owner Bernard BOISSON produces just 5,000 bottles per year and his modest export distribution can be found only at prestigious restaurants like Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York and  a few wine shops.

Gerard EYRAUD of Domaine de Rapatel brought a case of taurreau (bull) sausages that he generously sliced to compliment each wine that he poured.
We chatted, drank and ate half a sausage-the other half given to me as a gift to enjoy as an appetizer with my wine purchase.
 
In addition to personally cultivated selection of wines whose names you may recognize Juan seeks out estate bottled small production, reasonably priced wines from Languedoc, Roussillon and other regions that rarely make it to the states.  My house wine during my latest trip to Paris was 3.90 euro 100% Syrah Vin de Pays de Cassan Domaine de Sainte Marthe and my New Year’s Eve quaff from Frank Pascal was a Non Dosé champagne at a mere 25 euros.

On any given Saturday wine seller, painter, author and astrocartographer Patty Lurie oversees the festivities and If you present your PARIS SURVIVAL KIT  passport she’ll offer her GUIDE TO IMPRESSIONIST PARIS for only 15 euros and if you supply her with the date and hour of your birth she’ll do your astrocartograph.

And if Hervé, the third member of the team that have been together from the start, is on hand he can be relied on for his encyclopedic knowledge of wine and a very generous pour.

Sorry no letters of transit.

La Dernière Goutte
6 rue de Bourbon Le Chateau
Paris 75006
01-4329-1162