Mr Frivolitea and I have been waiting in anticipation for some time for Cave du Cochon to open, knowing that if it had even a fraction of the passion and flare Le Cochon Aveugle has then it was going to be a winner.  Oh boy, we were not disappointed.   We have been in the last few months to a couple of wine bars that offer wine flights, bar snacks and  platters. Cave du Cochon offers the same idea but with unique flare. We really couldn’t fault it. 

We decided to go for the wine flight each. This came as 5 X 75ml glasses of wine and we decided to let the barman choose a flight of white for me and a flight of red for Mr Frivolitea.  In hindsight sitting in the window was not the best idea as those walking past I fear thought we had a serious drink problem and this looked much worse once the wine was consumed and here was a lot of empty glasses on our table! 

I really enjoyed the selection of wines we had, they were all new to me and all interesting and challenging in their own ways.  I really like the idea of wine flights and someone else choosing the wines, it’s a great way to try new wines and learn more about wine. The barman was really helpful at explaining the wine to us. Later on in the evening he encouraged us to sample a couple of other unusual wines, his love and knowledge of wine was clear to see and that’s what makes this place extra special.

 Our flights consisted of 

White :      

Picpoul de Pinet, Domaine Morin-Langaran (Languedoc, France)

Costlier de Nimes Blanc, Chateau Vessiere. (Rhone, France)

Soave Castelcerino, Cantina Filippi (Veneto, Italy)     

Gruner Veltliner Handcrafted, Ma Arndorfer. (Kamptal, Austria)

Screaming Betty, Delinquente (Riverland, Australia)

Red:

Ciello Rosso IGP (Sicily, Italy)

IGP Saint-Guilhem-Le-Desert, Domaine Coston (Languedoc, France)

Castillon-Cotes-de-Bordeaux, Chateau Beynat (Bordeaux, France)

Beck Ink, Judith Beck (Burgenland, Austria)

Malbec Sin Sulfito, Bodega Cecchin (Mendoza, Argentina)

We chose a selection of bar snacks to accompany the wine including pork scratchings with apple sauce , curried peanuts and pig terrine with homemade piccalilli.  The pig terrine was particularly wonderful and I was nearly tempted to order a second! 

We also, thanks to the advice of the barman, opted for the ploughmans platter as this enabled us to sample some of the other bar snacks and a nice selection of the cheese and charcuterie.  It was a thing of beauty and consisted of beetroot pickled pheasants egg, Scottish smoked salmon, pork rillette, breakfast radishes with aioli, Saucisson, Corsican lonzo, Mimolette cheese and another cheese that I annoyingly can’t remember the name of!  All accompanied with their homemade sourdough and homemade butter. 

The food offering was delicious, and recognisably Cochon. This is a great place to go whether you just want to pop in for a drink or linger longer. We really enjoyed our evening and will certainly be paying a return visit soon not least to have a glass of the La Amistad we sampled as we were leaving. More of that when I write up the next visit.