Allow time for the food | New Brief #257 (with many new pictures)

We all occasionally long for a break from the fast pace of daily life. One way of doing that is to spend time with your food. And I do not just mean eating and drinking, but also the preparations themselves. Shopping, cooking, choosing wine.

Half the fun with a good meal at home is shopping for food, especially if you get to shop at a food market. In Paris, we are spoiled for choice. It takes a little longer, but it’s worth it. If everyone preferred to buy everything in the same place, no small food shops would survive. Everything would be purchased at supermarkets. That would be a shame.

Even if you have read this text in the Brief Newsletter, take the time to scroll down to the end. There are many new pictures there that I think you will enjoy!

I would think that most of us are happy that specialised food retailers with different selections of products as well as food markets still exist. (Although when it comes to wine, strangely, many people in Scandinavia seem to have the ideal of the clinical supermarket, with everything in one place judging from the support the monopoly shops — Systembolaget, Alko, Vinmonopolet — still get…)

Choosing and buying food can be as much fun as cooking it. Of course, shopping at markets or in small shops can take a long time. I can already hear the argument; we don’t have time for that. But supermarkets also have queues, and I’d rather stand in line at the market where you can learn how to cut up a chicken, tie up roast beef, or fillet a sole while waiting. And get tips on cooking as well as being queried why it’s been several weeks since I last went there. They recognise you and know who you are…

I know that Paris has a big population, but I’m none the less surprised there are so many food markets still around when I see the many gigantic supermarkets on the city’s outskirts. We always prioritise our markets. How often don’t I hear people complaining that this or that small food shop that was so conveniently located has closed? But then it turns out that the person lamenting the disappearance never went there themselves. It was just nice that it existed. Go there while it’s still there! Support your local merchant.

Wine is the perfect mealtime drink if you want to have a leisurely pace during dinner. I think this point of view is not being addressed sufficiently in the current health debate about wine. Sitting down and having dinner with a good wine is relaxing and stress-relieving. Wine is a social and community-promoting drink, which is another fact that benefits health.

Dinner with wine always takes longer. You taste the wine; maybe before the food comes to the table, you talk about it. If it is a good quality wine, you drink slowly throughout the meal. Have you noticed the difference in the amount of wine people drink when you have a simple, anonymous wine compared to a better and more individualistic one?

With wine, you sit at the table longer and eat more slowly, which is good for digestion and weight. You have time to notice when you have eaten enough, are no longer hungry. And you have time to talk more.

The French think it is essential that food takes time (even if the dining habits of the younger generation have changed) and above all that you really take the time to smell and taste. You talk about the food during the meal, which shows that you really enjoy it. Not only that, people often talk over the dinner table about other good meals they have had – food is a conversation topic. “Do you remember that fantastic duck we had on our last vacation?”

It helps if you can put words to smells and tastes. It is an art that is about to be lost because, as it turned out recently, young French people cannot even recognise the smell of basil and thyme. Scandale!

Wine tasters are constantly trained in this art, so perhaps schools should ensure that young (French) people get to go on some wine tastings.

We have already completed the tour to Argentina and Chile, which always takes place in January, but we still have a lot to post in the tour’s Facebook group. The other two long tours in the winter season (in the summery southern hemisphere) remain. Join us virtually and (almost) live:

New Bordeaux Tour

Our Burgundy and Rhone Valley tour has had such a success so it is currently fully booked. So, we have decided to add a new tour this coming autumn season: a new five-day extravagant Bordeaux tour. All the final details are not quite settled, but contact us now if you are interested!

See more info on this tour below.

Join us virtually to South America, South Africa and New Zealand

We have already completed the tour to Argentina and Chile, which always takes place in January, but we still have a lot to post in the tour’s Facebook group. The other two long tours in the winter season (in the summery southern hemisphere) remain. Join us virtually and (almost) live:

• Chile and Argentina wine tour on Facebook.
• South Africa wine tour on Facebook.
• New Zealand wine tour Facebook.

Click Join and then choose how many notifications you want – everything, the most important, nothing.

They will all three be back on the programme in 2026.

More info on our wine tours here. “World’s Top Wine Tours“. Tours with the people who know wine and who have an unrivalled experience of wine and tours.

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Enjoy the Brief!

Britt & Per

Wine editors to the national encyclopedia, Forbes.com contributors, award-winning wine book authors, wine tour advisors to the UN and national wine organisations, wine judges … and, above all, passionate wine travellers.

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