It has taken me far too long to visit this wine/cheese bar brought to Vancouver by the great cheese store Les Amis du Fromage. The main reason for this is its poor location, way out in the boonies on east Hastings many blocks past Main. With no other draw in the neighbourhood, it makes me wonder if the location planning was not thought through as well as it should have been.

This is a shame given how great I think this place is. Not only does it have the best (and most frequently rotating) cheese selections in the City (yes, better than Salt), it also has an excellent and eclectic wine list including the likes of Tissot’s Macvin (by the glass) and Vin Jaune and a good 30 or so bottle list of Riesling (which this summer are all 25% off a bottle). There are also some great hot food items, such as the delicious Croque Madam (the best I’ve had) and four types of mac and cheese. I chose to drink a nice bottle of dry german riesling for a mere $30 after discount, which knocked the socks of almost any wine priced at $30 in Vancouver restaurants. That is to say, it was real wine, drinking well, and going great with the food.

My only complaint (other than the location) is not something specific to Au Petit Chavignol: sherry prices. I am baffled at how restaurants and wine bars charge $7 for a two ounce glass of sherry and $10 for a 5 ounce glass of wine when the bottle of sherry costs far less than the bottle of wine. The entire purpose of most sherry is for excellent quality booze at an extremely low price. Why mark it up 3 times more than wine? This defeats the purpose and distorts what sherry is all about. This is a shame given how well sherry goes with food compared to many wines.

Despite this hiccup, Au Petite Chavignol is now amongst my favourite wine bars in the city. If only it were in a neighbourhood I actually frequented. As it is, I will be making the occasional trip out there to enjoy some stellar cheese and wine pairings, and perhaps one day indulge in some seriously ritzy mac and cheese.

I rarely write about the drinking establishments here in Vancouver mainly because it is extremely rare to see a good and reasonable wine list. And despite the rare exception of Salt and Uva (which may go downhill now that somm Sebastien has left), there still isn’t anywhere here where you can buy wines driven by ethics and stringent agricultural and vinification practices. Vancouver is all about trends and most restaurants pour uninteresting wines that follow what they think consumers want to drink.

Further, while there are talented Sommeliers in the province, the liquor board makes it almost impossible for a professional to develop a list based on his or her own discoveries, which is often where drinkers can discover value, quality and excitement. Because the liquor board restricts what restaurants can buy, and charges them full retail, the sommelier’s job in this province has been homogenized and simplified.

This brief note is to commend Jake Skakun over at L’Abattoir (and co-author of Cherries and Clay) for starting to develop a list of wines that focuses on true value and on wines made with true attention to ethical practices in growing and vinifying grapes, despite the extremely tough environment created by BC liquor regulation.

When I dropped by I had a wonderful glass of dry Tokaji from Oremus (Vega Sicilia’s Hungarian winery) and a very nice glass of cool climate New Zealand Syrah from Tinpot Hut with plenty of pepper and herbs and great acidity – two types of wines you rarely see by the glass let alone on a bottle list. Both were reasonably priced by Vancouver standards. Add to this that Jake is constantly developing his list (something that is shockingly rare in Vancouver where too many sommeliers build and never change a list and rarely rotate their wines by the glass), and you have the starting components of an excellent wine experience.

I did not try the food on my visit, but I am looking forward to returning and seeing how Jake’s list stacks up with the food. The wines focus on acidity and freshness and I think they will likely show very well with what the kitchen is offering. L’Abattoir is in Gastown in the old Irish Heather location.