La Vigneraie
In the name of the Father and of wine.
Pierre Charlier is a wine legend. He passed away in 2011, and it was he who gave birth to La Vigneraie in the 90s in Charleroi. A sign that he placed at the top of the reference wine shops in Belgium. The man was a visionary for many wine lovers and, driven by his knowledge, he set himself up as a pioneer and was a great discoverer of talent.
Ten years have passed. La Vigneraie has moved to the heights of Charleroi, nestled on a path full of beautiful addresses, and it is Thibaut Charlier, the son, who continues the work of his father, so alive.
Today, the place is lived as a cellar to eat. If elsewhere, some have caressed themselves with this concept by surfing on a fake appellation (and where in fine, the plate rarely takes off and the glass often remains dull), here, we are well and truly in the essence of the wine and the plate. The wine is at the center of the discourse; Thibaut expresses himself between clever advices and jubilant agreements, between beautiful pins and nuggets unearthed through his wine meetings.
Once past the store, filled with beautiful bottles, as an emblematic preamble, it is a pretty dining room dominated by a common table that takes shape. We feel that this is a place that has heart, a cellar and generosity.
The plate is the work of Thomas Perez Perez. Having worked at Comme chez Soi and La Table de Maxime, he is the one who has come to revitalize the plate. The man is humble, he works with honesty and constancy and on his daily menu, he writes nothing more than the best of what the market offers him. The menu is therefore short and tight but reveals plates where the Chef expresses himself through a constancy of preparations and a greediness of dishes. Candied onion and walnut, sardine and eggplant tartlet, Anjou pigeon, celeriac and pistachio, foie gras and beet bonbon, scallops, chorizo and Jerusalem artichokes were our favorites, but our favorite was the Ham with Cremant, Comté and mushrooms, a Lyon speciality promoted and protected by Thibaut Charlier as a tribute to his family roots.
Liquid or solid, a pleasure.
LD