Auberge du Vieux Puits

Auberge du Vieux Puits (puit means “well”, and there is an old well on the premises) is in the sleepy village of Fontjoncouse in the Languedoc. Gilles Goujon has been the chef/patron here since 1992 after working at kitchens such as Moulins de Mougins. The restaurant gained its first Michelin star in 1997, a second star in 2001 and then the coveted third star in 2010.

There are some rooms at the Auberge that you can stay at overnight, which given the remoteness of the location (the village has a population of only around 100, and is about 90 miles from Toulouse) is a good thing. The dining room is quite rustic, with stone floor, exposed beams overhead and red upholstery. This definitely has the feel of a simple country place rather than a formal temple of gastronomy. Two family cats wander around the garden outside the entrance, and presumably eat well. The dining room can seat up to 65 covers, with 16 chefs working in the kitchen.

The tasting menu is €115 (another is available at €135, while there is a lunch menu for €60), which seems very fair indeed to me. In some Paris three star places this would not buy you a starter. The bread was a choice of slices of white and brown, and had particularly good crust and excellent texture; the bread here is not made in the kitchen but is bought in from a local baker, but was very good indeed (perhaps 19/20).

The wine list concentrates on the south west of France, with extensive coverage of wines from the local area. We drank the Clos des Fees Grenache Blanc 2007 for €80, which compares to a retail price of around €21 and so is hardly a bargain, and the mark-ups are steep right the way through the list. Beycheville 2005 was €176 for a wine that costs around €59 retail, Faiveley Echezaux 2001 was €308 for a wine that you can pick up for around €72. The hefty mark-up levels continue however high up the list you go e.g. Romanee Conti La Tache 1989 was listed at €3,200, yet this wine can be bought retail for €1,196. 

Amuse-bouches laid out in a line on a black slate consisted of truffle cream inside a cheese crisp, caramelised apple and black pudding, carrot and lemon confit, puree of wild mushrooms and peas with smoked bacon and squid ink bread. The best of these for me was the carrot and lemon confit, which had great purity of flavour (the amuse-bouches were between 19/20 and 20/20).

A cocktail glass containing five different tomatoes, with sweet onion and a basil sorbet now appeared. This sounds like such a simple thing, and so it is hard to get across just how sublime the tastes were. I simply have not eaten better tomatoes, and their combination with the sweetness of the onion and the aromatic quality of the basil was a true delight (20/20). At this point I realised I was being served by a chef with great talent. 

Next was a large single prawn, beautifully tender, with a pretty disc of potato crisp and some tomato sorbet and vinaigrette of herbs and olive oil with a little lemon confit. The intensity of the tomato flavour was again impressive, the dressing excellent (19/20). 

I was slightly less taken with a dish of egg with summer truffles with a soup of mushrooms and summer truffles and brioche on the side. The mushroom soup, served in a glass, was in itself superb, but the egg and truffle dish seemed to me merely enjoyable (18/20 at best).

Things moved up a gear next with a bowl in which a fish soup was poured over a puree of potato and sweet onion, which was resting above a fillet of red mullet. The fish itself was superb, but the remarkable thing was the depth of the flavour of the fish soup, the striking garlic and saffron notes were highlights of the incredibly intense soup – another truly memorable dish (20/20).

My main course was roast guinea fowl with a little cylinder of crystallised shallots and French beans, and a pistachio-flavoured sauce and pistachio ice cream. The bird had excellent flavour and was very tender, and again the vegetables were top class; I was a little anxious about how the pistachio flavour would work, but it turned out to be quite harmonious (19/20).

Brill was served with vinaigrette of Banyuls wine with ceps, black trumpet mushrooms and almonds, razor clams and foam of garlic and thyme. This was a very pretty dish, and the fish and mushroom flavours worked well together, the foam adding an extra layer of flavour (19/20).

A selection of local cheeses were kept in a humidity controlled room, and were served in really superb condition; these were offered with a few local cherries in syrup, which had fabulous flavour, and also an impressive local honey (20/20). Millefeuille of cherries was served with a nougatine of marscapone and featured the same superb cherries, but I was surprised by a strong taste of cinnamon that I found slightly distracting (18/20).

Better was a sable of chocolate with Tahiti vanilla cream and local raspberries, with a raspberry sauce. The theme of high quality ingredients was continued here with stunning raspberries, while the chocolate sable itself was lovely (20/20).  Finally, to accompany strong espresso coffee there were salted caramels, a raspberry macaroon and a hazelnut biscuit as petit fours, rounding off a superb meal.

Service was very friendly and although it did not run like clockwork, in this quite informal setting it seemed appropriate enough. Overall I was really impressed with the quality of the cooking. The tomato cocktail and the red mullet with fish soup were for me the stand-out dishes, and these were world-class. This is indeed food that is worth a special journey.

Further reviews: 25th Jun 2017