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I know this place has been recommended several times but I'd just like to inform people about the way it operates. The restaurant charges wine producers to be on its list. The price is reported to be €600 a year. I don't know of any other restaurants that do that.

Edited in light of new info

Jonathan
This was a Michelin one star resteraunt, lots of people think it was really good, we did the first time we went ( pre star) but we went this time last year with friends for Lyns birthday and felt let down and ripped off, and french people who were also in there that night felt the same way. Perhaps we just hit it on a bad night, but I recollect very clearly the same ( including year) bottle of wine increasing from about 12 euros to 22 euros a bottle between our two visits. I know M&S rate it very highly they will be disapointed if iyt has closed

Yes we will be disappointed if it closed, as you know we have been many times and never been disappointed and every time we have been the number of covers have increased, yes a particular wine did have a large price increase but the wine we have stayed the same price, I also was aware that you had to "buy in" to sell your wine, so not sure of the ins and outs of it, I personally don't think it will close...but watch this space.

Oh, and did I mention that the wine producer was getting paid 90 days after they've sold it in the restaurant....

Personally I think the whole idea of paying to have your wine listed, even in a michelin starred restaurant is a bit dirty. I think most restaurant goers and wine lovers would assume that a restaurant of that quality was choosing the best wines.

Mind you, I suppose it's no different from Wine Spectator recommending the wineries which pay them the most on advertising.

Santiago wrote:Personally I think the whole idea of paying to have your wine listed, even in a michelin starred restaurant is a bit dirty. I think most restaurant goers and wine lovers would assume that a restaurant of that quality was choosing the best wines.

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Totally agree Jon, they pride themselves on selling only local produce...shame as there are some excellent wines out there, yours being one of them...so promote them.

vinogeek wrote:Oh, and did I mention that the wine producer was getting paid 90 days after they've sold it in the restaurant....

I always thought that there's a reduction if the payer is paid earlier than the 90 days. Normally it's worth a 3% to 3% reduction for "fast payers". A smart businessman would take the advantage of the 3%-it happened on all products.

This is used in Montreal and I always thought it would be the same here.

Blackduff

Some reviews covering all.

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate ... 26hs%3DavO

If the region could benefit from one thing it would be better quality restaurants. So when MdT opened and got a M* I thought it would be really beneficial. It's a shame they chose to use rather dubious financial practices with their suppliers. I think that always tells you something about a business.

A restaurant going into liquidation is not good news but my understanding is that the restaurant was built and furnished by the Mairie of Maury so I'm sure there is another up-and-coming chef who would love the opportunity to run MdT, hopefully one who is not so mercenary. Perhaps the guy who was at Les Feuillattes (?) in Ceret?

Begs the question why the wineakers play ball on this one. Perhaps for a mega producer its cost effective marketing.

One tip about dining in restaurants that buy their own wine direct from winemakers. Some winemakers charge the restaurants wholesale prices (i.e the amount they would charge a cavist) and some charge the cellar door price (i.e. close to the cavist's retail price).

Given that restaurants mark up wines by a percentage (or, less common, just add X euros) then the best value on the list will be wines supplied at wholesale rates.

Santiago wrote:up-and-coming chef who would love the opportunity to run MdT, hopefully one who is not so mercenary. Perhaps the guy who was at Les Feuillattes (?) in Ceret?

Not really in a position to comment on this place. A bit out of the way for us,and also a bit toppy on price.

Also not sure if the previous incumbents at Les Feuillants are necessarilty the best yardstick to suggest,Jon. Rumours are of some pretty dodgy financial dealings that led to ITS demise.

Allegedly.

First, thank you for so many interests...

The maison du terroir in Maury is the result of project to develop the area.
It gaths 3 structures. The restaurant, the tasting bar and the tourism office. About 20 wineries of Maury have made an association, those are the ones present in the bar. The 600 € is the amount of contribution to this association, not to be served in the restaurant.

If the restaurant as financial troubles i think it's not the only one. Nowadays, many gastronomic places have similar troubles. It's not exactly your problem, but just to inform you, the troubles with the invoices payment are solved and the wineries are now regulate with the delivery.

The restaurant is now open every day.

Do not hesitate to contact us for any question or visit.

The tasting bar is open, the first drink is free, the drink after is betweeen 3 and 5 € depending on the wine, and if you buy wine the entire tasting is free.

For the tourism office come and visit us to get more information about the visits we organize with the wine cellar or wineyards , and you can eat where youy want in maury, soon we will propose picnic, in the wineyards...

Thank you for reading.

Thanks for bringing us up to date Morgane but could you please clarify something else. Are the vineyard visits limited to those wineries who contributed 600 € to the association and is Pascal Borrel still the chef of Maison de Terroir?

Graham, I don't know of any restaurants that pay retail prices for their wine. Why wouldn't they buy it from an agent at a trade price?

My sister & hubby ,her son & partner have all just had a superb meal again in this restaurant, and yes it still has its Michelin start and the same chef, so all I can say is, its still up and running, serving delicious food, and a good choice of wines..................still don't know the in's & outs regarding the wine situation......so looking forward to our visits in September.

An update...

We ate here on Friday. The service and modern decor are impeccable.

We all had the fixed price menu, which is 17€ for 2 courses and €20 for 3. The choice is pretty limited. 2 starters and 2 mains and if you are faddy you will be struggling.

The little flags of toasted parmesan are still a feature.

Starters were a Velouté of Jerusalem artichokes or a little tart of wild mushrooms with a poached egg which was fabulous.

The mains caused some consternation. The sea bream came served in a cellophane bag with vegetables. The idea was cool but the look wasn't. Quite difficult to get to the food without making a mess and lots of discarded plastic film hanging around on the table. The other choice was veal kidneys which was just too much offal for most people. The cuts were thick and fatty and it just wasn't very nice.

I like eating in places like this because they give me ideas to recreate at home but the two mains would not make it on to my try-at-home list.

The wine list is a bit confusing, probably because of the way the wines are selected as I said above. Prices are a bit odd. I know nearly all those wines and some are priced at a couple of Euros over retail price and some are double.

I have a strong suspicion that the restaurant is used a lot as a showcase by the wine producers when entertaining their importers and buyers. Therefore they may like their wines to be highly priced on the list, as it looks impressive, while others price their wines lower than usual in order to get casual diners to go for them. The white and rosé proposed with the menu were pretty poor wines. Fortunately we were joined by one of the winemakers with some of the best wines on the list so we drank those

I would say it's worth going. All the wines are available by the glass, which is brilliant. The price of the set lunch is low for the quality but don't go if you have limited tastes.

The female half of the group went to La Table in Perpignan the next day and came back with a higher opinion of the food there.

Thanks for posting your observations Santiago. Interesting that their web site is high on style and low on content - absolutely nothing on the wines at all.

graham34 wrote:Interesting that their web site is high on style and low on content - absolutely nothing on the wines at all.

Know what you mean Graham.

I'm always rather suspicious of these so called "boutique" establishments (restaurants,hotels etc) where their pub,particularly the website, is full of all sorts of fancy arty-farty gizmos,but does not overburden us with info about such mundane things as menus, prices,wines,opening hours and the like.

But the menus and prices are on the website. As are the opening hours (though you do have to scout around a bit, admittedly! )

thumbelina wrote:But the menus and prices are on the website. As are the opening hours (though you do have to scout around a bit, admittedly! )

I was not talking specifically about the MdT site. Just making a general observation about the point Graham raised re uninformative pub.

Ah, sorry. My misunderstanding.