For Timothy Schweizer, wine is his passion. After sharpening his skills at Sauvage and the Auberge Chassignolles, the sommelier (brother of Jonathan, who cooks over at Le Café Les Deux Gares) decided to open up his own stables, placing his bets on natural wines with a little something extra under their corks. The race results are in, with a team of pricey frontrunners: Tout Blanc, an Alsatian white from Jean-Pierre Rietsch (€6 a glass), Encore, a Rhone Grenache from Patricia and Rémi Bonneton (€33 a bottle), Ixilune, a Béarn mix of Petit courbu/Petit manseng produced by Imanol Garay (€55), O’Tricotée, an Ardèche Syrah/Viognier blend from Maud Adenot (€33)… And to go with all these thoroughbreds, some well-crafted small plates: Kintoa pork coppa; cucumber with harissa and blue goat’s cheese; potatoes, trout and raw cream… In short, everything you need to let loose! // Louise Delange 

The bullet-proof bottle: A short macerated Pinot gris from Franco Terpin in Friuli (€8 a glass).