Press Mentions
The Irish Examiner, 21/01/2023
The faces behind the food: 50 new Irish food heroes that are making waves
Unsurprisingly, considering grapes are not grown in Ireland on a commercial basis, bar a few pioneering experimental offerings, there are more than a few ‘New Irish’ importing wine to Ireland but Burgundy-born Pascal Rossignol of Le Caveau, based in Kilkenny, is included for the passion and zeal with which he has blazed the trail for natural wine, the most sustainable winemaking option of all when that increasingly matters, his huge portfolio, from all over Europe, built on personal relationships with individual growers, flush with quite superb wines.
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2023 McKenna's Guides Entry:
"Honest wine is about trust" Pascal Rossignol once explained. Putting that mantra to work in the day to day business of running a bespoke company has meant that the Rossignol family's company Le Caveau, has enjoyed ever-growing success in Ireland for more than 25 years. You might find it difficult to believe, when you look at the modest tabernacle of the Le Caveau shop in Kilkenny, that the team have actually had a Gargantuan effect on what wines Irish people drink, and how they think about what they drink. That effect was put to the test years ago, when Le Caveau became the spearhead of the arrival of Natural Wines and winemakers into Ireland. Pascal and his team have coasted along with the fleet of superb wines they already showcased, but they didn't: they leaped into the unknown, with no safety net in sight. Their reward was to rewrite people's expectation of wine, and their bravery meant that Le Caveau personified a new inspiration, and a new relationship with wine, a relationship based on trust. Fortune favours the brave, and what bravery it took for Le Caveau team to take the road less travelled.
John McKenna
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The Irish Sun, Matthew Nugent
A BIT OF BURGUNDY IN IRELAND
BORN in the heart of one of the world’s greatest wine regions, Pascal Rossignol is the beating heart of Le Caveau wine merchants, based in Kilkenny.
Over the past 24 years, along with family and the rest of his stellar team, he has built up a phenomenal catalogue of wines from all four corners of the globe.
But Pascal has also pioneered the introduction of natural and orange wines into Ireland at a time when many other importers were reluctant to take a chance.
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Wine Person of the Year – Pascal Rossignol
‘Ten years ago, when Pascal Rossignol first began to introduce natural wines, via his shop and wine company Le Caveau, people scoffed.
No one’s scoffing now. Thanks to the patient advocacy of Mr Rossignol and his Le Caveau Team, we are well on the way to creating a wine world where natural is normal, and where industrialised wines are seen as the over-chemicalised concoctions that they are. The Le Caveau wines are superb, and there is no better advocate for the cause than Pascal.’
John and Sally McKenna – Megabytes Awards December 2016 – Guides.ie
Sunday Business Post:
Fine wine Merchants of the Year (Nationwide) winners 2017 & Burgundy specialist of the Year 2017
‘The annual tussle between the two leading fine wine merchants outside Dublin has fallen in favour of Le Caveau again largely due the dynamic efforts of Pascal Rossignol to bring Irish wine lovers the most cutting-edge exploration of natural, biodynamic, orange and avant-garde wine on the planet.’
Tomas Clancy, Sunday Business Post
‘Here the hugely strong base of French wines is now joined by the very best of the cutting edge natural and orange wine world. Le Caveau’s influence as a wine shop and as an importer continues to be profoundly influential on the Irish Market and open-hearted wine consumers.’
Tomas Clancy, Sunday Business Post
Fine wine Merchants of the Year (Nationwide) winners 2015 & Burgundy specialist of the Year 2015
‘Le Caveau has expanded to become a cultural powerhouse, not only with a wonderful list, but as an evangelist for natural wines and a champion of the sustainable and the left-field.’
Tomas Clancy, Sunday Business Post
Fine wine Merchants of the Year (Nationwide) winners 2014 & Burgundy specialist of the Year 2014
Burgundy specialist of the Year 2013
Fine wine Merchants of the Year (Nationwide) winners 2012
‘Le Caveau takes the top spot for owner’s Pascal Rossignol’s unwavering commitment to excellence, including his mouthwatering and incisive wine import business.’
Tomas Clancy, Sunday Business Post
'Next month will mark the tenth anniversary of the opening of Le Caveau, the Kilkenny wine shop owned by Burgundy native Pascal Rossignol and his wife, Geraldine.
The couple perceived a coming trend when they set up this bespoke importation business. Le Caveau would fit in easily in any wine-growing region, especially Burgundy. Among a good selection of wines from around the world, there are wines which are not otherwise available outside Burgundy.
The only disappointment is that, after taking time to select a handmade Pommard, after admiring a bottle of a small, family-owned domain’s Vieilles Vignes Puligny Montrachet, you emerge out of the shop into Ireland, not into the glare of the sun in Beaune.'
Tomas Clancy, Sunday Business Post
Food & Wine Magazine:
‘Nobody in Ireland takes natural wine more seriously than the urbane Pascal Rossignol of Le Caveau in Kilkenny. And he doesn’t adopt a messianic approach to them either; he stocks them because he thinks they are good wines – and they are.’
Raymond Blake, Food and Wine Magazine
‘… Le Caveau … their gentle charm, patent enthusiasm and deep knowledge make a refreshing change from a marketing speak we hear too much of these days.’
Raymond Blake, Food and Wine Magazine
The Gloss Magazine:
Natural Beauties – Organic, biodynamic and “natural” wines, often with deliciously pure flavours, are finally making an impact says Mary Dowey … Pascal Rossignol of Le Caveau in Kilkenny, has built up the most exciting selection in the country … In my experience, many (but not all) have strikingly pure flavours, with a kind of inner vibrancy that makes them dance on the tongue. As purity underpins the methods by which they are made, they may be chosen for health and environmental reasons as much as for taste.
Mary Dowey Irish Times ‘The Gloss Magazine’ April 2012
The Irish Times:
‘Were I ever to open up a wine shop or restaurant, one of my very first calls would be to Le Caveau, a small family business in Kilkenny that is packed to the rafters with one of the tastiest selections of French wine in the country. All are hand-chosen wines from the very best small estates, mostly at very affordable prices….’
John Wilson, Irish Times