The secret vineyard in the middle of Paris where the wine has ‘an air of mystery’

By Caroline Baum, CNN

Paris (CNN) —  On a misty morning in October, winemaker Vincent Bolenor gathers his team among rows of vines heavy with grapes. They’ll spend the next day plucking the fruit from carefully cultivated branches and piling them into trucks ready for pressing.

It’s a scene repeated across France at this time of year as the country harvests the ingredients that make its wines famous among connoisseurs the world over. But Bolenor and his crew are not in the classic winemaking regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Languedoc or the Loire.

They’re in the middle of Paris.

Clos Montmartre, located on the north side of Montmartre, the teeming artsy neighborhood crowned by the majestic Sacre Coeur cathedral, is a tiny but picturesque vineyard that’s home to about 2,000 grape-producing vines that grow seemingly oblivious to the fact they’re in the heart of the French capital.

The grapes are a holdover from days when Montmartre was a quaint village surrounded by vineyards. Located further north and with less sun than more prestigious French cuvées, they produced wine of questionable quality, and gradually vanished as it became part of Paris in 1860.

But the tradition of vine cultivation in Montmartre survived. Today, the Clos Montmartre is a small, picturesque parcel tucked away from the chaos of the city under the watchful eyes of the Museum of Montmartre. And each October, Parisian gardeners gather alongside urban wine enthusiasts to harvest these grapes right under the noses of city dwellers.

This year is no different. And as sleepy-eyed Parisians pass by on their way to work and delivery trucks rumble past, local gardeners are preparing to carry out an annual harvest that has been taking place here since the 12th century.

With less than 2,000 bottles produced a year, this small-batch wine is primarily sold at auction. All proceeds going to fund social programs of the 18th arrondissement, the diverse district of Paris in which the vineyard is located.

“Montmartre was a very poor district until the 1950s and people have always built their own solidarity here,” explains Eric Lejoindre, mayor of the 18th. “And that’s why it’s so important for us even now to maintain those traditions and the spirit in which those traditions were created.”

“Working the vines in Paris is exceptional, especially in Montmartre,” says Bolenor. “And the fact that the wine sales go to charitable causes makes the charm even stronger.”

Working with nature

As the harvest goes on, truckloads of grapes make their way down Montmartre hill to the 18th arrondissement’s city hall. In the basement of this grandiose government building lies a virtually unknown wine cellar, where the grapes from the city vineyard are processed and bottled to make wine.

Sylviane Leplâtre, resident wine expert of Clos Montmartre, is waiting at the cellar to process the grapes. As the winemaker-in-charge of this operation, she knows it’s no simple task. In addition to the vineyard’s chilly location, the soil in the French capital is light and sandy, meaning it lacks fertility.

But as a fully qualified agronomist-oenologist, she’s ready for the challenge.

Through Leplâtre’s hard work, expertise and intuition, the wine from Montmartre appears to be gaining recognition.

She uses a personalized approach, choosing varieties better adapted to the Parisian terroir and tailoring processing methods to the harvested grapes. Drawing on knowledge from her work in vineyards around the world, she says she tries to make the flavors sing and works with nature rather than against it.

Leplâtre and her team produce both red and rosé wine. Both are characterized by their rich color and highly aromatic qualities. The red is light–bodied, low in tannins and, according to Leplâtre, work well as an aperitif.

“Recently, we had the wine blind-tasted by a sommelier. He was unable to recognize that it was from Montmartre and found it very good,” she adds with a smile.

Eric Lejoindre concludes, “There’s an air of mystery around the wine. The mystery is part of what makes the Montmartre wine festival and the history of Montmartre special. So, we keep it a bit of a secret, but a widely shared secret.”

While it’s mostly auctioned off, it is still possible to grab a bottle. The wine is sold year-round at the Museum of Montmartre. A bottle of red is sold for 35 euros (about $39), while the rosé sells for 30 euros.

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