{"id":2836,"date":"2024-12-03T16:25:21","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T16:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2836"},"modified":"2024-12-03T16:25:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T16:25:21","slug":"clos-montmartre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2836","title":{"rendered":"Clos Montmartre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Someday, you should visit Paris.  And if you\u2019ve already been there, you should go again.  It is a city of great beauty, centuries of history, incredible food and, when the Parisians are in the right mood, joie de vivre<\/em>.  Of course, you didn\u2019t need Power Tasting to tell you this.  And what does it have to do with wine tasting, anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer to that question can be found near the peak of the butte Montmartre<\/em>, the hill in the north of the city.  The Montmartre sector of Paris is famous for many things: as the hangout for many of the greatest artists and poets of the 19th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> centuries; the home of the can-can at the Moulin Rouge; the Basilique du Sacr\u00e9-Coeur<\/em> (Sacred Heart) that watches over Paris.  We heartily recommend that you visit, have a meal and wander through the winding streets of the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For those of us who love wine and wine tasting, there is a unique attraction there, known as the Clos Montmartre.  It is a functioning vineyard within the borders of the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little history is in order here.  For most of its existence, Montmartre was not a part of Paris itself.  It was a rural suburb of the city, specializing in wine production.  Keep in mind that winemaking and storage techniques were for centuries not up to our current standards.  That meant that most wine didn\u2019t age very well; in fact it was best to drink it while it was young.  So having vineyards literally just over the hill was quite advantageous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Clos Montmartre was attached to an abbey since the 12th<\/sup> century and was planted then by the Abbess, Ad\u00e9la\u00efde de Savoie.  The abbey was destroyed in the Revolution but the vineyard kept going.  This continued until 1860, when the French Emperor decided to modernize Paris.  Montmartre was incorporated into Paris, along with other then rural villages.  It became the 18th<\/sup> Arrondissement of Paris.  Workmen and artists replaced vignerons<\/em> and the vineyards were ripped out.  In 1933, the local council decided to replant the oldest of them, the Clos Montmartre.  It\u2019s only 0.15 hectares and produces 1,700 bottles a year, which are auctioned off to support community projects in the 18th<\/sup> Arrondissement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting to the Clos Montmartre is a bit of a trek.  The nearest Metro stop is Abbesses.  Take the stairs (or better, the funicular) to Sacr\u00e9-Coeur and walk around to the left, then past the Place du Tertre to Rue des Saules.  Keep walking and there you are!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a tourist, you can get a chance to taste the wine from this vineyard in October, when they hold the harvest festival (F\u00eate des Vendanges<\/em> in French).  It is worth just walking by to see a vineyard in an urban setting and to reflect on its connection to so much history: the Middle Ages, the French Revolution, the rebuilding of Paris up to the present day.  It is a gentle reminder of the history of wine and its place in the diets and pleasures of Parisians and wine lovers around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someday, you should visit Paris.  And if you\u2019ve already been there, you should go again.  It is a city of great beauty, centuries of history, incredible food and, when the Parisians are in the right mood, joie de vivre.  Of course, you didn\u2019t need Power Tasting to tell you this.  And what does it have … Continue reading Clos Montmartre<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2838,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions\/2838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}