Description of the attraction
The vineyard of Montmartre is not a figurative expression. A real vineyard descends from the hill right to the intersection of Parisian streets de Sol and Saint-Vincennes. 1762 vines, 27 grape varieties. Like in a village, they harvest, make wine and celebrate every year.
Montmartre was once a village. Its inhabitants have been engaged in viticulture for centuries. Not fifteen hundred square meters at the crossroads, as it is now, but the entire hill was then covered with vineyards. Legend has it that the first vine was planted in the 12th century by Adelaide of Savoy, the former queen of France and abbess of the Benedictine monastery, which she herself founded on the hill.
In the 16th century, wine imported into Paris was taxed heavily. Montmartre was not yet part of Paris; drinking in its taverns turned out to be cheaper than in the city. True, there was talk of local wine that it was a diuretic, and this, they say, was its main quality, but it was cheap, and Montmartre drinking establishments flourished.
The more expensive life in the city became, the more people settled on the hill. When the village became a district of Paris in 1859, the locals tried to resist it in fear that Montmartre would lose its identity. He really began to lose it - urbanization has brought the winemaking tradition into decline. The development of the hill was in full swing, there would be no vineyards at all if the artist Francis Pulbo had not decided to save the garden of Aristide Bruant, comedian, chansonnier and the first owner of the Nimble Rabbit cabaret. (Aristide Bruant is a man in a black coat and a red scarf from a Toulouse-Lautrec poster.) Pulbo suggested planting a public vineyard on the site of the garden. The romantic defeated the developers - in 1934, the Clos Montmartre vineyard gave its first harvest.
What can I say about this wine? North side, not suitable for a vineyard. So-so wine, connoisseurs say. But that’s not the point, it’s a matter of principle! Montmartre became a district of Paris only 163 years ago - not so long ago by Parisian standards. It remains to be seen who joined whom. Still, the Montmartre people have not lost their originality - it is she who makes them cultivate a modest vineyard and every year in October, having received 400-500 liters of wine, arrange a fun holiday. It lasts a week - parades, food, fireworks, and the proceeds from the sale of wine goes to the social needs of the district. Does taste matter here?
