La Cremerie (Pierre Jancou)

La Cremerie, located on the left bank near Odeon and Bd St Germain in Paris, is at the same time a natural wines store, a wine bar, and a place where you can eat authentic artisan charcuteries from different regions of Italy.
Pierre Jancou runs the place since 2002. He was previously a cook, runned an italian restaurant in Montmartre, then left for Italy in 1999 before coming back in 2002 and buying this place.
As he has always been fond of fine, natural food, he learned about wine on the job, and natural wines (not only organicly grown, but also vinified with little or no intervention) were an evidence for him, along his tastings of different wines in the food and wine fairs, in France and Italy. Italy is home to great artisanal food, and his italian experience and connections, his love for these products, explain his frequent expeditions with his van down there, to haul back the troves you will eat at la Cremerie. He usually begins his trips with Piedmont, which is also home to some of the best italian wines, then Emilie-Romagna (Parma, Modena, Bologna) and Tuscany, buying on the way all sorts of charcuteries, prosciutto, coppa, finochiona, culatello, panetta, and some wine. Pierre Jancou, eating his lunch after the rush-hour crowd subsided He adds new selections to his mostly french wine list when visiting wine fairs or when a friend tips him about a new player in the field. Young vignerons also visit him now and then to present their wines. This is how he discovered recently an impressive Mondeuse, a white grape variety from the Savoie region (near the french Alps). Same story for Jean Marc Brignot's Jura red Arbois wines, who bottled his first millesime in 2004 and already got the attention of wine critics.
The place is not big, he sits 17 people, including the ones at the counter, and it is wise to reserve for fridays and saturdays (closed sunday-monday). But the place is an architectural gem in addition to its slow food and natural wines.
The counter, with the venerable Berkel ham-slicing machineIt is a former dairy store (cremerie in french) built in the late 19th century which retained many of its original period features. It was bought in 1947 by some one named Miard and turned into a wine store, thus the other name of the place Pierre uses also : Caves Miard. He bought the place (which he already knew visually) by chance as it went for sale right at the time he was looking for a place in Paris in 2002. The ceiling is made of glass-plated painted silk, untouched since it was made in 1880. .................. Serge Mathieu, who helps Pierre, enjoying a glass of white wine Even the ham-slicing machine is beautiful. It is a venerable 1938 Berkel machine, named from a company then based in Rotterdam, Holland. The machine was discontinued in 1955-1960, but there was such a big restorated machines market in Italy (the country of thin ham slices, where they sell for about 6500 Euro for a vintage machine from the 20's, 30's or 40's), that Berkel restarted a production line for these very models. Back to wine : The balance between Italy and France here makes him recall what italians say : "Italians make golden wines with silver terroirs and french make silver wines with golden terroirs..." The french, this seems to say, have the potential for getting better wines in regard of their terroirs, but people like Jules Chauvet and others, in re-inventing the vinification which was until then very empirical, paved the way for the organic/biodynamic/natural-wines revolution. Pierre says the monks who developped the viticulture in France centuries ago, selected the grape varieties and chose where to plant the vineyards, with the right slope and orientation , also deserve our admiration.
So, La Cremerie being a wine store, you can choose and buy among the roughly 240 different labels (from 70-80 wineries). The bottles are displayed on shelves on both sides. The Loire and Burgundy are well represented in his selection. He has also the chance to have a deep cool cellar a few buildings away with hundreds more bottles waiting their turn in the dark (picture on the right, where he holds a "Plume D'Ange" from "les cailloux du Paradis"). If you want to drink on the spot, there are usually 2 whites and 2 reds by the glass, and the selection changes every other day. And you can drink a bottle you purchased on the shelves with an additional cork fee of 6 Euro, which is a good deal when you want to have a drink with friends, especially that many of the bottles are in the 10-20 Euro price range.
Because of beverage license reasons, you must order a plate of charcuterie or cheese with your wine. The first time I visited (with friends Mark and Ann, from Newcastle), I remember having an olive-oil drizzled delicate salad and thin slices of Parma with my glass of wine. This was 18 months ago. At lunchtime, Pierre makes a "plat du jour", and the evening dinner is with italian charcuteries and cheeses solely.
The place is opened tuesday to saturday, 10am to 10pm and is closed in august and the 1st week of january, which leaves Pierre some time to spend with his 2 (and soon 3) kids.
La Cremerie 9 rue des Quatre Vents 75006 ParisPhone/fax 01 43 54 99 30Metro : Odeonvinsnature@hotmail.com