Paris Wine Bars : Aux Tonneaux des Halles

Alain and Stephane - Aux Tonneaux des HallesSome use light therapy to fight the winter blues, but a mix of several mood enhancers works better, like listening to the Michel Petrucciani/Eddy Louiss duo playing "So What" and having an unexpectedly beautiful Cotes-d'Auvergne Gamay by Jean Mauperthuis at the Tonneaux des Halles, one of the best Paris wine bars serving natural wines. I tasted recently the music and the wine on the same day and believe me, it works...The Petrucciani/Louiss interpretation of "So What" (listen to sample), the iconic track composed by Miles Davis, is incredibly vibrant and full of energy, and this simple Gamay was samely so alive, with its acidulous-candy flavor, its morello-cherry notes and its barely-perceptible fizzyness... I feel more and more that music and wines have much in common : There's a magic at work that is both simple and not easily reproductible. I mean, no laboratory or music-industry engineer will ever find a mathematic formula to duplicate this magic. I think that somehow it is the same for wine, and that's why many of these so-called natural wines will never be copied : you cant cage the magic.
Our wine bar of the day is located in the very center of Paris, in a narrow street which is not really on the tourist beaten path, the rue Montorgueil. Patrick Fabre, the owner, has made of this place what I consider one of the top wine places in Paris.

Owner Patrick Fabre pouringThe name of the bar means literally "the casks of the wholesale food market", and this huge market (Halles) which has moved away since then, was a magnet for thousands of professionals buyers every day until the 1960s', and dozens of bars and brasseries took care of the needs of these hundreds of visitors, sometimes around the clock. These professionnals buyers and sellers being demanding experts, the venues often offered excellent-quality food and drinks. Btw, this food market moved to Rungis in the south of Paris, and in spite of the bland warehouse landscape, it is again home to some of the best restaurants of the region.
Whatever, the market is gone, but the Tonneaux des Halles keeps living, with a renewed spirit and with a new clientèle.Le Tonneaux des Halles in the eveningThe rue Montorgueil lies just north of les Halles (the Seine and the rue de Rivoli being on the south), on an axis perpendicular to the Seine and Rivoli, and it starts from near the Saint-Eustache church and Les-Halles metro station. It is a pedestrian street from the start and crosses a major thorough-street named rue Etienne Marcel. The "quartier Montorgueil" is a typical example of successful gentrification, the neighborhood still retains a village-like atmosphere, with many food shops, and a real diversity in its population. Plus, while many streets around have been overwhelmed by clothing and designer shops, the rue Montorgueil seems to resist and keeps a sort of gentle real traditional life, augmented by the pedestrian-only factor.
When you come from les Halles, the bar is on the right in a corner [picture above]. There are quite a few bars and cafés in this street and you can easily pass it without noticing, as even though it is a great wine bar, it doen't flash it outside in big letters...Kira, uncorking and pouring my Cotes d'AuvergneThis Cotes d'Auvergne Gamay by Jean Mauperthuis was my last surprise at the Tonneaux. The Cotes d'Auvergne is a barely-known Appellation of the Loire region, and it is located not far from the source of the Loire in the Central-France mountains (Loire with Massif Central map). If you click on "100%" below this map, and browse to the lower right and enlarge it, you will find the vertical pink patch of the Cotes d'Auvergne, so close from Burgundy or the Rhone and such a long way from the Muscadet (the westernmost Loire subregion)....After looking on the wines-by-the-glass blackboard, I had settled my choice on this 2-Euro wine and the choice was good, it was is so alive with its candy aromas and lightly perly feel in the mouth, it made me think to Claude Courtois's Nacarat or to Clos Roche Blanche's Gamay, or also to a Junko Arai's Gamay that we had one day. Here is a humble wine that gives lots of pleasure. But it is not the first time that Patrick's wine list helped me discover rarities, earlier in the year it was a Pinot Noir from Jura by Domaine Foret, a darker than usual, almost sulphur-free Pinot (2003) with elegant aromas that made me put Forest on the watch list to check his recent millesimes. Later, as I was with a group of people, he was well inspired to propose a bottle of white Saumur 2003 from Chateau Yvonne, a gorgeous Chenin from the Loire, a blend from several plots with an exceptional purity, depth and richness. He said it was a very rare, and outstanding wine. He was right, again. The price tag was 35 Euro for this bottle and worth it.
The typical wines-by-the-glass list comprises 9 reds and 5 whites, and all of them are tasty, full of life, natural wines. Patrick has of course a number of bottles not listed on the blackboard that you can inquire about, like this white Saumur. These days for example, he has among other bottles a nice Cotes du Rhone 2006 from Domaine de L'Anglore, Cuvée "les Pierres Chaudes", a hit among customers, also a Macon-Cruzille red (Pinot Noir) 2005 by Julien Guillot, and a Corbières Domaine Faillenc, Cuvée "Conference de presse" 2004 (a Syrah from the Languedoc).The Bar in the AfternoonThe bar deco is mostly unchanged since what it must have been in the 1950s', and old pictures on the wall show how the food market looked like. If you look well, you will also spot a picture or two of Jean Marie, a bearded character who was liked very much in the street. The venue is somehow narrow and deep, with the bar on the left and another room with tables and bench seats in the back, near the kitchen.
A last word about the wines : The prices for a glass go from 2 to 3 Euro in 7cl glasses (at the counter only) and from 4 to 6 Euro in 14cl glasses. Different volumes and prices : for a wine priced at 2 Euro/7cl or 4 Euro/14cl, you get 25cl for 7 Euro, 50cl for 14 Euro and 21 Euro for the bottle. A few names that I read recently on the list : Tribouley, C&P Breton, Queyroux, Descombes, les Griottes, Chidaine, Cadart. The bar kept the long working days from the wholesale-food-market era, and it is opened 6 days a week from 8am to 2am. The staff is relax and as it is a real neighborhood bar, you don't need to be a wine geek to feel at ease here, but Patrick shines when you show you genuinely liked his wine. Alain (the man on the left, picture at the top), the chief waiter, retired last august but the young generation is there.
If you want to have a better than average experience of Beaujolais Nouveau day, this is one of the bar to visit not only because you will be sure to drink something worth, Lapierre, Descombes, Foillard (or whoever, you can trust Patrick's choice) but also because the place is alive and crowded (plus, the musicians..). Patrick knows personaly the artisan vignerons you drink the wine from, and you even might see some of them if you are around at 1am, as this is usually in these late hours that the vignerons come at the bar to deliver a few cases (Thanks to the mayor, Paris has become a nightmare to drive by day).Jean MarieI can't but say a few words about Jean marie, a figure of the neighborhood who passed away maybe a couple years ago. He lived in a tiny rent near rue Montorgueil and you could see him every day if you lived or worked around. He was the soul of this village and many people and shop owners remember him fondly. I took this picture of him sitting near the Tonneaux des Halles on a Beaujolais Nouveau evening, and Patrick had poured him what I think was a glass of Descombes. Happy man...Aux Tonneaux des Halles28 rue Montorgueil75001 ParisMetro : Les Halles/Etienne Marcel (line 4)Phone 01 42 33 36 19

Comments

Thanks to the mayor of Paris, there is more bicycling and less pollution. People have got to get used to using less cars. the problem is not the mayor of Paris, its people who want to drive instead of using mass transit

[Bertrand]

The opinions are diverse on the subject, but if there is more bicycling today, many people say the pollution is the same or even worse, only that with fewer cars (stalled in traffic jams) instead of many moving cars...

[jason carey]

one day your pro-car mindset will be in the dustbin of history

[Lacey]

I just stumbled upon your blog during my late night food and wine blog wandering-- I really enjoy your site and look forward to see more.

Cheers!
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[Leland]

Music and wine can make a great collabortion at times.
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