Paris Wine Bars : Café de la Nouvelle Mairie

A wine bar with a terraceParis, near the Panthéon (5th arrondissement)
Wine bars with a terrace aren't that many in Paris, you have Aux Tonneaux des Halles rue Montorgueil or Le Mauzac also near the Panthéon and otherwise it's often only a couple of tables and that's it.
The Café de la Nouvelle Mairie has also a terrace, it is heated in winter and overlooks a tiny square on the side with a few trees and a fountain (see the picture on the right with the Café de la Nouvelle Mairie in the background), a stone throw from the Panthéon, one of the main historic landmarks of Paris (a church turned into a secular temple under the French revolution). When the evening comes, the street and the square get even quieter, which makes the place very attractive when you think that you're in the middle of historic Paris.
The clientèle of this wine bar is very diverse, they can be artists of the music industry (Universal Records is on the other side of the street), students, teachers (there are many university institutions around there like the sorbonne or the Institut Pierre & Marie Curie), professionals, bobos and locals, the latter coming often in the evening after work. As Benjamin (the manager) says it, it is a wealthy neighborhood but with middle class people too. It's not the 7th or the 16th, the place has a soul and breathes intellectual life.
If you're looking for ambiance in the latin quarter and want to drink artisan and natural wines, that's certainly one of the Paris wine bars to go to.

The bar room Nicolas Carmarans opened this wine bar in 1994, prior to that date he had always had a strong connection with the world of wine through his father who already had a bistro (a bar) and also through a friend of his, Bernard Pontonnier, who runned the bar here from 1979 to 1985. Pontonnier, who was from the Touraine, Loire, had already a nice selection of wines here. At his bar which had already a terrace then, you could see people like the photographer Robert Doisneau and it was deeply entrenched in the neighborhood life. See this page where you can see Doisneau sitting with friends at the Terrace there enjoying good wine. The bar was then closed in 1985 (see here a few black & white pictures shot on the last open day of the bar) and remained closed for a while. The place remained empty for years, stripped of all its interior furniture, there was not even the counter left. >Knowledgeable sommeliersWhen Nicolas Cormorans reopened the place in 1994, he came to discover and appreciate the natural, undoctored wines. He liked them for different reasons, because of the way they tasted, their health side, the positive energy found in these wines. And the passionate vignerons behind these wines was another human touch in this passion that made the whole experience great. Even if there is a Parisian trend in following these artisan wines, Nicolas Carmarans comes from a family with old roots in the Paris Café scene, his ancestors were bougnats, these people who operated some sort street shops where, a century ago, wine in bulk was sold along with wood and coal in Paris. Their owners as well as the regular bistro owners almost always came from the rural and impoversihed central mountains (Massif Central). His family is from the Aveyron in the central mountains and although he still owns La Nouvelle Mairie, he left the management of the bar to someone else and went back to his native Aveyron...to make wine.Jazz manouche at the barAlthough La Nouvelle Marie was on my list for a post for years, a recent visit during which many pictures here were shot help me speed the delivery of this story. A photo exhibition featuring wine bar or wine restaurant owners was set in the Nouvelle Mairie and several pics here were shot during the opening evening of the exhibition. There was this nice cool music by Jean-Yves Dubanton (guitar) and Jean-Claude Laudat (accordion), on the Jazz Manouche style, a genre very popular in France, with reminiscence of Django Reinhart. Watch the video below, you'll have a feel of the bar too.
The photographs were by Manu Chavassieux, see his wine-people pics here, you'll recognize many key people of the wine bar scene. Many of the people featured on his close-range black and white portraits were around that evening. His website name (Nikon ni Soumise, sounds like neither dumb nor slave in French) is a humoristic allusion to Ni Putes ni Soumises (neither whores nor slaves), a support group set up in the muslim suburbs to help secular, unveiled women organize and resist threats and violence because of their independant way of life.
I know a few of these pictured people, but not all of them by far, I think I recognized a few faces that I remember having come across at tastings here and there. The exhibition opening started slowly by 7pm and then the room and the terrace filled at a point that you had almost to stand on the street with your glass. La Nouvelle Mairie on a busy eveningBack to Nicolas Carmarans : sorry, I haven't a picture of him although we discussed together that evening at La Nouvelle Mairie. Here is a link to a nice article with picture about Carmarans and his wine bar. Nicolas left the day-to-day management of the bar three years ago and went back to the Aveyron to make wine. He made a first try with 0,3 hectares in his family village Campories and later took some more vineyards and he now works on 3,5 hectares. He has some Chenin for his cuvée Selve, he considers his terroir as being optimal for whites, it's a granitic/sandy soil. On the red side, he has some Fer Servadou (a local variety), Gamay and Negret de Bagniard, also a local variety close to the Cöt but more adapted to high altitude (his vineyards are all terraced and at an altitude of 500 meters). His vineyaeds are 25 years old on average and he also replanted much of them. He was helped for eveything by other artisan vignerons around France, including for the vineyard management and tasks, which are not an easy thing to learn overnight when you come from Paris. His élevage is made in casks only, the fermentations take place in vats, except for the whites and rosés for which it vtakes place in casks. Of course, he doesn't use any usual additives and relies on indigenous yeasts for the fermentation. He makes carbonic macerations in fiber vats or wooden vats for the reds. The only time he may add some SO2 for the white, 2 grams, (not systematic) is at bottling, a gram or two. For the 2008 vintage he only added some and for the 2009 wines he still doesn't know. He makes the deliveries of his wines himself to the cavistes or bars in Paris, and he manages to drive early in the day when it's cool to protect the wines. What ruins the wines (and not only sulphur-free wines) is having a pallet waiting two hours or more on a deck under the sun between two truck transfers.The terrace on a busy eveningSpeaking of his 2009 wines, his red cuvée (named Mauvais Temps, that's the name of the climat) will be available early june. He says that because the winter was very cold, the cellars are still very cool as well as ther wines and they don't want to speed them to bottling in these conditions.
The whites will be bottled next summer, in august, and available in september. He sells half of his wines in Paris, in la Nouvelle Mairie of course, but also at Le Verre Volé, at Le Baratin, Caves de l'Insolite, L'Amuse Vin and other cavistes dealing with natural wines. His prices are something like 6,8 € without tax (for professionals) and end up at about 13 € for the reds. For the whites, the pro price is 9 € and retail is 18 €. He exports already, to Japan, to David Lillie in New York (Chambers Street Wines), London, Geneva.Having white poured in la Nouvelle Mairie I came back once with B. to the Nouvelle Mairie after this photo exhibition opening, we had a glass each, B. chose a Champagne Lassaigne and I got a red from the Roussillon, a Cötes Catalanes, La petite Baigneuse, Trinquette 2008 (picture on right), a nice thirst wine with tannins. That's when Benjamin and Quentin, the two managers (not on the pictures here) arrived and as I told about my writing a small story and was asking how they chose and changed their wine list, Benjamin said that he was looking constantly for other cuvées to renew the bottle batches of the cellar as they were being finished. He doesn't take part to many tastings in Paris and likes to go to the provinces and taste there. There's also a human experience in these winery visits that he doesn't want to miss, even if driving after such festive reunions may be problematic nowadays in France. He knows personally many of these vignerons and likes to visit them, plus they make sometimes so little wine that not all the potential buyers get their bottles. Some of the wines he buys stay in the Nouvelle Mairie's cellar quite a long time before being proposed on the menu, be it by the glass or by the bottle (there's no menu listing all their bottles actually). They have some 3500 bottles in the cellar (pic on left) right now but they don't tell everything to their customers because some cuvées and vintages are so rare that they reserve the opening of such bottles for special occasions. For example they have in the cellar all the Gramenon wines since 2000, can you believe it. He says that the La Mémé vines (La Mémé is a cuvée and a vineyard) are so old that there may be no more wine made from this plot in 10 years from now. As we speak about Gramenon, he goes somewhere and comes back with two bottles (see picture below) that he offers us to taste with him : they are samples that he got at his friend's place Le Repaire de Cartouche (a restaurant known for its huge wine list), these are wines made by Maxime François Laurent, the son of Mrs Gramenon, and are not bottled yet and even less on the market.These two Gramenon wines are lovely. The first is a Côtes du Rhone, Il Fait Soif 2009, a wine with cherry notes, prune, earth and garrigue, and tannins all along says B. The second wine (bottle on the left) is Pourpre 2009. Very enjoyable in the mouth, lots of substance with tight tannins at the same time, some spices also. Very enjoyable mouth, for me. He says that the price of this wine is 7,5 € without tax and probably 16 € retail. But they will keep this wine in the cellar when they'llbe delivered, until it's ready for serving.Tasting two Gramenon samplesAbout the wines by the glass : they have roughly 18 wines on the black-board menu, half i n whites, half in reds, with prices starting at 4 € a glass, with people/estates like Descombes, Mosse, Dard & Ribo, Villemade, Montanet, Duchêne, Meylet, Guillot, Ausseil, Lassaigne, Binner, Souhaut, Riffault, Causse Marine, Arena. Of course, this list changes very often.
They also keep a limited list of the wines in bottle "that taste well" : about 13 bottles are listed on a blackboard ("les beaux flacons", priced from 35 € to 90 €) with for example a Pierre Beaugé (Auvergne) vin de table "Vitriol" 2006 at 35 €, a Bandol Saint Anne "Collection" 2000 at 59 €, an Overnoy Arbois Pupillin Chardonnay 2004 at 35 €, or a Fleurie 2006 Ultime by Yvon Métras at 45 €.
To go with these wines, you can order some food (not an obligation, it's a wine bar) and la Nouvelle Mairie is also known for the quality of the solid food. The charcuterie and vegetables, meat and everything is sourced directly in the regions. Prices begin at 5,9 € for a planchette of charcuterie. A great piece of jazz manoucheThis video is a bit too short but you'll certainly enjoy the music of Jean-Yves Oubanton (guitar) and Jean-Claude Laudat (accordion), plus the two other guys that I don't know the name of. I missed to go to the terrace and shoot a glimpse of its street life. You can see the black & white pictures lined on the walls. I shot that video at the beginning of the event, there would have been no way to do it later in the evening because it was quite packed.

Café de la Nouvelle Mairie19 rue des Fossés Saint Jacques75005 Parisphone 01 44 07 04 41Metro Cardinal Lemoine (line 10)RER Luxembourgnonstop from 8am to midnight at least (more like 2am on busy days) closed sat-sun

Comments

[olivier bailly]

Thank you about the link !

[Martin V.]

I try and make it to Café de la Nouvelle Mairie whenever I am in France from Australia. It has such a positive feeling, so alive. I still treasure an evening last July, warm evening, sitting outside with my newspaper for company and the beautiful students for entertainment. As an English only speaker the staff made me so welcome and kept my glass full of the most enjoyable wines. And as a tourist the location is perfect. Roll on summer and my return!

[Alfredo Dias]

Just great.

You must try this: Le Coup de Grace (26 Rue Berthollet, 75005).

[Kzb63]

This is so cool ...I hope that I can visit some day...

[Natasha Edwards, Paris Expert, www.simonseeks.com]

They also do excellent hot food at lunch, when it gets very busy - much more than the standard wine bar cheese and charcuterie - with dishes like mushroom risotto, good fish. Beware, though, they don't take credit cards.

[narendra singh]

this is cool ... i hope that i can visit some time

[Account Deleted]

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[Marie Martin]

Ca donne vraiment envie, je vais y aller dès que j'aurais du temps libre !