Paris Wine Bars ( & Restaurants) : Vivant

Pierre Jancou opening the first bottle at Vivant Rue des Petites Ecuries (Paris, 10st arrondissement)
After a pause of maybe one year and a half (exactly since october 2009), Pierre Jancou is back on the wine & gastronomy scene in Paris with his new venue which he named rightfully Vivant (alive in French), a very good alternative for real or natural food/wine. Each time Pierre creates a restaurant/wine bar (it’s never clear which side of the two his places are tilting the most, by the way), Paris gains another natural-wine spot, and that’s a good way for us not to be too sorry when he decides to hang up and disappear for a while in the French provinces.
Since he left Racines (his second creation after la Crèmerie), Pierre Jancou retreated to the Drome département in the Rhone region where he finished his country house where his wife and children now live. This pause allowed him to enjoy his three children who are aged between 4 and a half and 14 and a half. He also worked for a TV channel (France 5) for a few months, preparing food live for celebs, this was fun and cool he says. He also finished writing a book (titled Vin Vivant, see cover on the right) for the Editions Alternatives (Charlotte Gallimard) where he explains in length the difference between the conventional wines, the organic wines, the natural wines and what he calls the living wines (vins vivants or wines that are alive), wines that (in addition to be additives free) didn’t get any added SO2, even for bottling. In this book he profiles 12 vignerons who make such living wines, each recounting their own experience and challenges. Further in the book, he also lists 150 other vignerons which he likes even though they’re not fully into this living-wine thing. The book should be available by next september (see link above to Amazon).

The bar with the Berkel slicing machine This place on rue des Petites Ecuries is not that far from his previous venue at Racines, passage des Panoramas, and this itinerary map shows you how close it is (an easy walk), especially that this itinerary is meant for cars respecting the one-way-streets rules and doesn't go straight. The shop at Petites Ecuries has been a bistrot since the 1930s’ and before that it was an oiselerie, a bird shop, which is why these vintage decorative tiles on the wall. The early 20th century was a time when there were still lots of industries and craftsmen in this central-Paris neighborhood, like also earthenware-tiles workshops, which explains again the state-of-the-art wall tiles (these ones are signed on a corner : «Ginard Denis & Fils»). When this pre-opening event took place, the kitchen was not in place yet but it was due to be set up in the following days april 11th) and large enough to be fully in charge of the meals there, in the spirit of Racines.
There’s a glass panel on the ground on the side between the bar and the dining room (see picture on left), which opens on a steep stairwell going down to the cellar, which a relatively-large 25-square-meter room where Pierre will store the bottles of his selected vignerons. The cellar will be temperature-regulated in summer for his fragile wines and he’ll keep also in a corner the artisanal food and the meat in a special refrigerated cabinet. The cool-maintained cellar will be good for his additives-free wines, some being SO2 free and some getting light doses of it, these wine needing a proper storage to the consumer end. The first line of glasses... What Pierre Jancou looks in the wine is the drinkability, and he says that, without naming some vignerons who are otherwise very talented, there are a few people he can’t drink much of their wines, because they give this dryness feel in the mouth that makes him stop drinking more of the stuff, and what turns the wine this way is having added systematically 3 grams of SO2 at bottling. With the wines of Pierre Beauger, Alain Castex, Claude Courtois, Sébastien Riffault and others, he has this pleasure side and easy drinkability, and he never experiences a down side. Wine is food, Pierre says, and the body feels when it gets a healthful food, and it reacts accordingly. When you get a hard time keeping your eyes open after a couple glasses of certain wines, there’s something wrong in the way those wines have been made. The bar counter at Vivant Pierre still has his Italian producers and he will serve here in Vivant both wine and non-wine delicacies, like the gems of his friend Gianni Frasi, whose family has been making an extraordinay artisanal coffee in Verona for 4 generations (Pierre is his agent for France). Gianni Frasi also used his deep-rooted expertise on Coffee roasting to make what Pierre considers is a top-quality Sarawak pepper with extremely refined aromas, drying the pepper for example with mango shoots or other spices. Pierre says that since he first tasted this pepper in his food, he can’t use any other. Watch this interview of Gianni Frasi made by Bruno Verjus, he speaks Italian and the traductor is Pierre Jancou in person... There, he says things that highlight that making artisan coffee is close to making natural wine, it's an art.
There’s a good chance that later in the year Pierre opens a shop next door to Vivant where you’ll be able to buy the wines and the Italian charcuterie, cheeses, pepper and other artisanal food, and there may be also room for a couple of tables there. Jean-Marie Berrux pouring his wine To serve the unique coffee of Gianni Frasi, Pierre uses this samely unique coffee machine that you can see on the picture above and on other pictures : it is a Faema Urania President, given to him by Gianni for the occasion, and this machine which was made in 1961 is the ancestor of the E 61, of the famed Italian espresso machine. Faema goes for Fabbrica Apparecchiature Elettro Meccaniche e Affini, and this cult machine is also silent, which is uncommon for an espresso machine.
I may be tempted to try this coffee next time I visit Vivant, in spite of the fact that I’m not an amateur of expresso coffee (I’m sometimes ashamed to admit it). Usually, I prefer what we use to call an American coffee because in the morning I like to drink quietly a large cup or two of coffee, and espresso would be way too strong for that. I don’t look for a strong taste at that time of the day, just a resonable amount of coffeine and an easy drink without blowing up my nerves. Also, if I drink an espresso after 10 am or 11 am, there are chances that I have trouble getting asleep in the evening... Beautiful colors Pierre Jancou got the Licence IV from the French alcohol administration for Vivant, which allows him to serve wine without food if he wants to, but Vivant will be primarily a restaurant, leaving yet the possibility to order just wine if there’s enough room or if the visitor drinks his glass at the counter. The counter is not huge, so don’t drop here as a big group without prior reservation expecting to drink a glass casually. There were occasional misunderstandings in Racines with people dropping unannounced and expecting to just sit for a glass like you’re supposed to in a wine bar. Let’s say that Vivant can be technically a wine bar but that the food and restaurant part will have priority. There should be nonetheless way to order a glass as long as you take it at the bar counter or that the room is almost empty. Slicing with the Berkel Pierre will begin to work at Vivant with the wines of about 15 vignerons, each bringing 5 cuvées which should make a total of 75 wines, and most being natural wines, or to label them more appropriately, living wines. Asked about a few names, he drop the ones of Pierre Beauger (Auvergne) whose wines he has been serving for a number of years now, Alain Castex in Banyuls, also Jean-Yves Peron who makes extraordinary wines in the Savoie out of a tiny 2-hectare surface (he just tasted his 2009 wines and was impressed by them, ading that the young vigneron will surprise many). There will be of course many of the wines he used to serve in Racines, there will be Claude & Julien Courtois, many Italian wines from Gabrio Bini and Massa Vecchia or also the ones of Dario Princic in Slovenia, his friend Daniele Piccinin.
Speaking of the meat products, it will still be exclusive-quality ones but he will not buy it to Hugo Desnoyer, he now buys the meat directly from the producer in the French provinces. Gabrio Bini pouring his incredible dry Muscat Gabrio Bini was an architect in a former life, and he now makes wine on the most traditional way, using different containers like for example the traditional Roman Dolia, which are buried to keep the underground freshness. He lives in a small, sparsely-populated island (5000 residents in winter) located between Sicilia and Africa and named Pantelleria, a fantastic island he says, which has all the climate conditions needed to grow vines without using any treatment, even the ones allowed in the organic farming. His vineyard surface is now 7 hectares, split between terraces and flatland, mostly planted with the white Muscat of Alexandria, which is usually vinified as sweet wine (named Passito de Panteleria which he doesn’t consider being wine, by the way) and that he vinifies dry. He also grows Catarato with which he makes a rosé very typical of the island, and he also has some Pinot Noir and some Cabernet. His oldest vines are 70 years. The output goes from 5000 to 15 000 bottles a year. On this opening day, our Italian friend brought some Muscat d’Alexandrie 2007 & 2009, Beyond France, he exports to Japan, via exporter Reiko Ozazaki. The wine that he first pours us that days was a 2009 bottled a month and a half ago and prior to that spend a year in amphorae. Great wine indeed, superb nose, and such a character in the mouth, nice structure, very classy. This wine makes an astoundingly-low 12° in alcohol, remember that it comes from a region where wines tend to be much higher in that regard. Jean-Pascal Sarnin speaking with Pierre Sarnin & Berrux is the name of a négoce founded by the namesake producers (first name respectively Jean-Pascal & Jean-marie) who are here in Vivant for the opening. They purchase organing grapes and vinify them without additives except a small addition of SO2 at bottling. They make some 20 000 or 30 000 bottles yearly, 12 cuvées split between white and red, in Bourgogne, St Romain, Beaune and a few 1er Cru wines, vinified wholeclustered, without sulphur and in casks. We drink the wine of Jean-Marie Berrux who has a 1,5-hectare vineyard of his own that he farms on biodynamy, it is a Chardonnay, and he vinifies it in his tiny facility in Meursault (he makes 8000 bottles a year altogether). He used to make a single cuvée, «le Petit Tétû», and since 2010 he added another one named Le Tétû, and all his wine is totally S02 free, even for bottling. Very nice fresh wine with a vibrant richness, a pleasure to swallow. Pierre cutting a baguette Speaking about bread, Pierre Jancou says that he’ll put the good old baguette back in the front seat : he is a bit tired of coming across the same big leaven bread in whatever restaurant you go and he is looking for a baker making an excellent baguette to eat at Vivant. Leaven bread is good of course but you just see nothing else nowadays, and with the charcuterie or to plunge into a sauce, there’s nothing like a traditional baguette. Bertrand Auboyneau of bistrot Paul Bert We now drink Sébastien Riffault Akmeniné 2009, the only drinkable Sancerre, says Pierre Jancou with a laugh. What a nose ! very nice wine, a great enjoyment anywhere you look at it, it reverberates in the mouth, there’s a freshness in there, a mineral feel plus a generous ampleness. Made from 10 plots on different terroirs, mostly limestone, with vines aged from 20 to 40 years. Note that this outstanding wine is vinified, aged and bottled without a single SO2 addition (or any other vinification additive as well). Sébastien changed the fine print on the label from «contains sulfites» to «contains sulfites naturally», meaning that the only sulfites that could be detected in this wine have been the result of the vinification itself.
People have been arriving at Vivant, I saw Bertrand Auboyneau of the bistrot Paul Bert (pictured above), but I missed Hirotake who arrived after I left. Hirotake Ooka is an excellent winemaker from the Rhone (Saint Péray) whose sulphur-free white wines will be available at Vivant. At one point, I was listening to the happy crowd sipping my glass when I heard some one laughing loud, saying how enjoyable it was to take a leak on the vineyard of the Romanée Conti. Don’t ever imagine you’ll know who boasted doing that, but if I had a subscription section at Wineterroirs, this prime information would be reserved for its purple pages...

Vivant 43 rue des Petites Ecuries 75010 Paris phone 01 42 46 43 55 Metro Chateau d'Eau (line 4) Bonne Nouvelle (lines 8 & 9) open monday through friday for lunch and dinner www.morethanorganic.com

Comments

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[paul]

Juste une précision, le café espresso est celui contenant le moins de caféine au litre, contrairement à l'american coffee (ou café filtre) pour lequel l'eau est beaucoup plus longtemps en contact du café moulu. C'est ce temps de contact (la percolation) qui définit le taux de caféine dans la boisson, pas la pression qui l'accélère et est, elle, uniquement responsable de l'extraction aromatique.

Si vous tolérez l'american style, nul doute qu'un espresso ne vous empêchera pas de dormir ... à moins d'en être persuadé avant de le boire. ;-)

[Group Purchase Online]

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[King Krak, I Drink The Wine]

I'm curious as to who the twelve producers he features in his book.

[craig underhill]

Can't wait to try this place in June!