Paris Wine Bars : Le Vin au Vert

Sébastien and Zoe Métro Anvers (line 2), Paris
It's not that common for a genuine and casual wine venue to be found at a walking distance from a very touristic area in Paris. Usually you have to go to the unchartered waters of the 10th, the 11th or the 20th arrondissement, which is OK for the weathered Parisian but a bit adventurous for a first time visitor. Here (at 70 rue de Dunkerque) with Le Vin au Vert, we have an excellent and relaxed caviste/wine bar at only 30 seconds maybe from the Métro Anvers, which is the landing pad for tourists on their way to the Sacré-Coeur hill. Like many other métro stations elsewhere in Paris, the surface structures were designed by Hector Guimard in the Art Nouveau style (pic on right). Hector Guimard also authored the Abbesses métro station which is close by (a must-see spot).
When you step out from the Anvers métro station, the tourist crowd usually walks northward, taking the narrow and sloppy streets leading to the Montmartre hill. These streets with their lined shops selling junk souvenirs and cloths are the common feature of mass tourism with also the scam players and their cardboard boxes, nothing really exciting if there wasn't this wonderful view on the Sacré Coeur up there and the promise of more quiet streets in between. But if you walk just the other way from the métro station, I mean southward, the area is more authentic and untouristic, and that's where you'll find this wine bar, surprisingly close from the tourist magnet. I understand that when you reach the surface at Anvers and have this glimpse on the Sacré Coeur (pic on the left), it's hard to resist and not follow the crowd, so let's consider that this wine-bar visit will be for at least your second visit in the area, when you're beginning to look for real Paris, and eventually for real wines.

The room at Le Vin au Vert This venue opened more than 2 years ago (june 2009) but we were quite late to react. B. and I actually went there last october for the first time, right after listening to Alela Diane at the Trianon which is close by. I remember saying to B. that with a little luck, Alela and her close circle of musicians/family could pop up in this place for dinner, which would really have made my day... But the word-of-mouth reputation of Le Vin au Vert hadn't reached Alela yet, and she went somewhere else that evening. I say word of mouth because I don't think they rely on any other means here to be known, and it's enough for the people in the neighborhood and elsewhere in Paris to get tipped about the great value of the venue and come. There aren't yet any other bar/caviste dealing with real wines around there as far as I know, although the 9th and the 18th arrondissement near Abbesses is inhabited by an otherwise cultured and refined population.
As you see, the place is very simply designed but warmful at the same time, it's an open space with a wall of bottles on the left, the kitchen and bar counter in the far end and the dining room filling the rest. To separate the room from the bottle wall, there's just a long and narrow display board where you find these days a wide range of Champagne bottles.
The place was formerly an eatery dealing with brunch, pastries and crêpes, nothing really exciting, and they did a lot of remodelling to get what we see today. Sébastien helping a customer For a wine venue sporting both the caviste and the restaurant/bar options, it's one of the rare ones where it's really easy to drop just to purchase a bottle to go, you obviously don't feel like you're disturbing a restaurant. This may have to do with the clear separation between the tables and the bottle wall, but also with the relaxed approach of the owners, who aren't pushy at all and do their caviste work perfectly even if they also have to take care for the patrons sitting at the tables. In some places you may feel that the heart of the business is the high-yield restaurant part and the staff doesn't have much time for your bottle purchase. The last time I visited, I saw several people walking in, clearly with the only goal to buy one or several bottles, and if needed, Sébastien was there to give advice on the wines and winemakers. They seemed regulars, probably people living around here or having just finished work and choosing their treat for their dinner. Also, if you're around late when other shops are closed, it's unique to know that you can drop in and buy additives-free wines at retail prices. If not all, most of the wines here are more or less what we use to call natural wines, that is wines made without additives and with minimum intervention, many being virually sulphur free. Prices are very affordable, with a few wines around 6 or 8 € and many just above 10 €. There's even a bottle at 3,6 €, it's a Syrah made by Les Vignerons Ardéchois, which is a Coopérative following the way opened by the Coopérative d'Estézargues, that is, implementing separate cuvées for the best terroirs and also hand harvest. I'm not sure if this wine is additives free but I'll try it one of these days. If you're sipping your glass at a table and haven't a clue on what bottle to buy when you leave (I can't imagine spending time there without buying a bottle), it may be interesting to see what these unidentified shoppers buy. Some are eager to learn what Sébastien or another staff has to say, but some go straight to a particular bottle and if it's not particularly expensive, I'd feel induced to try too. Bottle wall & tables This first thing that stroke me when I had a look on the bottles standing on the shelves is that the wine portfolio is not only made with the usual list of natural wines found in this new-generation cavistes and wine bars. Not that I balk at the sight of bottles made by Foillard, Breton or Overnoy (if they keep working this way, there will be never enough of them), but it's always pleasant to fall upon things made by winemakers sharing this artisanship philosophy and about whom you never heard anything before. And here, there seems to be quite a number of such wines coming out of the blue. On my first visit for example, I purchased this bottle of Loire Cabernet Franc (on the right) made by Frederic Hardouin, and this cuvée Original 2008 which was a table wine (labelled vin de france) costing about 7 € (to go) was a very pleasant surprise, an easy-drinking wine with no artifice. It's from a terroir close to Chinon which yields very supple cabernet-franc wines because the soils are more wet there. Frederic Hardouin decided in 1996 to quit his job in the metallurgy sector and start a winery in the Chinon area for which he had a crush. After the wine school, he was trained by Charles Joguet, among others.
Another successful try was this bottle of Alsace Pinot Noir 2010 on the left by Pierre & Doris Rietsch. When I arrived at the Vin au Vert, there was a last bottle of their other Pinot-Noir cuvée, a slightly-larger bottle which was priced at about 8 € and seemed to sell like crazy, but I waited too much before choosing the bottle and someone snatched the last bottle right in front of me, so I turned to this other cuvée which was priced at something like 10,5 €, and this happened to be also a very good value. This lightly-turbid Pinot Noir (obviously unfiltered), is refreshingly fruity and alive, with this right level of tannins and pepper feel which I like to find in pinots. The Domaine Rietsch is managed by a family with deep roots in the Mittembergheim area and their natural-wine approach which began precisely with their Pinot Noir, is now extended to their other wines using only indigenous yeasts and favoring an élevage on the lees. They divided their wine range into two categories, the classical wines and the natural wines, but as far as I understand, both lines of wines are made naturally (additives free and from organic grapes), only that the classical range is made with a bit of SO2 to stabilize them, which makes the "natural" ones more alive if sometimes a bit perly. Sometimes classical is understood as conventional when speaking of wines, but this isn't the case here. Le Vin au Vert from the street The wines can be had in the bar/restaurant section for an additional cost of 7 € per bottle (cork fee), except for the wines costing less than 10 € which you can only get "to go". I understand that even with a cork fee, it wouldn't be very good for the business if people could sit and spend their evening drinking wines costing 3,6 to 7 € a bottle. But it's still a very good value, considering you get genuine artisan wines at prices slightly above 10 €.
Here are a few random wines I saw on the shelves : Domaine des Pothiers, Hors Piste, Pinot Gris made by Denise, Germain and Georges Paire in the Loire département (near Roanne at the west of Lyons). Also a Chenin 2009 by Nicolas Bertin (Anjou, Loire) at 16 €. A Côtes du Rhone white 2010, La Friande, by Domaine de la Jaume at 8,4 €. Jacky Preys' cuvée Silex Touraine 2008 (Loire Sauvignon) at 7,5 €. La Chapinière Touraine Sauvignon 2010 at 6,9 €. The cuvée Tracassier 2010 by Alain Allier (Languedoc), a 100%-grenache table wine at 13,8 €. Another cuvée by Alain Allier, Cacous, a table wine (vin de France) at 10,8 €, it's a blend of 70% grenache and 30 % syrah. Further, I spot a Jean-François Ganevat (Jura) Sous la Roche, cuvée Florine, Chardonnay 2009, sold 21 €. Another Ganevat, cuvée de garde, a 2005 blend of 50 % Chardonnay/Savagnin (both being old vines), vinified sous voile (veil wine) during 48 months minimum, costs 20,5 €. <
On the red wines side : Domaine Thierry Navarre (Languedoc), cuvée Ribeyrenc (name of a forgotten variety used for this wine and which is also known under the name of Aspiran), vin de table costing 12 €. Other wine : Les Clampins D'Abord, table wine made by Isabelle Frère (Domaine Scarabée, Sorède, Languedoc-Roussillon), no printed vintage but it could be a 2008 (Didn't note the price for this one). Another : La Vigne Haute Costs, vin de France 2010 (table wine) bottled by Jeff Coutelou in Puimisson (Hérault, Languedoc) 15 €. Then a Chiroubles, Vin de Kav by Karim Vionnet at 14,8 €. L'Homme Cheval, unfiltered atypical Bordeaux, the shop tag says, at 15 €. I spot a bottle which costs only 6,8 €, a cuvée named Frivolle, a 12 ° Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes (Languedoc) made with Grenache & Syrah by Domaine Rouaud. Also a table wine from Domaine de l'Ausseuil, Prise de bec, Côtes de Rousillon Villages by Anne & Jacques de Chancel at 10,5 €. Also there's a Macon-Prissé Pierreclos AOC by Nicolas Rousset at 12 €. I see on the side a crown-capped bottle from Domaine de L'Anglore (southern Rhone) which may be a pet'nat (natural sparkling) and is a vin de France 2010 named Chemin de la Bruine, at 15,8 €. There's also a Chinon rosé, Lune Rousse 2010 by Frédéric Hardouin at 7,9 €.
That's just a few radom picks, but they have many more wines, some from winemakers you know, some from up-and-coming artisan vignerons.
They have also a few wines in magnums, costing about 40 or 50 €.
They also have close to 20 Champagne labels, at prices beginning at 17 € (Gratiot-Pillière) and others more well-known maisons like Billecart-Salmon, Lassaigne, Drappier, Jacquesson, with prices (not in order) like 65, 54, 34, 35, 26 and 23 €, and a few Champagne magnums at 110, 68, 62 and 39,9 €. Bringing glasses of wine The service seems good at Le Vin au Vert, I mean relaxed and no pressure from pushy waitstaff. As Aaron of Not Drinking Poison wrote in his report story about this place, you may sit for a glass even though it's dinner time, while in most place the staff will tell you no because dining with wine is more profitable. Well, they might not always tell you it's OK if it's really crowded but there's a good chance they will.
There are about 8 wines by the glass if I remember, a couple of them being at 4 € (sometimes it's 3,5 € like it was in october).
A few words about Sébastien and Etienne, who opened this place : they both studied enology, respectively in Montpellier and Bordeaux if I remember, worked in wineries, one of them (Sébastien) also worked at Le Verre Volé where he learned to know real wines like these. They select their portfolio through professional tastings and through personal contacts with winemakers who come to them with their production.
The food goes along the wine philosophy : no freezer, no microwave. They use fresh products and the menu is short and simple. The food is also affordable here, which is not always the case in venues serving this sort of wines. You also don't pay more in the evening. They usually have two hot dishes, an Italian-style salad and cold plates, plus two desserts. When B. and I ate here, we took respectively a big salad and a charcuterie/cheese plateau for 12 and 14 € if I remember. the bread, which is included, was a very good sliced baguette. Night view I shot this picture after leaving the Vin au Vert recently. I had parked the motorbike on the sidewalk of Avenue Trudaine on the lower side of the Place d'Anvers (the one with a garden atop an underground parking), and I thought I couldn't hit the road before shooting this snap. The Anvers métro station is at the far end on this picture, on the Boulevard de Rochechouart.

Le Vin au Vert 70 rue de Dunkerque 75009 Paris Métro Anvers (line 2) phone 01 83 56 46 93 tuesday thru saturday (closed sun-mon) 10:30-3pm & 5pm-midnight/2am (extended closing time in the night if it's crowded) Le Vin au Vert wine list (not updated, it seems)

Comments

[Frank]

Great last picture!

[Huei]

Good review!

With all that drink on offer, I'm surprised you could still ride your bike back!

[Greg N]

Just had a meal there on the strength of this write up. Lovely place; good food; gracious host and hostess. These guys deserve to succeed.