You certainly know about the food trucks where you can find sometimes refined foods but I guess like me you weren't familiar with getting your artisan food in an underground parking, and this, only at certain days you're emailed about beforehand. That's what I was initiated recently in the 20th arrondissement after having been tipped through Gilles Manzoni about the initiative of Jean-Christophe Hanier (and himself). Jean-Christophe holds regularly open tables in this underground parking (in the 2nd basement to be precise) where people in-the-know can come and buy organic artisan food and vegetables sourced by himself in France and Italy. You can almost certain that you'll get a pour of artisan wine as a bonus, as Gilles has his reserve there (he now stopped working as a natural-wine distributor and he works at Caves Augé).
The other day we had the surprise to be there at the same time as another visitor we're familiar with : Jean Foillard. The winegrower was happening to be in Paris delivering himself his Beaujolais for the Nouveau day which was soon after, and he stopped there to say hello to his friend Gilles Manzoni to whom he used to deliver wine in this very underground parking. Chatting with Jean Foillard to get the last news of Villié-Morgon while sipping successively a glass of Remi Dufaitre's Beaujolais and of Fred Cossard's Nuits Saint Georges Les Damodes 2010, I'd love to experience that in the grocery store at the corner... When I think to the dull organic-food chains in Paris, I can't imagine them ever having such a lively and enjoyable ambiance, it would be like fundamentalists having fun....
Along the years when Gilles distributed wine to restaurants and private customers, you'd be surprised to know how many outstanding artisan vintners passed through this parking for a few glasses and fun while delivering a few bowes (or pallets) of wine. I'll ask Gilles about the numbers but I'm sure that many good restaurants would dream of getting just a share of the artisan-wine celebrities who ventured in this particular corner of the parking lot...
It's rather surrealist to see your grocer open a bottle of wine and pour glasses for free to the people visiting his shop, not to say that the wines are all very enjoyable natural wines. You notice that as he pours the wines, other visitors arrive, it always
work that way, even at home, when a friend is late for dinner, just pop open a bottle to begin drink without him/her and he/she will show up miraculously...
You can also buy bottles at this improvised grocery if you want, I bought a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau by Remi Dufaitre that day, it cost between 7 and 8 € if I remember (we didn't drink it yet). Fred Cossard 's Les Damodes was of course lovely but a bit out of my budget. Having a sip of this wine just for visiting the "grocery" in the bottom of the parking was such a treat...
This "ephemeral grocery store" being located in the 2nd basement of an undeground parking beneath a residential building, visitors and potential customers had to text Jean-Christophe to have the electric door opened, which was tricky because it was beyond the reach of the remote control, so he had to walk to the upper level to have the tilt door open.
This all had the ways of secret Freemasonry meetings and the wine that we sipped there was itself like a pagan rite or a dubbing ceremony : Welcome to the new catacombs...
I already foresee a new cult where we'd meet in secret places to eat/buy pork and drink [real] wine__ don't laugh, when I see what is going on around us that could come sooner than expected.
When I think about it, I still have trouble to grasp how I could drink such good wines just for dropping ang buying a saucisson and a terrine. If I hadn't been through all this
personnally (same for B.) I'd think the guy relating me these things made it up. While Jean-Christophe and Gilles regularly open bottled to let the visitors taste and see if they like the wines they sell, I think this particular one was brought by Jean Foillard himself.
In short, these underground grocery events often start with a single bottle opened after the first couple of customers walked down, and a couple hours later and more visitors in between you look at all the bottles standing almost empty on the table and you wonder if this is for real.
You know what ? I think these people gravitating around the natural wines are all crazy and have contempt for the cold rules of expenditure and revenue accounting, and the mysterious thing is they fare well nonetheless (just maybe with a bit less cash in the bank than the efficient and boring business-minded people, but they have and give so much more fun). I missed quite a few of these grocery sessions and in the way I probably missed tons of great wines, B. and I have really have to rethink our whole sourcing of vegetables and charcuterie...
For a living, Jean-Christophe has been originally into computers for 25 years (and he still is), working freelance since the last 12 years for corporate customers. Once (6 years ago)
as he wanted to organize an event with friends around wines with a tasting and so on, he contacted Gilles to see if himself or another person he knew could help him direct this tasting., He knew Gilles because they both had young daughters attending the same school, his young daughter told him that Gilles was selling wine. Gilles then contacted B. whom he knew had gone through a training with sommelier Alain Segelle and she accepted the challenge, doing a good job introducing the party to natural/artisan wines. Her training was intended for Japanese amateurs but doing it in French was a good exercise too. The wine even featured 2 whites and 4 reds (sourced from both Gilles Manzoni and Caves Augé) and it helped him broaden his interest in natural wines.
From then on, Jean-Christophe began to love this issue of good products, be it charcuterie, cheese, vegetables or artisan wines and he decided to set up a direct-sale system on the side of his day job, with products he'd buy to product sourcers selling artisan, limited-volume products to restaurants and demanding chefs in Paris. Having no street shop yet, Gilles told him he could put a table in the underground parking where he stocks his wine, the ephemeral grocery was launched. Friends and acquaintances were tipped about the days through email.
What I feel as I visit episodically this ephemeral grocery is that I'll learn about wine very time I go there even if with the only intention to buy a terrine or some mozarella. Here I
heard Jérôme Beffy explaining the behind-the-scenes of this wine on which he knows a lot, incidently.
Asked about his sources for the products of his grocery, Jean-Christophe says that he buys several of them from Michel, a sourcer with good connections in Ardèche (northern Rhone) and who already sells to demanding chefs and restaurants in Paris. He learnt about this sourcer through Gilles who knew him for years and they both decided to buy him stuff, for their personnal consumption at first, then somehow the idea came out to do that professionally and sell the saucisses, cheeses and other products to a small circle of knowledgeable amateurs who were asking for it. That's how it all started.
Last september as he was waiting for a freelance job who was kind of late to materialize, he took the time to set this up to kill time and now it's slowly taking pace along his other day job, through a grocery sale every two weeks. Everytime he plans a sale he sends an email to the people who asked for it and you just have to drop at the "secret" location between 6pm and 9pm (or possibly later if good wine brings nice people together...).
This Vouvray 2003 was made by Hervé Villemade, who is located in the Cherverny region, another Loire Appellation. Hervé Villemade used the grapes of Nicolas
Renard
who was then working for Lemaire-Fournier which B. and I visited almost 10 years ago and which closed down since. The wine even if sweet is still pleasantly fresh and in spite of my reluctance in general for sweet wines I liked this and bought a bottle (Costs 15 € here). It was an easy drink and you couldn't wait for a refill, something I'm more used with dry thirst wines usually.
According to Jérôme Beffy, Hervé Villemade bought the juice that was still fermenting (possibly at a sluggish pace like often in 2003) and sort of made a négoce wine here, and his try at Vouvray seems to me a success.
After an interruption at the turn of the year, we're expecting impatiently the next grocery sessions (Jean-Christophe is looking for fresh products right now), waiting for the secret email that will give us the key...
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