Musee du Vin

The Musee du Vin is in the 16th arrondissement at 5, Square Charles Dickens, Rue des Eaux, at one end of the Bir-Hakeim Bridge on the other side of the river from the Eiffel Tower. The metro stop is Passy. To get to the museum, go down the metro stairway, turn right on Square Alboni and right on Rue des Eaux--both very short distances. The museum is at the end of Rue des Eaux. The wine museum is located in old quarries of the Middle Ages, which were used as cellars in the 15th century. The brothers of the Order of Minimes du Couvent de Passy then produced wine very popular with King Louis XIII, from the wine harvest of the hillsides of the Seine. After restoration in 1950, the former cellars of the convent of Minimes served for awhile as cellars for the Eiffel Tower restaurants, before becoming the Wine Museum. The museum opened in 1984 and has displays showcasing the history of and techniques involved in French winemaking. The museum is also a restaurant and tasting room, and you get one glass of wine with your entry ticket. Better yet, if you book a lunch with them, your visit to the museum is free.

 

Entrance to the Musee du Vin

 

Sign above the door to the museum and restaurant

 

 

Restaurant offerings

 

Dining area of restaurant

 

 

My cousin Peter and his wife Pat joined us again this year for a weekend in Paris. Peter is now working in Switzerland.

 

Baby Bacchus, the god of wine

 

Members of the Council of Wine Stewards of France

The Wine brotherhood, founded in 1954, organizes many prestigious events in France, abroad, and in the museum. It gathers around the world many thousands of professionals and amateurs who ensure the retention of expertise and quality that make the world-famous French wines. The "Conseil des Echansons de France," (The Council of Wine Stewards of France) which runs the museum, offers to the public a wide range of cultural activities and events on the subject of the vine and wine.

 

 

A Certificate of Achievement from the Council

 

Cognac-making vats

 

For over two thousand years, French winemakers have continued to perfect their techniques to produce prestigious wines. The museum salutes the French craft of winemaking and displays tools used through the ages to work the grapevine and the vine. There is a collection of more than 2,000 pieces which are the actual tools used in growing the vines, making the wine and tasting the wine. The oldest tools date back a century before Christ to those more recent tools of the 19^th century.

 

 

Soil-tilling tools

 

 

Vine-planting tools

 

Grape-crushing equipment

 

 

Tiller

 

Bottling champagne

Wax figures, some historical such as Napoleon, Pasteur or Balzac, depict aspects of wine making and wine tasting.

Rotating champagne bottles

 

Tools to scrape the wine vat

 

The art of barrel-making

The worker is using a spokeshave, a woodworking hand tool used to smooth curved surfaces. (Peter, who does carpentry, recognized this tool immediately.)

 

Bottle filler

Checking on the wine cave late at night

 

Napoleon sampling wine

 

A typical café scene from the day

 

Testing the wine

 

A tool used to transfer wine from one vat to another

 

A collection of copper tools

 

Monks originally tended the vineyards and produced the wine. Since wine was essential for the celebration of the Catholic mass, assuring a supply was crucial. Winemaking monks also produced enough wine to ship all over Europe for secular use.

 

The museum’s official web site is:

www.museeduvinparis.com . On the website I saw the announcement about Wine Tasting classes at the museum. They take place in the vaulted cellars of the Wine Museum on a few Saturdays in the year from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm or on a few Fridays from 6 pm to 8 pm. A wine expert invites you to discover the delights of wine tasting and to learn a little about the complexities of wine. The next wine tasting class was scheduled on Friday, October 5, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. The cost was 59 euros, and the subject was: an "Introduction to Bordeaux and Burgundy Wines.” How could I NOT sign up for this class, when I was going to be in Paris in October??? The class included tasting and explanation of 5 wines, including sensory analysis and wine vocabulary.

 

 

 

 

Alex, who was our instructor for the wine-tasting class, is a sommelier from Montreal.

 

A picture of the Council of Wine Stewards of France

 

 

Berobed members of the Council

 

 

Medals of the current President of the Council

 

 

Alex with a map of wine-making regions of France

 

 

Wine-tasting room with setup

 

I learned some interesting facts about these two wine-producing areas; for example, Burgundy makes more white than red wine, and Bordeaux wines are 85% red; Burgundy uses one grape for white wine (Chardonnay) and one for red (pinot noir); Bordeaux wine may be blended to make a more appealing wine, but Burgundy does not blend wines, so the year, good or not so good, is very important. Alex described what “climat” meant, and it included every physical factor affecting the vine, including the amount of exposure to sun and even the slant of the ground where the vine is planted. One additional piece of information that stayed with me that you might also be interested in: Alex said we serve white wine too cold and red wine too warm. Let the white wine warm up a bit and chill the red wine just a bit. Test out his advice, and you be the judge of what’s best.

 

 

 

Becky and Alex after the class

 

A votre sante!