The Vineyards of the Île-de-France

Once the premium wine producer of France, and the largest wine producing region in the world

The surface of the earth is an ever-changing mosaic built up and torn down by mankind, whose dreams, memories, and reflections determine creative, as well as destructive actions. What was once a forest is then a field, a vineyard, a factory, and now a suburb.

Looking at Paris through the entangled tendrils of grapevines, its current vineyards still bearing testimony to a past where vines covered most of the city and the ‘island of France’, we discover an agrarian culture that has evolved into an urban landscape, itself transformed, transmuted, and transfigured repeatedly throughout the ages.

The Medieval city of Paris with the vineyards of the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve on the right (https://www.medieval.eu/the-medieval-city-of-paris)

Imagine a verdant, vigorous, and vivifying vineyard stretching along the banks of the Seine from the Place Saint Michel and the rue Saint-André-des-Arts to the rue Dauphine. This was the Clos de Laas. Or the hillside of the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve covered in vines (the Pantheon has not yet appeared, but the Abbaye Sainte-Genevieve built by King Clovis still standing where the Lycée Henri IV stands today), the slow pace of agrarian life punctuated by the boisterous laughter and song of Latin-speaking students gathered in the taverns of the Place de la Contrescarpe outside the Philippe Auguste wall, where wine was untaxed.

The Clos des Arenes, Le Grenache, the Clos Bruneau, and the Clos Garland are just some of the other vineyards that covered the slopes of the Left Bank.

Current wine lore suggests that the greatest vineyards of France are Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Champagne (which of course isn’t really true given that quality wines are produced everywhere in France), but all of these regions once looked up to the Île-de-France as the premium wine producer, struggling to compete with wines sought after by all the royal houses of Europe.

Pierre Salles in his book, ‘La Vigne et le Vin en France de l’Antiquité au XXe Siecle’ tells us that “in 1260, the wines of the Paris basin were the best in the kingdom. Then, so as to avoid confusion, the wines of the Île-de-France took the name ‘wines of Paris’. In the 15th century, grape harvests took place in a great many communes (Chatillon, Bagneux, Fontenay, Vanves, Issy, Clamart, Montrouge, Clignancourt, Montmartre, La Courtille, Chaillot, Auteuil, Meudon, Saint-Cloud, Suresnes, Rueil, Nanterre, Vaugirard, Sceaux, Ivry, Vitry, Thiais, Argenteuil and Montmorency) all of which are around today’s peripherique (the ring road that circles the capital). Louis XI in 1467 said: Vineyards surround our city of Paris”.

Thirty years prior to this, Charles VII used the money he made from his vineyards to finance an army, which was considerable. Since this royal example, anyone with means wanted their own vineyard. The Church served winegrowing by adding to its prestige, and right up until the end of the middle ages, in aristocratic circles, not serving large quantities of wine to guests showed a lack of honour. It is therefore easy to understand that those is positions of power did everything they could to expand their viticultural holdings.

Roger Dion in his book ‘Histoire de la vigne et du vin en France des origines au XIX siècle’ reminds us that “The white wine of France (Paris region), which is as clear and clean as water, of a subtle essence, neither sweet nor too acidic, is held as being most excellent”.

The first vines of Lutetia (the original name of Paris) were planted in 276. In 357 the Emperor Julien extolled the virtues of the wines of Montmartre, and the city was on its way to becoming the most important viticultural region of Roman Gaul. But it was in the middle ages that the vines of Paris truly reached their apogee thanks to the work of monks. Three abbeys held the majority of the vineyards: Saint Denis, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and Montmartre providing a significant source of revenue for bishops and princes. The Paris region became the biggest vineyard region of Europe (and thus the world) and the wine served not just at the tables of the kings of France, but of all of Europe.