2024 in Review
Excerpts from this year's posts
As the new year begins, I would like to wish everyone a happy, prosperous, bountiful year full of new discoveries, tastes, and wines that bring joy to the heart, and renewed spirit to the body and the mind.
By way of review, the following are a random, chronological selection from the posts of 2024.
The first post of 2024 on 4 January - The Hidden Vineyards of Paris had this to say:
The road ahead will no doubt have its challenges as “being challenged in life is inevitable, (although) being defeated is optional.” Thankfully there are wine walks to take your mind off life’s pressures and provide a bit of convivial distraction.
11 January - Resolute
When the wine is good and the company better, the pleasures induced put us in a state where living in the moment is fired with enthusiasm, with poetry, and with promise. Being in the warm glow of the now gives us no good reason to ever stop. ‘Ivresse’ takes over and we feel inspired and able to take on the world, wanting to remain in that moment forever.
18 January - Saint-Vincent’s Tunic
There is a tale that while stopping to chat with vineyard workers, Vincent’s donkey started to eat the branches of a vine, ‘pruning it’. During harvest, the vineyard workers noticed that vine had produced a better crop and so the benefits of pruning were discovered.
1 February - The Wine Map of France
We’re only witnessing the very beginning of a renaissance, the extent of which imposes itself as a tale of unfortunate decline and unexpected triumph. The story of the vineyards of Paris (find out more in ‘The Hidden Vineyards of Paris’) is in fact only part of a much larger story, which is the vineyards of the Île-de-France, a story that extends back to the Romans.
8 February - Saint Valentine & a couple of love poems with a whiff of wine
As you navigate the sea of red hearts, roses, and sappy love cards, remember that Valentine's Day is like a love potion: it can be magical, but it's always a bit mysterious. Whether you're celebrating with your significant other, your friends, or a bottle of fine wine, just enjoy the day with a dash of humour and a sprinkle of historical perspective. After all, love has been perplexing, amusing, and downright confusing from the start and that, it would seem, isn’t about to change.
22 February - More on ‘The Hidden Vineyards of Paris’
The untold story of Paris is wine. The city grew out of wine, was shaped by wine, and is to this day one of the best places on earth to enjoy a glass.
29 February - Leap Year Wine & Paris Vines
In the annals of history, there exists a peculiar and somewhat overlooked chapter dedicated to the role of wine during Leap Years. It is a tale woven into the tapestry of time, where grapevines and calendars intertwine in a dance that occurs only once every four years.
14 March - AOC, AOP, VDF, VDT, IGP, DGC, INAO
Acronyms have to be among the most exasperating and misleading of all forms of communication. The same letters can mean wildly different things depending on one’s interests, geography or sense of the absurd.
21 March - The earth awakes, and in open hearts love makes
In the embrace of spring, wine becomes more than a mere libation; it becomes a vessel through which we commune with nature and with each other. It is a reminder of our connection to the earth and to the timeless rhythms of the seasons. Like the vines that bear fruit with each passing year, wine embodies the essence of renewal and the promise of abundance.
4 April - History in the making
I’m a big fan of blind wine tasting because one must confront the wine without expectation, prejudice, or pre-suppositions. We are obliged to focus on the wine itself (without being distracted or influenced by labels or price) and must try to connect words with tastes and aromas. One is necessarily alone with the sensual apparatus we have, which of course varies from one taster to another.
18 April - Les Trinqueuses
In a world where wine culture has long been dominated by men, Les Trinqueuses emerges as a beacon of inclusivity and celebration. This groundbreaking event, held on April 13th at Ground Control, Paris, marked the debut of a remarkable endeavour dedicated almost solely to female winemakers.
25 April - The summer Olympic Games in Paris
Historically, wine has been very much a part of sporting events. In the early Olympic Games of ancient Greece, which began in 776 BC, wine played a significant role in both religious and social contexts. The ancient Greeks (much like the natural wine lovers of today) revered wine as a gift from the gods, and it held a central place in their culture, including athletic competitions.
2 May - Isolated, Rogue and Private Vines (bis)
We are now in Spring (sort of) and so it is a lot easier to identify grape vines as they begin to take on leaf. And how quickly their exuberant foliage appears out of nowhere. Bare branches are suddenly adorned in an abundance of green with new shoots and tendrils reaching out for a hold in all directions.
9 May - A Note on Agriculture
Taste, whether it involves food or wine, is an aspect of the vitality, the energy that comes from how things are grown. Living soil produces plants with greater vitality than soils that are destroyed with chemical additives. The macro-biological life of soils is also the plant’s immunity, its strength, its force, its resistance to sickness. This vitality translates into taste as it is only fresh, living foods that have the capacity to arouse deep satisfaction and organoleptic pleasure.
16 May - Here and Gone
As you may have surmised, this piece isn’t really about wine, but time, that most enigmatic of entities, slipping through our fingers like sand at the beach, except the beach is on an ever-receding shoreline, and the sand is actually a set of existential crises. Time is both the relentless march of the seconds and the blink of an eye, the torturous span of an hour in a traffic jam when trying to be on time for an appointment, and the fleeting eternity of a loving embrace.
23 May - Tastes-less
The beguiling alchemy of fermentation (especially when it comes to the transformation of grape juice into wine) is still a mystery that science, for all its thoroughness and application, has yet to properly explain. The alcohol content of wine, which is a direct result of this fermentation, is a very significant part of the experience, but is nothing without the complex organoleptic spectrum of aromas and tastes that wines are capable of expressing.
30 May - Home again
Roses are red
Wine is also red
Poems are hard wine
6 June - A life in vines and an invitation
The world of travel has evolved with the Internet, and group travel has become much less of a thing. But there is still no better way to access the vineyards of France than with someone who has, through direct exchange and careful consideration, developed a vast range of personal contacts.
13 June - Wine is food
Most people imagine that all wines are made with grapes and nothing else, and are therefore entirely ignorant of the 200+ legal ingredients that can be added to ‘improve’ wines. Not to mention the oft times dangerously high levels of pesticides, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. Wine has an image of being natural and healthy and that image is sustained by marketing campaigns that always place it in beautiful settings where agriculture appears to be a lifestyle more than arduous, back-breaking labour.
20 June - Wine is food (part two)
My appreciation of wine, which is an elevated, complex sensual experience, depends on the sense’s capacity to discern what is in the glass, and keeping fit and attuned to the senses requires a high level of health. In conclusion, moderation (as always) is the key to having a healthy relationship with wine as the body, which is both the instrument of discernment and delectation, is also the recipient and engine that must process excess.
27 June - Vine spotting
Paris was once covered in vines. It is hard to imagine now that under the historic streets of Paris, vineyards flourished in the city’s soil, and in some neighbourhoods, hidden vineyards still thrive. These vineyards often produced wines comparable to some of the best of France in both quantity and quality. The carpet of vines that covered the city for centuries may be gone, but the number of rogue, isolated and lovingly planted and cared for vines in the city is surprisingly extensive.
4 July - Gothic architecture and wine
Wine is the wellspring of Gothic architecture. This might sound like a rather fanciful statement, but it was the proliferation of the vine and the wealth garnered from the sale of wine that produced the necessary conditions for Gothic architecture to flourish.
11 July - A Sunday vine-spotting in Paris
Vine-spotting is really about finding spiritual connection with the city’s past as we rediscover the vine’s hold on the cityscape. It’s also about getting out there and seeing areas of the city you’ve perhaps never visited before. And at the same time, spending the day in a leisurely, idle kind of way that reminds us of what an extraordinary place Paris is, while perhaps actually finding a few new vines.
18 July - Pre-Phylloxera grape varietals
Most people don’t query the choices of the most common grape varietals that are used around the world, assuming they have been chosen for good reason, or that that’s simply the extent of it.
25 July - Paris, the wine capital of the world
Although Parisians, like people everywhere, practice a very broad range of sports on a regular basis, and there has been a significant rise in the number of joggers and cyclists over the past few years, the oft pallid, smoke-addicted, café idling, philosophically relaxed population (when they’re not participating in demonstrations or leaning on their horns) conjures a culture of intellectuals who wouldn’t know one side of a football from the other.
1 August - Uncovering the hidden vineyards of Paris
Meanwhile, the Olympic Games are in full swing, and as Victor Hugo once wrote about the streets of Paris, “there could be a riot going on around the corner and you wouldn’t know it”, as the excitement and populism of the games is micro-focussed. In other words, if you’re not at or near one of the venues, the streets are pretty empty.
8 August - Salt in wine
In ancient Greece and Rome, adding salt to wine was a common practice. Salt served as a preservative, helping to prolong the life of the wine by inhibiting the growth of bacteria and other microorganisms. Salt was also used to enhance the flavour of wine, making it more palatable. The salting of wine was part of the broader practice of mixing and flavouring wines with various substances, including honey, spices, and herbs.
15 August - Summertime blues
Everyone else has gone away on holiday. The streets of Paris have never been so empty, which is something we expect and look forward to in August with the departure of ‘les aoûtiens’ (those who go on holiday in August) but they have never felt quite this vacant.
22 August - The Medoc Marathon
And now a little history: In a land where grapes are holier than water and wine is more revered than oxygen, a group of French villagers in the Médoc region had a rather intoxicating idea: "What if we combined our two greatest loves—running and wine?"
5 September - Paris: New vines, new wines
The wine map of France hasn’t changed in centuries. But a profound change is currently underway that will allow Parisians to again reach for a glass of their own.
12 September - Harvest happenings
Fall is the season for the grape harvest, the culmination of a year’s work of toil and often a time of great stress. This year’s harvest has already begun in some places and has been delayed in others due to persistent rains. By all accounts, the 2024 vintage is not going to be an easy one as downy mildew, powdery mildew, hail, frost and other blights have reduced harvests significantly.
18 September - Harvest happenings (part 2)
But were we able to peer into the soul of every bottle of wine and read it’s weather history through the myriad elements it contains, we would have an accurate summary of that year’s seasons, sun, wind, rain, frost, thunder, hail, the evolution of the cryptogramic diseases that may have affected it, and how they impacted the soil and the vine itself. But for the most part, we just open them and drink them.
26 September - Harvest happenings (part 3)
But even a bad harvest produces wine and though there will be less wine in 2024, not all is lost and as harvest begins, there’s still optimism and energy to bring forth the best of whatever nature has provided.
3 October - Into the vines
It has oft been said, the best way to know wine is to visit vineyards. There is no better wine education than direct interaction with the people who cultivate, harvest, vinify, bottle, and age wine. And I have often said, I’m happiest when I’m among vines, because vines tell stories.
10 October - Grapes of perception and heaven and hell
Having just returned from a very gratifying tour of Burgundy and Beaujolais, where we swept through the painfully picturesque surface of the vines, enjoying the best of winemaker hospitality, fabulous meals, and luxurious accommodations (heaven), we were pretty much immune to the stresses and losses that vineyards have endured this year. But stresses and losses there are, with yields down between 30 and 90% (hell).
17 October - Montmartre’s wine harvest fest
Montmartre is the most village-like quarter of Paris and that quality lends itself admirably to events like the ‘fête des vendanges’, the annual harvest festival, which lasts four days. With this year’s wine bubbling away in the cellars of the town hall, that effervescence is reflected in the colourful liveliness and ebullient energy of this village fête.
24 October - Wine is art
Real wine-makers are artists, just like artists in the art world, although they are working within a different medium. Their art is a living one wherein they try to remain open and sensitive to what is going on around them, closely watching weather patterns, testing their soil, picking up signals from the biodiversity in their vineyards to monitor diseases, and more and more often, understanding what is happening in the cosmos.
29 October - Hallowed evening
Wine continues its role as a companion to everything spiritual, heightening our connection with the mystical and evoking deep reflection. The blending of wine with All Souls' Day evinces a deeper understanding of life, death, and the afterlife.
7 November - Oenomancy
I think it rare that anyone would intentionally spill wine, as spilled wine, unlike spilled milk, IS something to cry over. Intentionally or not, it happens, and when it does, rather than getting upset, you might instead try your hand at ‘reading’ the shapes it makes to gain insight into specific situations, or to see what the future holds. So what exactly is oenomancy and how does one go about becoming an oenomancer?
14 November - Vinaissance in Île-de-France
Paris Wine Walks is all about the hidden vineyards of Paris (as well as wine in general), but there’s a bigger story that we want to share, that includes, and goes beyond the city limits. The Île-de-France, the region around Paris, was once the largest vineyard region in the entire world, but you won’t find it on a wine map of France.
20 November - Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrivé!
Beaujolais is the original source of ‘natural’ wines with sulphur-free experimentation beginning in the 1930’s with Jules Chauvet. His love and respect for nature proscribed all chemical inputs as he sought ‘naturalness’ in wine. In the 1960’s he mentored Marcel Lapierre, who was seconded by his friend Jacques Neauport. They were joined by Guy Breton, Jean Foillard, and Charly Thevenet, and became known as ‘the gang of four’. The natural wine movement, whose spiritual home is Paris, is therefore not a new trend, but something that started nearly a hundred years ago.
28 November - The Vine in Winter
There is a poetic inversion this time of year. Just when the vine looks its saddest, the joyful flow of the new wine floods wine shops and wine bars, reviving us and giving us courage and inspiration. The cycle is complete, repeating itself year after year. The vine has done its work and deserves a rest. The work of the wine maker thus begins, transforming nature’s gift through the alchemy of fermentation from grape juice into wine.
5 December - Wine Souvenirs
So is wine love? That might be pushing the point, but one could say that anything done with respect for the planet, with good intent, with passion, with a view to producing something of quality, is a form of love.
12 December - The Rebirth of Notre Dame
This Substack is about wine, so before anyone queries the connection between the restoration of Notre Dame and wine, I need state that Gothic Architecture exists because of wine.
19 December - Not all alcohol is the same
Let’s face it, too much of a good thing is a bad thing, and hangovers are not fun at all. But it is perfectly possible to navigate the egg-nogged, bubbly sparkler field of end-of-year excess with a bit of restraint, self-discipline, and by replacing hard drinks with (real) wine.
26 December - We wish you all a very…
We have hosted over 700 people this year on our wine walks, tastings, and tours, and would like to thank each and every one of you for supporting us, and for ‘taking a walk on the vine side’!
Thank you for letting me into your world and for reading the Paris Wine Walks Substack. Your support is invaluable as are your comments, suggestions, critiques, dreams, thoughts and remembrances. A little encouragement goes a long way, so please consider a paid subscription, which need cost no more than (a cheap) glass of wine per week. Or, book a wine walk!
My book, ‘The Hidden Vineyards of Paris’ (reviewed in Jancis Robinson’s wine blog, the Wine Economist, National Geographic Traveler UK, UK Telegraph) is available for purchase via our website and at anglophone bookshops and wine shops in Paris. You can also find it at the Musée de Montmartre and the Librairie Gourmande.
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Sparkling Wine Splash
Immerse yourself in the effervescence of the season with our Sparkling Wine Splash experience. Whether you're celebrating a special occasion or just toasting to the joy of the holidays, our blind wine tasting of carefully selected sparkling wines invites friendly competition to see who can identify the Champagne among five fabulous sparkling wines. Book now!
Wine & Cheese Please
Indulge in classic and surprising pairings of wine and cheese with our in-depth Wine & Cheese Please tasting. Explore the nuances of flavour as our knowledgeable guides lead you through a ‘cultural’ tour de France, revealing the secrets of perfectly paired combinations. It's an ideal way to savour the sophistication of Parisian life. Book now!
Wine Walks!
For more information, click on the underlined links:
Clos Montmartre - Paris in Your Glass
Paris' most famous wine producing vineyard
Latin Quarter Unbottled!
An insider's journey to the oldest wine neighbourhood in the city
Wine Your Way Through the Marais
The Marais seen through a wineglass
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Discover the vinous spirit of medieval Paris
3-Vineyard Cycling Tour
A comprehensive overview of medieval Paris
Paris Bottled!
Short on time? This one’s for you.
