Wines of Argenteuil

“It compared itself with a man who would taste back-to-back, the samples of all the wines and soon any more the Château Margaux of the Argenteuil” would not distinguish

The quotation is of Maupassant, one can easily judge reputation which had, at the end of, wine of Argenteuil. Economic, product without much care, control of the blood alcohol content (Chaptalization) and starting from the most various Type of vine S, the wine of Argenteuil was rather bad though it had there, says one, of great wines.

History

As in all the France, the culture of the Vin arrives in the Val-d'Oise with the Romans (towards). Later it will be the Abbaye of Saint-Denis, owner of the fields of the hillock, which will encourage the intensive production of wine: the monks need wine to say the Messe but also for drinking because at the time, only the Boisson S healthy is alcoholic: until the end of, remainder, one will be wary of water, drink vectrice of intestinal problems or grave diseases such as the Dysenterie, the Typhoid fever or the Choléra (the best knowledge of the germs, the water treatment to the Chlore and the improvement of the drainage systems of waste water and the sewers will end up making water less dangerous…).

What the monks do not drink, they sells it on the market of Saint-Denis and little by little the slopes of the hillock of Cormeilles are one of the large wine suppliers of Paris and, especially, of the Normandy and the North, who do not have production.

With, the wines of Argenteuil or Pontoise were the wines which the king drank or which this last sent like diplomatic gifts. A few centuries later, they would be manifestly known like very bad wines.

In 1577, the wines of Île-de-France are judged of too low quality and are prohibited of entry with Paris where one drinks more readily of the wines of the Loire or of Yonne.

Paradoxically, that will make the vineyard francilien very prosperous: under Henri IV, the taverns will multiply in Banlieue, attracting the Parisian ones masses some, because the wines consumed in Paris were excessively taxed at their entry in the capital and cost three to four times more expensive. It is in 1682 in the vineyard of Argenteuil that one notes for the first time among all the denominations indicating the clear wines, the appearance of the term rosy Wine.

The day before the Revolution, the town of Argenteuil dedicates close to: 1000 hectares of its territory to the culture of the wine: it is, in fact, the largest commune wine of France. All unit, the cities close to Cormeilles-in-Parisis, the Hoop-on-Seine, Herblay, Franconville and Sannois do as much of it, on the whole, the slopes of the hillock of Cormeilles produce a little less than half of the wine valley-with oisien. And the Val-d'Oise, as astonishing as that can appear now, was a considerable wine producer.

During the State-Generals of 1789, the inhabitants of Cormeilles ask neither for freedom, neither equality, nor fraternity: they claim that their wine is not taxed any more in Paris, advancing as argument to deserve such a favor the fact that… their wine was of bad quality!

After the Revolution, France undergoes important food shortages: good number of the wine exploitations of the Val-d'Oise will have to start to produce corn. Under the Empire, the vines will return on the hillock, but will quickly be affected by cryptogamic diseases and the competition of the wines of whole France: the Railroad arrives and allows goods transport on long distances.

During the Guerre of 1870, the west of Paris will be invested in mass by the Parisian ones which comes to benefit from their Sunday in Argenteuil (inter alia) because the capital, occupied by the Prussian , is prohibited of wine (one drinks only Bière there). The occupation will not last a long time but the Parisian ones will have taken the practice of Sunday in the countryside, supported by the railroad. One comes to drink in the Guinguette S of the edge of the Seine or, directly in the owner “per hour” (one drinks as much as one wants, for a sum paid in advance, during one hour). It will be the golden age of Argenteuil or Chatou and the last time of production of wine on the hillock of Cormeilles: a few years later, the Phylloxéra will devastate the vines of whole France. Certain areas will go back from there, not the Ile-de-France. In Argenteuil, one seeks to save the pieces of furniture by planting Gamay, but this Raisin is not adapted to the climate and the produced wine is sometimes so bad that it is called it “stud-you-with-edge-of-the-table” (or “Piccolo “or “Picolo”, from where came the slang term “picoler”).

Future

During the Years 1960 and 1970, the commune of Argenteuil became populated in an accelerated way, reducing little by little the place dedicated to the cultures. Although the habitat is less dense with Cormeilles, Sannois or the Hoop, communes where the movement will have been the same one and where little by little agriculture left the place to the suburban cities. Starting from the Years 1980, the inhabitants of these communes realized of what they had lost and some initiatives were born: the town of Sannois or that of Argenteuil obtains “municipal vines” cultivated by the services space-greens of the municipalities - Argenteuil, moreover, has just taken again in hand the exploitation of Jacques Defresne, only vine grower of the commune during the the Seventies, whose children do not want to perpetuate a family tradition however uninterrupted since the year 1342!

The current vine of Argenteuil, produces each year, since 1999 a vintage of pinot black, as well as a vintage of Chardonnay. The vine of Sannois produces since 2006 a dry white wine resulting from the type of vines chardonay and gray pinot.

The recent development of a scientific vine growing (which allowed the “light local wines” of Languedoc to gain a few gallons for example) could lead on arrival of a wine of Argenteuil which can be drunk without displeasure, but whose production would remain obviously anecdotic.

See

External bond

  • vigneronsfranciliens.com

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