Musée du Vin

Today I went solo to the Musée Marmottan to see more Monet and other Impressionists.  I enjoyed it very much, but unfortunately they had a strict "no pictures" rule.  But the Jardin du Ranleigh nearby was lovely and I took some photos there.

Left: view towards the Eiffel Tower, Right: statue of Aesop with the Fox and the Crow by Charles Correia

But while I was out and about in the Passy area, I stopped in at the Wine Museum since it was conveniently right by the metro.

The building is in part made up of old cellars from the Passy Monastery where the monks used to store their wine in the 16th and 17th centuries.

It is part historical fact-based museum and part whimsical wax gallery.  Tools of the trade from the 17th century onward are presented side-by-side with life-size dioramas showing the art of winemaking.  Here, the mannequin in the back is performing the traditional task of riddling in which champagne bottles are turned a little bit at a time over a long period to remove sediment.  The machine on the right innovatively allowed the winemaker to fill multiple bottles at once.

This diorama celebrates the achievements of Louis Pasteur (looking suspiciously like Anthony Hopkins).  The original application of the pasteurization process was to kill the yeast and prevent souring and spoilage during the wine aging process.  To the right is a collection of historical measuring instruments used in winemaking.

The pictures on the left show a variety of casks and flasks used to store wine (one of them has the date 1763 etched into the side).  On the right, a cooper building barrels for wine storage.

In this scene, Napoleon (who apparently never took his hand out of his shirt) is sampling some Chambertin, his favorite wine.  On the right are a variety of common wine cups that were in use before the advent of mass-produced glass during the Industrial Revolution.

On the left are some playful corkscrews; I like the striped stockings.  The scruffy characters in this scene (that might be John Lennon on the left?) are celebrating the historic 1855 Bordeaux Wine Official Classification that was created for the Universal Exposition in Paris.  It was intended to give buyers an idea of Bordeaux wine quality -- the wines were divided into five ranked categories according to price.

These Laurel and Hardy doppelgangers are supposed to represent the Conseil des Echansons de France, a wine brotherhood created in 1954 to advocate and promote the best French wines.  The brotherhood owns the museum and often hosts educational events on local wine and winemaking.  On the right is a showcase displaying wines local to the Île de France area.

The dining room for the museum's restaurant is in one of the vaulted wine cellars from the former Abbey.  The abbey was desecrated during the 1789 French Revolution and later was completely dismantled.  This is one of three interconnected surviving cellars that make up part of the museum.

One of the best parts of the tour was the sample glass at the end.  In the background is a wine press used to extract juice from crushed grapes.  À votre santé!