Heir to three generations of bakers and pastry chefs from Colmar, Pierre Hermé regenerated the French sweet landscape from the 1990s onwards, creating a veritable empire with his signature cakes and macarons. But the man who, on April 29, will open a boutique dedicated to chocolate on Boulevard des Capucines in Paris's 2nd arrondissement has had a passion for wine ever since his apprenticeship. Interviewed on April 11 in his Paris offices, he told us the story behind his wine obsession.
My father, a baker, liked wine, although he didn't know much about it. But I had a distant uncle, Marcel Mullenbach, who produced wine in the village of Niedermorschwihr [eastern France]. He taught me a lot about winemaking, Alsatian grape varieties and the aging capacity of vintages. I owe him a few bottles because he was generous with his tasting [laughs]. I also remember, as a child, delivering bread with my father to Domaine Schoffit, just outside Colmar. It remains one of my favorite Alsatian estates, along with those of Albert Mann, Marcel Deiss, Albert Boxler and Domaine Weinbach in Kaysersberg.
In the late 1970s, while an apprentice with a friend at Lenôtre in Paris, we paid for evening classes at the Académie du Vin, a private school founded by an English expert, Steven Spurrier, who also owned a renowned boutique, La Cave de la Madeleine. I then bought books to keep learning.
I loved wine but I didn't understand anything about it. It seemed to me that, in order to appreciate it better, it was important to know about grape varieties, terroirs and regional practices. These courses enabled me to learn how to taste, to put emotions into words, which helped me a lot in my job as a pastry chef. At the time, we weren't learning to formalize our taste sensations.
Yes, with the means I had at the time. I made sacrifices. At the end of the 1970s, I bought myself a Château d'Yquem 1968. It wasn't a very famous vintage, but when Yquem makes a wine, it means it's going to be good. It still cost me a fifth of my salary. Tasting this saffron-flavored Sauternes with my friend, we felt as if a new universe was opening up to us.
From that time on, with that same friend. The first time, we went on a three-week vacation to Bordeaux and the southwest, tasting and buying wines, including a Pomerol from Château Haut-Surget, a very small estate that's still very good. We also went to Bergerac, Monbazillac [southwestern France]... But we stayed at the door of Château Margaux [laughs].
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