Heir to three generations of Colmar bakers and pastry chefs, Pierre Hermé regenerated the French sweet landscape from the 1990s and created a veritable empire with his signature cakes and macaroons. But the one who, on April 29, opens boulevard des Capucines (Paris 2e) a shop dedicated to chocolate has maintained, since his apprenticeship, a passion for wine. Met on April 11 in his Paris offices, he tells us about the journey of his oenophile obsession.
You were born in Colmar. Is the Alsatian vineyard the origin of your love of wine?
My father, a baker and pastry chef, liked wine, without knowing much about it. But I had a distant uncle, Marcel Mullenbach, who produced wine in the village of Niedermorschwihr [Haut-Rhin]. He taught me a lot about winemaking, Alsatian grape varieties and the aging capacity of vintages. I owe him a few baked ones, because he was generous in the tasting [rires]. 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 or Domaine Weinbach, in Kaysersberg.
When did you decide to deepen your knowledge of wine?
At the end of the 1970s, while we were apprenticed in Paris, at Lenôtre, with a friend, 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 continue learning.
What were your motivations?
I loved wine, but I didn’t understand anything about it. It seemed to me that, to better appreciate it, it was important to know the grape varieties, the terroirs, and regional practices. These classes allowed me to learn to taste, to put emotions into words, which helped me a lot in my job as a pastry chef. At the time, we did not learn to formalize our taste sensations.
Did you start buying wine very quickly?
Yes, with my means at the time. I was making sacrifices. At the end of the 1970s, I treated myself to a 1968 Château d’Yquem. A vintage that is not very famous, but when Yquem makes a wine, it is sure to be good. It still cost me a fifth of my salary. While tasting this great Sauternes with its saffron flavor, with my boyfriend, we had the impression that a new universe was opening up to us.
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