How Montreal Became Paradise for Wine Lovers

Exceptional historical circumstances have made the city a hot spot for wine lovers.

At the tail end of Montreal’s harsh winter, I found my way to tiny Paloma, where co-owner Rosalie Forcherio, beaming at the pleasurable demands of her job, warmed me with unusual, small-production wines — Jura Chardonnay from Eric and Bérengère Thill, Rhône-dweller Martin Texier’s Syrah — to accompany her father Armand’s delicious Niçoise cuisine. This is just one of dozens of places to drink well now in Montreal, a city where somehow, a combination of teetotalism across the border and alcohol restrictions at home have created a wine lover’s paradise.

Few people have a good word for Prohibition these days, but America’s 1920s and ’30s experiment with a nationwide booze ban did help make Montreal great. Quebec opted for government oversight rather than similar restrictions, and “Sin City” unleashed rivers of legal booze to succor visiting Americans fleeing illegal rotgut. Ever since, the combination of French influence and buying power — the Société des Alcools du Québec is one of the world’s biggest purchasers of wine — has meant competitive prices and a great choice of bottles.

The first inkling that this could be an ideal pairing came when L’Express opened in 1980. With its elegant interior, classic menu, and 11,000-bottle cellar, this is a bistro to make a Frenchman sigh with envy. Eventually, old-fashioned, Bordeaux-heavy wine lists gave way to small-production private imports all over the city. Natural wines became a passion, inadvertently encouraged by the SAQ’s insistence on minimum sulfur levels.

Today, even old-school spots serve new wines. Quebec-born chef Normand Laprise, who made waves by marrying local produce with French savoir faire when he opened Toqué in 1993, offers orange wines as well as white Burgundy and Napa Cabernet by the glass. From tiny Denise in the Parc Ex neighborhood to beautiful Buvette Chez Simone, with its blackboard specials and summer terrace, no self-respecting Montreal wine bar lacks a judicious choice of low-intervention bottles with funky labels. My latest discovery is Buvette Pompette, a small, friendly joint where a tapa comes complimentary with your first glass of wine.

Modern Montreal has everything a drinker could wish for and several things she didn’t know she needed, like the fabulous wineglass chandelier at Pullman and Wino, a shop that importer Martin Landry opened last year devoted to wine books and bottles. Or the vibrant atmosphere at Larrys, the bright and inviting decor at VinVinVin, and the inventive small plates and wines to match at Mon Lapin. By the time you read this, newcomers will have undoubtedly added yet more brilliant wine lists to the tally.

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