A devastating fire swept through the 800-year-old cathedral in April 2019, destroying the roof, the steeple and some of the vaulting. Workers have spent the past five years painstakingly rebuilding Notre-Dame Cathedral at a cost of €700m (£585m). The restoration is now complete, and the grand reopening will take place on Sunday 8 December.
The Archbishop of Paris has selected a natural wine made by Régis and Anne-Reine Anouil in the Loire Valley to serve as the sacramental wine during the ceremony.
Their wines were previously poured for Pope Francis when he visited Marseille in October 2023, and he enjoyed the red over dinner with Bishop Jean-Marc Aveline, the Archbishop of Marseille.
Régis Anouil contacted Bishop Laurent Ulrich, the Archbishop of Paris, a few weeks ago to suggest that their white blend could serve as the mass wine for the ceremony.
He said: ‘I explained to Bishop Ulrich that our natural wines correspond to what the (Roman) Congregation for Divine Worship requires for the consecrated species: the wine must be fermented grape juice and nothing else.’
He noted that billionaires such as LVMH founder Bernard Arnault and Kering founder François Pinault played a major role in funding the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral.
‘These two personalities are owners of some of the most renowned wines of our country: Yquem, Cheval Blanc, Clos des Lambrays, Château Latour, Clos de Tart and many others,’ said Régis Anouil. ‘Why then choose our wine, from the Domaine de La Bénisson-Dieu, rather than the wines of personalities who have, in their bag, such iconic wines?
‘No doubt because Bishop Ulrich was sensitive to our approach, to the fact that our young estate is run by convinced Catholics, eager to implement viticulture and winemaking that is particularly respectful of life.’
Régis Anouil was formerly the editor-in-chief at an information agency run by a Catholic missionary organisation in Paris. His wife was the chancellor of the diocese of Nanterre.
They both retired in 2017 and decided to become winegrowers. The couple moved to an eco-hamlet in the Loire Valley called La Bénisson-Dieu.
The hamlet is near the city of Roanne, and the eight families that live there aim to enjoy ‘a simpler life’ that is made up of ‘renewed social ties in the rural world’.
Régis and Anne-Reine Anouil run a 2.6-hectare vineyard within the hamlet. They produce approximately 10,000 bottles per year, including red, white and rosé.
‘We manage our vines using agroforestry and try to respect life in our soils as much as possible,’ said Régis Anouil. ‘Our wines are natural, labelled Vin Méthode Nature, which means that they are made only from fermented grape juice.
‘The wines are vinified without traumatic processes, without any of the inputs of modern oenology – wines neither fined, nor filtered, nor sulphites.’
The couple’s white wine – a blend of Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc and Clairette Blanche from the 2022 and 2023 vintages – will serve as the sacramental wine during the grand reopening of Notre-Dame, and during subsequent masses held throughout the following week.
‘Mass wines are most often over-sweetened and over-sulphured wines,’ said Régis Anouil. ‘Even before becoming a winemaker, I was not at ease with the fact that the wines brought to the altars were not healthy. Now that we are winemakers, offering our natural wines is an element that counts in our eyes.’
He said the hamlet felt ‘great humility’ after learning that their white wine had been chosen for the Notre-Dame ceremony. ‘This fruit of the earth and the work of men is our very modest offering to the immense surge of generosity that accompanies the reconstruction of the cathedral of Paris,’ he added.
