A grumpy character with bizarre jokes, there’s something special about this man. With his legendary moustache, he’s been at the wine bar in Paris for twenty years. He knows how to provoke his clients with malice, and embarrass the young ladies with grace. It’s due to him that the Japanese, Americans, and Europeans come in force to Charonne. To go to Mélac, is like going to touch an incarnation of a Parisian Bistro owner, in flesh and blood, not just a postcard. Because the bistro Mélac doesn’t change. The same tables, same chairs, the same compartments where the bottles dance. He still ardently defends his Aveyron, his Bozouls, and their products.

But this guy Mélac, winner of the best drink in 1981, is more than just a symbol for tourists. He is a kind of spiritual father of bistros. A sort of grand priest of wine bars. At the bistro, it’s all anti-fuss; he’s neither a show-off, nor a person with pretentious vocabulary, style “it’s got good thighs”. When you taste a wine with him, you can say “it’s good”. And he could reply “it tastes of blackberries”. And then you talk of the people who produce the nectar. For Mélac, the wine represents the people. Pure and simple. Thus you drink maybe not a Pauillac but simply a little Faugères opened behind the bundles of sticks. Jacques Mélac also has his Corbières, his Domaine of three girls, which stays in the mouth long enough to remember for a long time. In this period where the French wine culture plunges into stagnation, he still introduces young people to the aromas of the crus de Beaujolais or Languedoc.

Without doubt because his idea of wine is absolutely republican, it’s enough to convince people to help with the picking at his Château Charonne. Each second Saturday in September, the bunches of grapes of his best pick, which has taken root in his cellar for 40 years, and serves as a display, are picked and pressed by the children surrounded by tables of friends and the sound of fanfare. That day, the moustached man lights up with joy the Léon Frot road.

In Melac Bistro, you won't taste amazing Bordeaux wine like Château Petrus or Château Iquem, but you will discover dozens of delicious little known wines from the Languedoc or Loire regions.
Jacques Mélac is meticulous in his choices, his collection criteria for example, not only includes their taste, aroma or their price but also the integrity of the people who produce the wine. He believes that a wine reflects the image and the personality of its producer. That’s why Jacques Mélac likes wine above all for human contact.