As a wine purchaser for Gracious Hospitality Administration, the restaurant group within the once more of the Michelin-starred Korean steakhouses COTE with areas in New York and Miami, plus a wine membership, I’m lucky that I type my method over to France on the least a couple of times a 12 months. My job is to guide and empower our superb crew of sommeliers, purchase 1000’s and 1000’s of greenbacks worth of wine for our eating places, and visit wineries to barter probably the most simple offers for our visitors. Most steadily I even purchase to ship others alongside for it—like this coming autumn, I’ll be predominant a tour in Champagne with Bon Appétit.
I incessantly in discovering myself flying in and out of Paris, and I steadily tack on a day or two to check out what my French counterparts are as rather a lot as. Over the ultimate decade I’ve compiled a working guidelines of a whole bunch of wine bars however have whittled that your complete formulation all the way down to apt a pair of quintessential spots. They aren’t essentially the fanciest areas or those with the longest lists, apt the place I really feel a sommelier—or any wine lover—must drink.
La Cagouille / Ilya Kagan
La Cagouille
I regretted telling a sommelier simply applicable pal about this location within the 14th arrondissement after he instructed me that he had “drank all of their low-price Raveneau”—as in Domaine François Raveneau, one in all probably the most strictly allotted producers within the space. I am able to attest to the reality, nonetheless, that La Cagouille silent has an actual wine guidelines keen in superb white Burgundy. I’ve grew to become into one in all these people who stunning worthy completely drinks Chardonnay—within the dangle of Burgundy and Champagne—so here is my dream guidelines. La Cagouille moreover seems to be prefer to be low key persistently peppered with celebrities. I as soon as pretended I wanted to jog to the john seven instances proper by way of a meal apt so I’d maybe possibly stroll by Wes Anderson and Adrien Brody’s desk repeatedly.
Au Sauvignon
Many sommeliers declare they despise Sauvignon Blanc, categorizing it as too “basic,” and to that, I argue: Well then, you’ve by no means been in love in Paris and ordered a cool glass of Sancerre and a warmth goat cheese salad at this Saint-Germain-des-Prés wine bar. Certain, there are a plethora of hipper and grodier dapper wine bars in Paris on the 2nd, however here is a bite-size model of what I give it some perception would maybe possibly even be favor to drink wine within the metropolis 100 years up to now. No producers are listed on the Loire-Valley-focused wine menu and the meals consists largely of simple casse-croûtes—the miniature sandwiches or wintry meals objects that vignerons, or French winemakers and farmers, give their harvest personnel within the vines. What makes these dishes so explicit is that they’re served on probably the most simple bread within the space (Poilâne) with cheese from my authorised fromagerie (Barthélemy). Each stores are blocks away, which is in actuality a notify, since after a pair of glasses of Loire wine, you’re most likely to in discovering your self as I did on a recent outing—loading up on an irresponsible quantity of provisions for the weekend.
Vantre
Here is type of one in all these pilgrimage spots that each sommelier should jog to when in Paris. No, you’ll want to possibly maybe additionally’t in discovering the wine guidelines on-line, so that you apt have to talk over with this eleventh arrondissement dwelling and search recordsdata from sommelier Marco Pelletier and his crew very efficiently to drag some wintry bottles for you. (Their cellar has a ridiculous sequence of labels that hovers round 4,000 picks, and most of them aren’t listed anyway.) My recommendation is to purchase a in actuality good bottle for a pair hundred euros from producers like Ganevat, Impress Angeli, or Mugneret-Gibourg—in order that they know you imply business—after which search recordsdata from what else they’d have squirreled away. I’ve been lucky sufficient to score some unusual and traditional Burgundy from Leroy and DRC (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti), alongside off-the-crushed route gems like Domaine du Prieuré Saint-Christophe Mondeuse from the Savoie. For a digestif, Vantre has some dusty bottles of Chartreuse and Campari that affords one a mischievous thrill an similar to raiding your grandmère’s liquor cabinet.
Throughout the bar of Le Comptoir des Caves Legrand.Courtesy of Le Comptoir des Caves Legrand
Le Comptoir des Caves Legrand
I’m begrudgingly sharing this 2nd arrondissement dwelling which potential of, as worthy as I’d in actuality prefer to reduction it to myself, my sister jogged my memory on a recent visit that wine is meant to be shared. There simply is not this type of factor to be succesful to not enjoy sommelier Arnaud Tronche’s glorious wine program that accommodates producers which might be most steadily tense to in discovering (or terribly expensive) within the U.S.: Bérêche! Boudignon! Dujac! Dauvissat! The prices skew nearer to retail than restaurant pricing, which is generally two to 3 instances elevated. How does Caves Legrand type money? I assemble not have any realizing, however I’m comfortable to enhance them—with a fantastically chilled Tempier Bandol rosé by the glass.
Le Bistrot Paul Bert
Snagging a desk at this eleventh arrondissement bistro isn’t simple. First, it requires calling a pair of dozen instances sooner than any particular person even solutions. Then, in case you don’t discuss French, they’ll grasp up. So launch up working towards your français now—it is worth the anguish. I favor to jog with on the least 4 of us so you’ll want to possibly maybe additionally raise down a pair of bottles of wine. Open with some grower Champagne, like 10-year-ragged Vouette et Sorbée or Selosse V.O., then swap into some white Loire or Burgundy along with your first route, like Dagueneau Blanc Fumé de Pouilly (dream mission is 12 years of age right here) or any easy-drinking Bourgogne-Vézelay from La Soeur Cadette. I steadily in discovering of us are trying and jog too deal with on crimson wine at bistros in France, which to me with out delay contradicts the attract of the expertise. So quiet down: Whereas you occur to itemizing your bottle of white, search recordsdata from them to moreover type a bottle of crimson—ideally cru Beaujolais—“plus fraîche,” that method they provide it a quick ice bathtub so it is cellar temperature. A relaxing Beaujolais like Métras Fleurie or Jean Foillard Cuvée Eponym with their signature steak au poivre will type you’re feeling like a precise Parisian.
Describe by Frank Joyeux
Willi’s
Throughout the mid-2010s, it gave the have an effect on like each sommelier owned a poster from this 2nd arrondissement wine bar. Initially I perception it modified into apt which potential of that they had been astronomical cute (a model recent restricted open yearly!), however on my first visit in 2015 I found why. Its ragged Rhône wine guidelines is catnip for sommeliers, and in a in actuality Syrah-precipitated haze, I couldn’t declare no to bringing a portion of this expertise dwelling. (Which is to advise, seven objects: I equipped no fewer than seven posters). Impress Williamson opened this dwelling within the ‘80s—sooner than wine bars had been even hip in Paris—and named it after his canines, who’s now buried beneath an ragged gasoline meter subsequent to the doorway door. The vibe, to me, is kind of harking back to you’re putting out with a bunch of your dad’s buddies (that’s, in case your dad modified into astronomical rock and roll and into vintages of ragged Jamet Côte Rôtie).
Lapérouse
After I repeat of us I jog to Lapérouse for the wine, they sometimes chortle and declare, “Clear, the wine!” It modified into as soon as is known as “Europe’s Brothel”: A few hundred years up to now, the extinct 2nd-ground servants’ quarters had been reworked into salons privés, puny rooms that hosted illicit dinners à deux between prosperous gents and ladies they weren’t married to. Now the eating room is filled with of us carrying berets and speaking English, attributable to Emily in Paris. Nevertheless the wine cellar at this sixth arrondissement institution is in actuality elephantine of gems: One can with out concerns train a pair of thousand {dollars} on bottles right here, however there are some steals to be found, specifically on the outer crusts of Burgundy within the Mâconnais, with Trousseau from the Jura, and Bandol rouge from the south of France. And to indulge within the gloomy lights the place Serge Gainsbourg met Jane Birkin, the place Baudelaire and Proust dined, and the place three Michelin stars had been first awarded to a restaurant in Paris—machine on!
Au Petit Rozey
To me, here is the definitive neighborhood wine bar. Here is the place I jog if I don’t should mediate too tense and easily enjoy a room elephantine of very stunning childhood, wines with considerably funk, and any particular person spinning wintry data by the window. It’s a hub for your complete hippest locals in Paris, smoking cigarettes start air or packed inner like a tin of sardines. Stéphane Rozey, the proprietor, has saved a escape of the ragged inner (his companion, Dora, professionally sources antiques for designers proper by way of the world) with traditional wallpaper and ancestral portraits. A designate studying “Marchandises D’Occasions”—which really interprets to “2nd Hand Items,” a nod to the historic earlier of the dwelling as a mature objects store—is probably the most simple marker of this Montmartre bar. What to itemizing right here? Budge away it within the palms of Rozey and his crew. Quiz them for the wines they’re loving now—they steadily have one factor enjoyable within the once more of the bar.
Honorable mentions:
- La Belle Hortense: A cute miniature e-book store and wine bar within the Marais
- Bonvivant: A traditional on the left financial institution for an enormous apéro
- Stéréo: Additionally a file bar
- Aux Deux Amis: Whereas you occur to would favor to smoke cigarettes and focus on philosophy
- Le Bon Georges: One other classique
- Le Baron Rouge: For the duration of oyster season, wood crates of shellfish line their doorways. Present a pair of dozen and drink wines from the proprietary barrels.
- Le Mary Celeste: Glorious cocktails and wine right here, and a hub for these within the alternate
