Wine stores in Paris?

Marcia and I will be slumming in Paris during the week of February 23rd and I'd love to hear if anyone has a favorite wine store there to check out...

Caves Petrissans, 30 bis Av. Niel, Paris 17; tel 01 42 27 52 03 (Metro Pereire)

See viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17014#p143609

La Dernier Goutte, 6, rue Bourbon le Chateau, Paris 6: Owned by the same people who own Fish la boissonerie on the rue de Seine. They speak English, and they have a great selection of wines from the South, including Domaine Gauby and other leading lights of Roussillon. Not just the South, either: for a smallish shop I thought they had a far more comprehensive selection than most places in Paris.

An obvious choice is Lavinia, on the Boulevard de la Madeleine--it's huge, fancy, showy, and they actually stock California wines. I didn't care for the place, myself--the vibe was more like a fancy department store than a wine shop. I kept expecting to see a cosmetics counter...

and i'll be there a month later; so will await other replys. for simple stuff to wash down your lunch in the park if weather permits; or for something to enjoy in the room, you'll find that any of the larger grocery stores will have a decent selection. i usually try to find an Abymes and can do so for about 3E. if you are staying near a Monoprix, they have a pretty decent selection of slightly better stuff at great prices.

An obvious choice is Lavinia, on the Boulevard de la Madeleine--it's huge, fancy, showy, and they actually stock California wines. I didn't care for the place, myself--the vibe was more like a fancy department store than a wine shop. I kept expecting to see a cosmetics counter...

How did you miss it? They have attractive young women spraying passers-by with Lafite and Latour.

I agree on the vibe, but their glassed in room of aged treasures is not to be missed, and I would heartily encourage any visiting wine lover to visit at least once.

La Derniere Goutte is also great for the Loire and the Northern Rhone and is the center of a great expat 'scene', along with Fish.

If you have the time, this is your chance to further explore the natural wines as Paris is ground zero for the scene.

Here's a great website with an overview of some of the more high profile places. Lots of the hipper, trendier ones are concentrated in the east and the 11th and the 20th but they are also spreading across the city.

http://www.morethanorganic.com/natural-wine-in-paris

Caves Auge is one of the oldest and most established shops in this vein. In fact, they are the people who advise Lavinia, which has a fine selection, like an expensive Wall Mart, and apparently has a great tasting bar and restaurant where you can drink any bottle from the shop without corkage. However, they area bit more expensive than other shops and also suffer from the Wall Mart feel and lack of detailed knowledge from the staff, if that's something you care about.

La Cremerie (not far from La Derniere Goutte) is one of the more established natural wine bars/shops with one of the more 'extreme' selections (i.e. very few things that are actually drinkable, in my opinion) but is a nice place and a great way to see some of the newest producers before they get on the international radar. For some reason they are not included in the above website, perhaps because the guy who runs that website and who owns Racines is a refugee/former employee of La Cremerie.

Also in that list, I recommend Cafe de la Nouvelle Mairie. It is in a great square behind the Pantheon and has great food and good drinkable natural wine in a very civilized atmosphere, lots of regulars, without the scruffiness of some of the trendier spots in the 11th and 20th. Which are also fine, if you want that atmosphere.

For more traditional shops I HIGHLY recommend Les Caprices de l'Instant in the Marais near the Bastille (12 Rue Jacques Cœur in the 4th), Rafael is one of the most interesting cavistes in Paris, one of his parents is from South America (but I forget which country) and if you speak French you could easily spend hours chatting about everything. More importantly, they make it their policy to hold wines from previous vintages so check their book for the Bordeaux, Burgundy, Loire, Rhone from all the 90s vintages at relatively fair prices.

Bacchus et Ariane in the Marche St Germain (across the street from La Cremerie) is another great place with a small but well-chosen selection. La Cave du Panthéon is also great, like La Derniere Goutte it is in-between 'classic' and 'trendy'..

Speaking of which, nobody has mentioned the real 'classic' shops like Legrand which never really interest me but might be worth your time. Depending on how many other things you have going on. And it is easy to be busy in Paris!

To add to Rahsaan's eloquent and informative reply, the folks who started Lavinia (more like a palace of wine geekery) now own Caves Augé, my all-time favorite place to shop for wine in Paris. They tend to have overlapping inventories, but the wines are cheaper at Augé. At Lavinia, though, you can taste an interesting selection of wines using their Enomatics, and you can also buy a bottle and lug it upstairs to their very respectable café. Augé OTOH is more like a good bookstore: cramped, dark, overflowing with interesting choices and staffed by enthusiastic and knowledgeable winegeeks. Augé also has some great tastings, extending outdoors onto Blvd Hausmann in decent weather.

Mark Lipton

On a slightly different tack, I am interested by the programme at Les Grain Nobles and I would certainly attend some sessions if I were living in Paris or were staying there for long enough. Here is their website and programme - http://www.grainsnobles.fr/index.php?op ... &Itemid=50 . I guess that knowledge of French would be desirable to get the best out of these sessions; I don't know how well you and Marcia are placed in that respect.

PS On a closer look, it seems that there is nothing planned for the week you will be there. Tantalising!

Oswaldo, lots of good suggestions already and I can also recommend Lavinia, Auge, Taillevent [the related wine store] and Pantheon.

Here are two more sources: the first provides a pretty comprehensive list with a Google Map and some internet addresses where available and the second is a personal selection by a UK wine writer which includes addresses and telephone numbers. You will see a significant overlap between what you have in this thread and in these two sources but they might provide some added insights as well as more detailed information.

Some Paris Wine Shops and another view here

In any case I hope it is of some help and that you have a great trip. One of our favourite cities.

Many good suggestions above but do not forget the ubiquitous Nicolas. True, many cheap wines there but also some surprisingly good buys on surprisingly good wines.

Best
Rogov

Rahsaan, a special thanks for the extended and terrific response, but I am grateful to all of you for your suggestions, truly a testament to what a wonderful group this virtual home-away-from-home is. I will print, memorize, explore, sniff, imbibe, and post a trip report once the dust settles.

PS: Daniel, I printed the list of your favorite winebars - prices are in Francs, but probably not that much has changed.

[James Roscoe]

Many good suggestions above but do not forget the ubiquitous Nicolas. True, many cheap wines there but also some surprisingly good buys on surprisingly good wines.

Best
Rogov

At Christmas, staying in the PAris suburbs, these were excellent. I would also not ignore the local grocery store selections. Cheap, but 100 times better than anything we get in the US. I found some cheap Cahors for under 2 euros that would have swept up most $8 to $10 wines here.

Oswaldo,

If you get to Mont Martre there is a very neat little with shop named La Cave de Don Doudine. They carry lots of interesting boutique type wines at reasonable prices and the owner was quite friendly.