You can enjoy a glass of wine on almost every street of Paris, either in a casual café, brasserie, wine bar, restaurant, or bistro. Here are two special wine experiences we recommend.
O’Chateau
In 2004, two Frenchmen, Olivier Magny and Nicolas Paradis, opened their first wine venue in Paris, in a private loft near Place de la République. The concept was to organize wine tastings in English for small groups and businesses, making wine more accessible to a new audience. With the success and profitability of the wine loft, they saved their money, and in 2010, they inaugurated O’Chateau, a fully realized wine bar.
Today, O’Chateau is one of the leading wine bars in Paris. Centrally located near the Louvre, O’Chateau organizes daily, group and private, wine tastings. The substantial bar and lounge area on the main floor offers 40 varieties of red, white and rosé wine. We visited O’Chateau one evening, and instead of doing a formal wine tasting, we opted for our own. At the bar, O’Chateau offers three glasses of different wines for 15€, and we selected an all-red-wine menu of a hearty Burgundy, a smooth Loire and a full-bodied Bordeaux. To soak up the wine, we ordered platters of cheese and charcuterie. Looking further at the wine menu, we saw they also have a Champagne tasting for 40€ for three flutes, an absolute bargain we will return for.
We took a tour of the private tasting rooms, located in the rear of the main floor and on the lower level. The Vinotheque is a handsome room with a large, wood table in the middle, surrounded by leather club chairs and a selection of fine wines filling the shelves. It’s reserved for private tastings and seats 12 people. Downstairs we discovered the Lounge, a more casual setting to relax with a glass of wine with friends or colleagues.
O’Chateau also offers off-premise activities, including day trips to the Champagne, Burgundy and Loire regions, and a Champagne Seine cruise in Paris.
O’ Château
68 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 75001
https://o-chateau.com/en/
Caves du Louvre
Caves du Louvre is the ultimate immersion into the wine culture of France.
For their next venture after O’Chateau, Magny and Paradis had the desire to expand on their education and knowledge of wine to pass on to their customers, besides offering tastings. In 2013, they acquired an historic wine cellar near the Louvre that was built for King Louis XIV by his sommelier. It took two painstaking years of massive renovations to fulfill their vision of a facility that would give guests a comprehensive wine experience.
The space is divided into eight rooms where guests can indulge in a full sensory experience, including the Terroirs room, where various samples of soils in which grapes are grown can be touched; the Aromas room, where you can smell the different woods from the barrels wine is stored in; and the Tasting room, where you can put all the other elements together to taste the end product.
Les Caves du Louvres has a unique workshop where guests can create their own wine. The staff assists them to design their own blend, specific to their preferences, and also gives the guests an opportunity to initiate their very own label, giving them full personalization of their wine. The two-hour class costs 75€ per person.
If you want to organize a private event, Les Caves du Louvre rents out their chic wine bar, which has capacity for 80 people.
Les Caves du Louvre
52 rue de l’arbre Sec, 75001
https://www.cavesdulouvre.com/?lang=en
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