Wine bars are pretty popular in France but can appear a bit intimidating, especially to visitors and residents with limited French language skills.
I think we all feel a bit of trepidation walking into one.
Not knowing how expensive the wines will be.
Not knowing whether we will be served something that we like.
Not wanting to sound like an idiot trying to pronounce French appellations like Pouilly-Fuissé or Pessac-Léognan. Not knowing whether their Jurançon and Vouvray are sweet or dry wines.
The fear of being laughed at for asking for a varietal wine like a Chardonnay or a Malbec, as you would do in English-speaking countries.
Fear not! French wine bars are, in my experience, far less intimidating and snooty than those in London, New York or San Francisco.
Most of them have a well-chosen wine range for drinking and enjoying with friends, not for sampling old vintages or exclusive estates.
Passionate and environmental owners
The owners are almost always passionate about wine and eager to share their enthusiasm with guests.
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This means that as well as being able to enjoy a nice glass of wine, you can also learn quite a lot from them about grapes, regions, producers and styles. In many cases they will speak English as well.
Furthermore, they are big supporters of small producers who employ environmental practices and non-interventional winemaking.
You are unlikely to be served the kind of wine you would in a tourist restaurant, at a neighbourhood gathering or find on the supermarket shelves.
I found that many wine-bar owners had discovered their wines at the various wine Salons and Foires around the country. Some of them are ex-sommeliers and some have even worked on vintages with their favourite producers.
While all wine bars are keen to avoid producers who rely heavily on herbicides and pesticide treatments, only certain ones have an exclusively organic range of wines. Usually they will advertise that fact and make a point of it.
I found most of them to have an open-minded understanding of holistic viticulture rather than relying on certification.
Therefore, unless you have a particular reason for only drinking organic-certified wines, you can rest assured that the producers are working their vineyards respectfully and making wines without using flavour-modifiers like oak chips or tannin-softeners like gelatine.
However, a word of warning at this point. There has been a boom in the number of Natural Wine Bars, especially in trendy districts of cities.
Unless you know what Natural wine is and like those flavours, I would caution going to a bar that prides itself on Natural wines.
Let’s just say that most people, including wine connoisseurs, would consider many Natural wines to be faulty or at least challenging. Therefore they tend to attract a more alternative, younger crowd than a normal wine bar.
Wine bars normally have plenty of wines available by the glass and a larger selection by the bottle.
The wines by the glass may change weekly or even daily and will not be just the cheapest wines on the list, as is sadly the case in many restaurants.
The prices will usually be cheaper than in a restaurant. Or rather they will be sold closer to the retail price, not the typical three-fold mark-ups charged by restaurants.
Wine bars often double as shops, so they may charge a fixed fee to drink in. That’s a big advantage if you want to drink an expensive wine.
Better presentation
Another thing I like about wine bar lists is that they are often better organised and presented than a restaurant list.
They may have split the wines into styles rather than regions, which makes it easier for those of us without encyclopaedic knowledge of French wine.
The owner and staff will probably have a good knowledge of the wines on the list and be able to help you choose, unhindered by trying to match wines to the food menu.
Wine bars don’t just serve wine. Most also have food. It may be more of a snack than a meal but tend to be very high quality and chosen to go with a wide range of wines.
I also found that although they will feature locally produced food, they tend not to be limited to it. You may find cheeses from all around the country or hams and dried sausage from Spain or Italy.
Similarly the wine list is unlikely to be as restricted to local wines as a typical restaurant would be. The choice is normally pretty wide and eclectic, even if they specialise in one or two preferred regions that they know well, usually because the owner is from there or has worked in the region.
For those strange people who don’t like wine, there will often be craft beers, wine-based aperitif drinks or artisanal fruit juices on offer. Some bars also serve a range of fine spirits such as Cognac, Rum or Whisky.
I was travelling around Nouvelle-Aquitaine last week and tried out a few wine bars along the way. My choices were fairly random and constrained by what I found open on the day I visited, so not necessarily the best but I’d happily recommend any of them.
The first was a casual one in the centre of Bordeaux called Les Trois Pinardiers. It attracted a fairly young crowd and had a well-thumbed wine list divided by colour and region.
It had a lot of wines by the glass and each one had a useful taste description as well as the name, vintage and region.
In Clissons the only one open was Cave et Bar à Vins Naturels – Granite. So I knew what to expect!
However the selection wasn’t too extreme and the server was quite content to listen to my list of things I don’t like. Only a small number of wines were available by the glass.
They served platters of cheeses and charcuterie as well as meze dishes like humous and dolmades, which were big enough for a meal.
The next day we stumbled upon a cheese and wine bar in the main square of Fontenay-le-Compte called Caseo Vino, run by a very passionate and well-informed owner who seemed to know each of his wine producers personally and had worked at a couple of their estates.
He was happy to discuss not only the wines but the social history of the town and the ideas the new mayor had for improving it.
Le Verre à Pied in Cognac has the best interior design he has ever seen in a wine bar; inset: wine bars provide relaxation and wine expertiseJonathan Hesford
In Cognac I was being fussy over where to eat and our first two choices were booked out for private parties but luckily we found Le Verre à Pied, with the best interior design I’ve ever seen in a wine bar.
It served generous and tasty platters of charcuterie and cheese big enough for our evening meal.
The wine list focused on a select handful of regions. The very personable owner’s recommendations were good and the wines were well-priced. He also had a magnificent moustache.
In conclusion, wine bars are neither pretentious nor intimidating. They are nice relaxed spaces to enjoy a pleasant evening (or lunch) and experience better, more interesting wines than you may normally, often at lower prices than restaurants.
Jonathan Hesford has a Postgraduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology from Lincoln University, New Zealand and is the owner, vigneron and winemaker of Domaine Treloar in the Roussillon – visit www.domainetreloar.com.
