Paris, Nights in Wine Satin

Autumn is definitely here, the evenings are getting shorter like the ice floes in summer, and the desire for a good drink well accompanied comes back ! Good news: in Paris, cellars are no longer just selling bottles. We drink, eat, and above all, we are advised by enthusiasts who know their winemakers on the fingertips. Here are 5 addresses where the bottle is chosen, uncovered and shared.

LE SANTE BONHEUR

A stone’s throw from the National Assembly, there is another chamber where this debate takes place firmly. But here, the agenda is limited to two small words: cheers and happiness. And the vote is by a show of hands... glass in it, of course... rue de Bourgogne ("Burgundy street"). Except that the soul of the place, it took the ferry to Corsica. The island selection is the real nugget of the map, surrounded by organic bowling pins and natures from all over France... and a few first grands crus for gala evenings. For the others, the glass starts at 7 euros, and the champagne at 12. No reason to cry, especially since addresses of this type are rather rare around here! On the plate, amendments are pouring in: a platter of Corsican cured meats, an assortment of cheeses, candied pumpkin tarts and stracciatella (the sweet tenderness of squash that melts into the milky creamy texture, autumn in two bites), the U Mulinu crunch and the mysterious bandit bread -we’ll let you find out what he stole!  And then there is the basement. We go down the spiral staircase and there, surprise: a vaulted cellar, rows of illuminated bottles, the impression of sitting in a secret committee. We can privatize it for up to 40 people for a birthday or a farewell party, and the team also organizes winemaking workshops for those who want to review their classics. As the evening progresses, the atmosphere rises... The music sometimes invites itself into the debate to liven up the neighborhood regulars. Motion unanimously adopted. Meeting adjourned... but not too early!

32 rue de Bourgogne, 75007 Paris

SUPRA

In Georgia, supra, it’s the big feast. A table that overflows, toasts that follow on, and a tamada to lead the dance. In Belleville, rue Jouye-Rouve, Supra has kept the spirit of it... in a neighborhood cellar version.  Since 2021, behind the counter, Nika Endeladze and Vincent Lappartient do not just sell Georgian wine: they import it themselves, directly from the estates. And then we change planets. Wines vinified and aged in kvevri, these large buried terracotta jars, a tradition dating back several millennia. Some very deep Saperavi from Kakheti, krakhuna from Iméréthie, amber wines that have grain... Yes, it looks like appellations coming directly from an IKEA catalog, don’t panic. If the grape varieties seem unpronounceable to you: the team takes the time to listen to what you like before drawing the right keel. You drink on the spot, or you leave with one or two bottles under your arm to impress your friends. On the plate side, Georgia sits down at the table. Pkhali with vegetables and nuts, khatchapouri that spins hot cheese, juicy khinkali that you catch by their small dough tail, Georgian bread with red beans, simmered mushrooms... A generous, fragrant cuisine, made to share, and just what you need when the evenings get fresh. A soft room, benches, a subdued light, a playlist you want to Shazamer, and a terrace when the weather allows it. We enter for a drink, we stay for three. Gaumarjos!

12 rue Jouye-Rouve, 75020 Paris

LA CAVE DE PASSY

There are cellars where you go in for a bottle and come out with a history lesson. The Cave de Passy, at the very beginning of the street of the same name, is one of them. More than 5,000 references, old vintages, shelves that look like a library, but you don’t look for books around here, just bottles, and each one has its own story. Guillaume Rouget, great-nephew of the legendary Henri Jayer, who revived the winery of his great-uncle in Vosne-Romanée. Benjamin Guilbert, passed through Haut-Brion and Clos des Lambrays before settling down in Savigny-lès-Beaune. The Berthaut estate in Fixin, with its motto engraved on a lintel dated 1693. And for the curious, escapades in the Riceys at Olivier Horiot’s place, in Wachau or in the country of Baden. The real deal is hidden upstairs: a wine bar where Laurent Audebert-Sobotka, one of the two owners, chooses the glasses of the moment. Some confidential bottles are even only served up there ("if you know, you know..."). No wonder to run into sommeliers and Parisian restaurateurs who came to their market.  And as wine is not drunk on an empty stomach, a small card of plates to share follows the seasons. The burrata has its faithful, as does the truffle gouda. Enough to keep up the conversation until the last glass. If the weather is nice, we can even sit outside...  The advice, on the other hand, never takes a break: we tell what we like, we leave with the right bottle in the bag, or we settle down to uncork it on site.

1 rue de Passy, 75016 Paris

LE 107 BIS

There are addresses that bear their names like a tattoo. The 107 bis is at... 107 bis Avenue de Saint-Ouen. Tadaaam. You should have thought about it! It is close to the Guy Môquet metro station, on the most commercial part of the avenue.  Behind this digital stroke of luck, there are two senior officers: Thibault Peltier, an ex-steward who swapped the tomato juice bricks from the plane for glass bottles from the cellars, and Mathias Tenret, a partner at Bonne Aventure in Saint-Ouen. The result: more than 350 references of wines, and 250 beers. Enough to hold a few evenings, and even more. The first bottles start below €15. In the viewfinder, bottles that make you want to: Le Bateleur by Théodore Planas-Rastoin in Provence, La Syrah by François Dumas in the Rhône, or Le Murmure de l'Eau by Étienne Seignovert, a jacquère-marsanne ardéchois. And when the rosé calls: Métisse by Maxime Magnon, a corbiere that smells of spices and cherry. Nature, life, the frankness of the necklace.  On the solid side, we nibble on farmer’s cheese (saint-marcellin, saint-nectaire) and cold meats with character: smoked white ham with beech wood, bull sausage. All on the few tables on the terrace. Open on Mondays (a rare commodity in Paris!), and everything is also taken away to finish the evening at home. And from Thursday to Saturday, it opens at 11am (we do not judge!). We meet the artists known or less known of the Epinettes district....  A keel, a piece of bull, the life of the neighborhood that runs... Happiness sometimes comes from a street number.

107 bis avenue de Saint-Ouen, 75017 Paris

SEPTIME LA CAVE

Septime? Full. Re-full. Full until the cows come home (yes, it is!). Fortunately, a stone’s throw away from there, there is a service door on Basfroi Street. Here, the Septime house has opened its backstage. And in the backstages, that’s often where everything happens. A tiny room, a long stall, a few barrels, people standing side by side... and no reservation. In the summer, it spills onto the sidewalk. First come, first served. The rub? We often drink standing up. But when the cooks and sommeliers from the neighborhood come to drink as neighbors, it means we’re in the right place.  On the shelves, the cast is dizzying: Ganevat, Selosse, Allemand, Radikon, Occhipinti, Dard and Ribo... A world tour of natural wine, from Champagne to Sicily. You choose your keel to take away or uncork it on site. By the glass: freshly opened bottles that run from Aveyron to Ardèche to Portugal. And if we hesitate, we ask: the team knows the setlist by heart.  For sponging, a short but slate that clashes: Ardèche sausage with pickles and Bordier butter, beef ham with laurel oil and roasted almonds, Berry sugarcane with chimichurri and labneh saffron, comté cheese 24 months aged and its fig chutney. And right in the season, a terrine of black pork from Bigorre with black trumpets. Autumn is not monAUTUMNous, every evening, even on Sundays, from 4 p.m. onwards.

3 rue Basfroi, 75011 Paris