You may or may not remember me saying, that it was a dream of mine to visit O’Chateau wine bar in Paris. Well ladies and gentleman, that dream came true on my recent trip to France!
O’Chateau was founded by Olivier Magnay in 2004, and has received many awards for being Paris’ best wine bar. If you’re wondering who he is, check out my previous post here.
O’Chateau is nestled in a quiet street off the main drag, not far from the Louvre.
Much truth
On arrival we were welcomed by the friendly staff. We took our seats, and were handed the vin menu containing an expansive list of French wines from across the regions.
A great read 🙂
The real highlight of this bar is the 40 wines on tap, with many MANY more bottles to try. Something quite unique for a wine bar!
Each of the wines are housed in a temperature controlled glass cabinet, with tubes running from each bottle to the outside. To serve, the bartender simply presses a button and extracts the wine in to a glass.
The house of wines!
It’s like an adults version of a self-serve drink machine in a fast food restaurant, only that it’s not self-serve, and you can’t go filling it to the brim!
With the sheer number of wines on tap, O’Chateau welcomes you to do a tasting, have a glass or, if you’re feeling complete adoration ‘love-at-first-sight’ for a wine, you can even buy by the bottle. For me, it was glasses ahoy.
Glasses ahoy!
With the day being a little warmer, I felt like starting with something light and refreshing.
Spoilt for choice!
#1 Wine – Viognier
Region/Area – Languedoc – Côteaux du Languedoc (located in the South of France)
Wine – Pierre Vaisse Hasard Viognier 2015
This was an interesting wine. More floral than I’ve tasted before for a Viognier variety.
Floral on the nose, with tasting notes of kiwi fruit and elderflower.
It had a medium to high acidity, and was straw in colour.
While it was a pleasant wine to start with, as I got further through the glass it was very much a ‘one-glass-I’ll-try-a-different-type-of-wine’ variety.
Just nice on its own as an aperitif.
On to the next wine!
To help me choose my next wine, the bartender went through the whites list, explaining the regions where each had hailed from. He even slipped me a cheeky tasting to make sure I’d be happy with my choice.
Location, Location, Location
#2 Wine – Chenin Blanc
Region/Area – Loire -Savennières (located in central France)
Wine – Domaine FL – Chamboureau 2010
This wine was a mineral style of wine, typical of its region – mineral on the nose, with a medium acidity and a slight dryness to it. It was certainly a more pleasing wine to drink than wine number one, and one that you COULD have another glass of.
Mid way through our wine flight through France, we decided to get a cheese board.
What a great decision that was!
Good decisions being made. All these cheeses came from the South of France
While we were eating our way through the delicious French cheeses, we decided to spice things up and change our wine to a rouge (red).
#3 Wine – Grenache
Region/Area – Châteauneuf-du-pape, Rhône (located in the South of France)
Wine – Domaine Jérôme Gradassi 2014
Wine – Domaine Jérôme Gradassi 2014
This was a big red – rich in colour, full bodied, peppery on the nose, and big in flavour. Notes of French oak, and red current, with a really dry finish. It was a wine that warmed the heart, and made the smile grow bigger.
Happy Days!
#4 Wine – Pinot Noir
Region/Area – Bourgogne (located East-Central France)
Wine – Domaine JJ Confuron Jeunesse 2014
A comforting rouge with strong oak notes, liquorice and spice. A great wine to top off the afternoon.
Taking in the wine
Although, it didn’t stop there…
After being at O’Chateau for almost 3 hours, and having taken a wine flight across France, the bartender brought us over a complimentary fortified. What a delight!
Pretty much my expression at the time.
O’Chateau really is Paris’ best wine bar.
Not only was the service and cheese on point, but the varieties and quality of the wine was impeccable. These guys really do know their wine – which is no surprise, as they’re all sommeliers.
My next dream now is to go back and visit the wine bar again, and take another flight through the French wines I didn’t have the chance to try!
Until next time winos,
Cheers!
Tip the bottle 