france,  paris

adventures in wine tasting: ô chateau, paris

theromanticWhile in the midst of not planning our Parisian weekend, I came across this post about Ô Chateau and immediately sent it along to the hubs. As expected, he replied with a reservation confirmation and a “WOO HOOOOO!”

Like the wino, the hubs and I have had our share of boozy adventures, and we’ve slowly been able to expand our list of wine/beer likes and dislikes, as well as add a few techniques into the mix. For one, hubs is a huge fan of “letting wine breath.” This is unfortunate for me, because I’m a huge fan of asking for another pour. Ô Chateau was a little different than most other wine tastings we’ve been to, and hands down one of our favorites.

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Sneaky iPhone photo, but this was our view for about two hours

The class was small.

You already know we don’t love group activities when traveling, but this was different. We were joined by two other couples–one from Edinburgh, one from Chicago–and a woman from Melbourne who was staying in Paris for five weeks on her company’s dime,  taking art classes. And hiding from me because I asked too many questions and I think she thought I was going to try and steal her life. We had taken a similar class at Vintage Irving in Union Square a few years ago (now closed, RIP), and while we had a great time…the class was HUGE. Here, everyone was able to chat and ask questions, and it made the class that much more intimate and fun.

The room had ambiance.

Though the original review we read said that they were down in Les Caves, our tasting was held upstairs.  I thought I was going to be disappointed, but the upstairs room was just as cute… as was our sommelier, Remi. If you google other reviews of Ô Chateau, you will find that it’s scientific fact that Remi is cute, so hubs can’t get mad at me for including this.

We learned important facts.

  1. Global warming is good for wine. It creates a less cold, wet back season, which means better quality wine. Sorry, polar bears. Advances in technology is important too, but, you know. Blah blah blah zzzz.
  2. French girls love Rosé. If you’re in the market for a French girl, you should have a bottle on hand–per Remi.
  3. Screw tops are technically better for keeping wine than cork, but because cork is more expensive (and traditional), it’s still used.
  4. France has over 150,000 wineries. We also learned how to read French wine labels, and had a mini-lesson on appellations. The French love their appellations, and I now feel fancy when shopping for French wine.
  5. Sediment in red wine isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just means it wasn’t heavily processed. I have an exclamation point next to that on my notes because sediment skeeves. me. out. Yes, I took notes. Good blogger.
  6. Cheese naturally enhances the flavor of red wine. If you’re offered free cheese at a red wine tasting, it may be trickery to get you to think their crappy wine tastes ok.
  7. The whole hooplah that Beaujolais Nouveau is the wino way to start the new year is a scam! That one we kind of knew because we never actually enjoy Beaujolais Nouveau, but still! A scam! The French don’t believe this at all!
  8. We now know that when you swirl your glass, you’re not just doing it to look cool. You’re doing it to see the “legs” of the wine, and tell how sweet or dry the glass might be. We also won’t judge you for holding your glass up to the light, because we understand that you’re looking to see the clarity and brightness of the white or the depth of color in the red. In past tastings, this always felt glazed over–like if we were there, we should know what every step of the tasting actually meant. We didn’t, and now we do.
  9. Last but DEFINITELY not least: the average bottle of wine in France costs €3.61. Retail. And thus, we are moving to France.

Along with our class, our Australian friend confirmed that the Champagne cruise along the Seine is also well worth it, and if you don’t want to spring for a class, the wine bar itself was well-reviewed. It was the perfect way to spend our Saturday afternoon, and warmed us up before our tour of the Catacombs.

Ô Chateau = hit.

xo!

the romantic

The Lazy Travelers are two transatlantic best friends who have mastered the art of exploring a new city. Though Ashley is based in London and Carolyn is in Philadelphia, we'll use any excuse to reunite around the world. We’re professional bar hoppers, pub crawlers, and food testers, and you’ll never see us zipping around, checking things off a list of “must-sees.”

5 Comments

  • dailyfrancofile

    Absolutely amazing! I already have reservations for the Le tour de France wine tasting for my BF and myself and the wine and cheese lunch for just me (while BF is at work). I am SO excited! Forgive me for not reading the entirety of your post for I don’t want to spoil the surprises in store 🙂 but the picture looks delish!

    I am reading “Stuff Parisians Like” at the moment which lead me to Ô Chateau. Again, I can’t wait!

    • the lazy travelers

      you’ll love it!! and it’s the perfect thing to do either with someone else or alone, so i’m sure you’ll have a great time at both classes. let me know if you end up in les caves or in the room upstairs (or both!) and we can compare notes!

  • Lara Dunston

    Great post! And thanks for the link. So pleased you enjoyed it! We’ll definitely try their cruise when we return.

    Did you get to their bar? Still fairly new, but some are saying it’s the best bar in Paris.

    • the lazy travelers

      we unfortunately didn’t make it back over to that neighborhood to test out the bar, and by the time class was over we were more in need of food than more wine. but we’re definitely planning on another class or a visit to the bar next time we make it to paris–which hopefully isn’t too far off into the future!

      thanks for your great review for getting us there in the first place!

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