GALERIES LAFAYETTE WINE TASTING

French wine is one of the most famous and well-recognized wines around the world. While traveling in France, many tourists want to enjoy and taste French wine, and possibly even bring a bottle back home with them. To buy your preferred type of wine or to learn some general knowledge about wine, you can join a French wine tasting workshop at LA MAISON & LE GOURMET building of Galeries Lafayette. Knowing how to properly taste a glass of wine has more worth than exclusively buying an expensive bottle of wine. 

Enjoy tasting in the best order: from champagne to red wine

There is a variety of wine in France which even includes champagne as it's a type of wine. For a unique wine tasting experience, DUCLOT La Cave has prepared a wide selection of wines, from champagne to white and red wine. There you will taste six wines including one champagne, two white wines, and three red wines selected by their sommelier. The prepared wines are all from different regions around France. For each wine, the sommelier will inform you why they selected this wine for the tasting, how and why it has a good quality which depends on the weather, watercourse, and much more. 

Learn to taste a glass of wine properly

In fact, there are specific steps when tasting wine. In this workshop, you can properly learn how to follow the order. There are three parts to this process: look, smell, and taste. Firstly, the sommelier will teach you how to look at the drink and guess its age and level of alcohol. Secondly, you will try to smell the first nose and second nose of the liquid. Lastly, you will taste the wine to discover its flavor and origin, such as: flower, fruit, and oak. Step by step you can practice the accurate way to appreciate a glass of wine and you can take what you have learned and apply it in the future when enjoying  and selecting wine. 

To fully enjoy a wine tasting, it is better to drink water or have some bread between glasses, which is provided for you. It is for refreshing for your palate when tasting different kinds of wine, especially when transitioning between white and red wine.  

After an hour and a half, you will be a semi-professional wine taster amongst your friends. By trying six different types of wine, you will know the basics of wine, appreciate the aroma, and will be able to tell the difference between each wine. What a memorable and eternal experience! 

Additionally, you will learn numerous tips for your daily life to use after you return home. For example, when you invite friends to your place, its better to open a bottle of wine 30 minutes ahead of their arrival, because wine needs time to react with air to produce a better taste. You can also prepare pieces of cheese from the same origin as the wine which generally goes well together. Moreover, the sommelier gives you a special tip to quickly read the useful information on the bottles of wine. One of them is that on top of the cap, there is a little sign that says either 'N', 'R' or 'E'. 'R'. The latter would be a better choice because it means that its grapes were harvested in their own land. 

Precious time to chat with a sommelier

It is an interactive and communicative workshop, rather than an educational course. A sommelier is there for you not only for teaching a tasting technique but also so that you can ask whatever questions you may have regarding: French wine, local culture of drinking wine, recommendation for a wine souvenir, etc. Therefore, you will not only obtain accurate wine tasting skills, but also practical and cultural information. The sommelier is delighted to share their precious experience and secret tips with you. The explanation is based on understanding cultural trends of other countries that might interest you. Don't hesitate to ask!

O'bon Paris' tip

To have an authentic wine tasting experience, you can book it right under this paragraph. Don't forget to use O'bon Paris' special code GLOBONPARIS to get a special 10% discount. 

Also, you can find this entire wine collection in La Cave at Lafayette Gourmet, behind the historic Opera district. La Cave boasts itself with its well-known collection of historical French wines. Their staff will help you to select a great bottle to bring back home. The sommelier informed us that generally French wine from 2015 is good quality thanks to the sunny weather that year. 

Words by Youra CHOI

Photographs by Yuna LEE