When sommeliers open restaurants

Sommeliers have taken flight to open their own tables and become the bosses. They are present in the kitchen to identify the wine pairings that will bring out the best in the dishes, and they are also business leaders thanks to their management of the cellar, on which the restaurant's cash flow partly depends. " Sommeliers have the ability to spot the good stuff," says Guillaume Keusch, who runs the Elsass restaurant in Paris, a table devoted entirely to the nuggets of Bach.dedicated to Alsatian bachique nuggets, whose menu was sculpted by Jean-François Piège's former sommelier , Caroline Furstoss. Examples abound, with Jonathan Caron (ex-l'Innocence) at the helm of l'Itinérance in Mers-les-Bains, or France's best young sommelier Clément Delécluse in Lille (Coup de main). Here are five addresses in Paris and the regions to help you understand this new repertoire of restaurants.

Le Bistrot du Sommelier in Paris

If the history of sommelier restaurants had to be dated, it all began in 1984, when Philippe Faure-Brac and journalist Nicolas de Rabaudy took over a boulevard Haussmann business and turned it into a restaurant like no other. The stoves were entrusted to a future great: Laurent Petit. The two partners had the idea of adapting a cuisine to a bachique offering. Wine and food pairings were in their infancy. " I remember the menu said 'to accompany our dishes, the chef suggests' " recalls Philippe Faure-Brac. He comments, " and it worked immediately: we were fully booked within a week! ". If the great chef Alain Senderens conceptualized food and wine pairing, Philippe Faure-Brac was just as instrumental in making wine choices an integral part of the restaurant experience. " Before, wine was a cultural pleasure. It could be out of place, and we didn't think of it as being associated with a dish in terms of taste ," says the great sommelier.

in more ways than one, the table of the man who would become the world's best sommelier in 1992 serves as a laboratory. It was one of the first places where wine was served by the glass. " We offered tailor-made wines to accompany our surprise menu. at the time, the trade was wondering how we went about storing the bottles. And it's true that we tested all the technologies that were invented and supported the consumption of wine by the glass, such as Coravin ," confides Philippe Faure-Brac, acknowledging that his distinctions in sommelier competitions supported interest in his table. However, Philippe Faure-Brac reminds us that his initiative was not an exception. " We should also remember Jean-Marie Stoeckel, France's best sommelier in 1972, who founded the sommelier's wistub in Bergheim, Alsace ," he concludes.

• See our review of the restaurant Le Bistrot du Sommelier
• 97 boulevard Haussmann, 75008 Paris

©Jérôme Mauchamp/Sainte Joie

Le Petit Sommelier in Paris

" Tables opened by sommeliers have been around for a long time, but the phenomenon has accelerated because customers have become very discerning consumers and expect to enjoy a global experience," analyzes Pierre Vila Palleja. The former Crillon sommelier student, who has also worked at the Ritz and Lasserre, is well aware that " people don't go to restaurants to eat or drink, but to be served ".

The Parisian took over the reins of the family bistro in 2014, having laid the foundations for a new bachique offering that shakes up codes. " Working in palaces, and discovering the prices of wines in these luxurious settings, I wanted to offer the same great wines in the context of a bistro, accessible therefore " he explains to us. It' s true that my parents didn't react well at first ", he confides with a smile. Now captain of the ship, Pierre Vila Palleja has decided to bring the kitchen into line with his establishment's promise to be "a house of wine". " It's not an easy task. We had to sketch out a menu that didn't go too far to the extremes, that wasn't too bitter or too acidic. The dishes have to be textured and just the right nuance to match our wines ," explains the man who is also a taster for the Revue du Vin de France. He takes the example of so-called vinegar-based cuisine, which would be unsuitable.

• See our review of the restaurant Le Petit Sommelier
• 13 Rue Jean Mermoz, 74940 Annecy

Vantre in Paris

This is the neighborhood restaurant that every Parisian Bacchus lover knows well. In his cellar, the owner hides some wonderful nuggets. Not surprising, given his résumé. Marco Pelletier is the former head sommelier at Le Bristol, and has also worked at another emblematic Bacchus hangout: Le Taillevent. A wine man from cold Canada, he talks about his labels like one tells a bedtime story to one's offspring. There's gentleness, detail and wonder as much as pedagogy. The man who drew on the repertoire of medieval vocabulary to name his table - "vantre" meaning "place of rejoicing" - spontaneously offerstastings, making the bistro a place where the subject of wine can be relaxed, while at the same time providing a maximum of knowledge without seeming to do so.

• See our review of Vantre
• 13 Rue Jean Mermoz, 74940 Annecy

Le Clos des Sens in Annecy

In the opinion of Thomas Lorival, new owner of Le Clos des Sens in collaboration with chef Franck Derouet, there's one thing all these sommeliers who have become owners of their own restaurants have in common: "they have the soul of an innkeeper". In other words, they have the ability to taste, analyze and apply their olfactory skills to the analysis of a dish. That's why examples of chef-sommelier duos at the helm of new restaurants are not uncommon. " I went to hotel school to become a chef, but I ended up going into sommellerie, which turned out to be more in line with what I was looking for ," says the head sommelier, who confesses that he has always kept his soul for cooking. CQFD.

" In my opinion, sommeliers have only been able to open restaurants since the kitchen opened up to the dining room. In the past, it was exceptional for a sommelier to taste a dish in the kitchen," says Thomas Lorival. There was no exchange between the two parties ", he insists. A blurring of boundaries that the previous head chef of Le Clos des Sens, Laurent Petit, understood when he included his head sommelier on the food tasting committee. " He wanted to include the sommelier's perspective in the creation and validation process ," he concludes, adding that " it was the sum of his past experience (with chefs Marcon and Troisgros in particular) that gave him the confidence to become the owner of his own restaurant .

• See our review of the restaurant Le Clos des Sens
• 13 Rue Jean Mermoz, 74940 Annecy

Resources in Bordeaux

Maxime Courvoisier is what you might call a sommelier's star. His CV is studded with fine establishments: Jean-Paul Jeunet's restaurant in Arbois and Sylvain Sendra's Fleur de Pavé in Paris. Armed with his title of Meilleur Apprenti de France, the Franc-Comtois honed his mastery of Bacchus' juices alongside one of France's greatest sommeliers, David Biraud, while working at the Mandarin Oriental in Paris. This was a key experience, as Maxime Courvoisier attended Biraud's training sessions for the World's Best Sommelier competition... The skills he acquired strengthened his confidence and enabled him to become chef Tanguy Laviale 's partner in Bordeaux. Together, they have restored the gastronomic reputation of the establishment that was once home to the famous Garopapilles, in the Saint-Pierre district, a well-known drinking spot in the capital of Gironde. At Ressources, the wine list is just as extensive, in keeping with the chef's cuisine.

• See our review of Ressources
• 126 Rue Fondaudège, 33000 Bordeaux