David PIQUET

Head sommelier : 1 restaurant

Presentation

Like most teenagers, David Piquet had trouble finding his way and feeling comfortable in public. A contradiction in terms for the man who is now one of France's most talented sommeliers.

It wasn't easy to accept that I was very tall," he confesses. In a restaurant, it's impossible for me to go unnoticed, and in the end, that's just as well, because it's the contact with customers that I love most of all."

Born into a farming family in Toulouse in 1992, the introverted young man started out at the Hôtel Pullman before joining Yannick Delpech as a chef de rang. Atthe time, L'Amphitryon was one of the finest restaurants in France," he recalls.The chef had a lot of ambition for his restaurant, hoping to win the finest gastronomic awards. I stayed there for two years, from 2012 to 2014, before joining Les Prés d'Eugénie."

At Michel Guérard's, the apprentice sommelier was lucky enough to taste some extremely rare vintages,"like this Romanée-Conti from 1944, bottled before the vines were uprooted", he recalls, moved. David is as passionate as he is ambitious, but his poor command of English hinders his contact with customers. "So I decided to move to England. I ended up in Blackburn, at Northcote, near Manchester, where I was the only Frenchman in an international team. It was a tough but formative experience. And after a year, Michel Guérard called me back and offered me the position of assistant head sommelier, working alongside Laëtitia Boiton."

Two years later, at the start of 2019, he joined the Hôtel du Castellet with his partner, Giulia Di Palma, a head waiter he had met at Eugénie-les-Bains. "I stayed less than a year with Christophe Bacquié. Dimitri Droisneau offered me the position of head sommelier at La Villa Madie, and I couldn't turn down such an opportunity. I joined Cassis in December 2019 with the main aim of dusting off and revitalizing the cellar, including the non-alcoholic drinks sector."

Always on the lookout for "coups de cœur", the young thirty-something likes above all to take the time to meet the winemakers. "Recently, I fell in love with the Cante Gau cuvée from Domaine de la Réaltière, not far from Aix-en-Provence. All three colors are magnificent, with excellent value for money."

F. T.