Wine Bar (And Store) : Lavinia

I was thinking for a long time to visit Lavinia. Lavinia is the Paris branch of a wine store group that had its debut in Spain, where it was started by two entrepreneurs from France (One of them worked for L'Oreal in Spain ), Thierry Servant and Pascal Chevrot. This group also bought the Caves Augé store. Lavinia is located at 3-5 Boulevard de la Madeleine (75001) in Paris, between la Madeleine and the Opera, and devotes 2 stories plus a basement in this prime location for french and foreign wines .A corner of the huge french wines department What is outstanding here is the choice, and not only of french wines, as about a third of the wines here are from the rest of the world ( 43 countries). That is new in France, as foreign wines are sadly often, either ignored, or given a smaller display shelf, than the one they deserve. This is a heavy-weight store : 500 square meters filled with many different wines, the most famous and praised of course, but also many of the lesser known ones . There is even a under-10-Euro selection. On the street level, you will find a wide choice of Champagnes and on the left, the foreign wines, beginning with portuguese , spanish and italian wines. The store manager, Yves Yannick Branchereau, comes from a family with roots in the world of wine.Haruko: She helps japanese (and other) customers make their choice

The basement is where you will find the french wines. Staff is helpul and fluent in foreign languages. They also hold wine degustations in the store sometimes, for wine(s) they select. The french wine in the basement are listed by wine region. And the choice is amazing, even if of course, limitative compared with reality. They also have the new generation of vintners. On the side of the basement , there is a special room for "Vins Fragiles", a tightly air-regulated room, where humidity and temperature ( 14 ° C) recreate the cellar conditions for the wine. This large "cellar" has a lot of different bottles, some are very prestigious, some are fragile wines vinified and bottled without the stabilizing sulfite, and needing very careful storage .

There is a wine bar upstairs where you can sit at the bar or at one of the tables and order a wine by the glass among a large selection which is changed each month. You can also eat a light lunch with your wine. The very good particularity of Lavinia's wine bar is that you can choose with your someone or your friends a bottle in the store and drink it there at the store's price (no cork fee !) . This is something to remember, you can't do that in many places. This is probably the best value option to enjoy fine wines with several friends...
The wine bar is very well lit by large windows. It is maybe a little cold and severe for a wine bar, and lacks ambiance and patina. Maybe this is because it is so modern and sleek.
So, our choice was :
B. took a glass of "tout en bulles", from the Domaine Gramenon, a "vin de table" from the Cotes du Rhone region, a sparkling white made with the "methode ancestrale". Price of the glass was Euro 4.5.
I took a Bourgueuil "Les Perrieres" , an organic red by Pierre and Catherine Breton , with which I had already a wonderful time (with a different millesime ). Good. But the magic moment that I experiened when I first tasted a Pierre et Catherine Breton wine eludes me. It was another year, and it had probably stayed just the right amount of years in B. cellar (it was one of her bottles). The glass was priced 7 Euro. Sorry, I took the picture with little of the wine left in the glasses... Lavinia3-5 Bd de la Madeleine 75001 ParisMetro Madeleine/OperaPhone: 33 (0)1 42 97 20 20Lavinia.fr

Comments

[Alder]

I first read about this store in Wine Spectator and have wanted to go for a long time. Last time I was in Paris I didn't make it, but I will not miss it next time. It is beautiful.

[Jim Kargeannes]

We visited the store in July 2006. It is large, well organized and offers both a broad and a deep selection of wines from around the world. If you’re going to the store to buy wine, check out their web page first. The selection can be overwhelming. I came away with several impressions (and a couple of bottles). The majority of French wines in the middle to high end are available in the US for the same price or less: 2001 Vieux Ch Certan - 120 euros ($80 here), 2005 Daumas Gassac blanc 29 euros ($29 here) 2002 Ch. Grillet 65 euros ($75 here). I blamed it on 19.6% VAT (TVA?) which is not refundable on wine upon leaving the EU. I also noticed that wines from the US were twice what they cost in America - recent Ridge Monte Bellos were 190 euros, a Saintsbury Carneros Pinot Noir was 40+ euros.
What was exciting were the low priced, lesser known (to me) wines from France that they carried. These observation held in the Nicolas store down the street and in the wine departments of Le Bon Marché and Galeries Lafayette.
We walked upstairs to the wine bar, but it was toward the end of the day and it appeared as if they were closing up. Distilled spirits are kept upstairs next to the wine bar. My great finds here were a grappa from Ch. Grillet and a plum brandy from Ch. Mouton Rothschild. Completely unexpected items. They also had what looked like a good selection of brandies, cognacs, armagnacs and calvados.