The first time I visited the Bistro du Sommelier, I was so bad at the blind tasting menu that I was served a delicious dose of the classic Parisian Waiter Snark. I confused a Bordeaux with a Burgundy. In my defense, the Bordeaux did have an abnormally high proportion of Petit Verdot in the blend. The Sommelier’s response was great, “You are kind of right, both wines start with B.”

So this is now one of my favorite restaurants in the world.

Le Bistro du Sommelier appears to be just another bistro on the Boulevard Haussmann, but this is Philippe Faure-Brac’s bistro and therefore something special.

Philippe Faure-Brac was awarded World’s Best Sommelier long before sommeliers were the hip celebrities they are today and Le Bistro du Sommelier Paris is his vision of a restaurant built around the art of wine and food pairing.

At the core of the restaurant is a series of five-course pairing dinners where the wines are poured blind and it up to you to ascertain the grape, region, and producer. Something you do under the spotlight of your waiter, who is always a trained sommelier in her own right. It is a wonderfully fun way to enjoy meticulous wine and food pairing and learn a little in the process.

Don’t worry though, additional treasures wait in the Cave below the restaurant.

This video shows my first foray down there.

After a beautiful dinner, we had it in our minds to find something incredible. So we went in search of a 1947 Alsatian Riesling.

Stay tuned for the second video where the team of sommeliers goes to work opening the extremely old bottle.

This is Episode #62 of Understanding Wine with Austin Beeman