Parisian Living

Choosing Cheap Wine in Paris: 5 Things You Need To Know

by Hilary Simmons
Written By

Hilary Simmons

Hilary Simmons is an Australian writer, editor and copywriter. She has written theatre reviews, film critiques, restaurant recommendations, news articles, fashion blogs and daily horoscopes. She is currently living and writing in Paris. View Hilary Simmons's Website

Related Articles

11 comments on “Choosing Cheap Wine in Paris: 5 Things You Need To Know

Paris and London are the world’s best !

The Rosés from Navarre, Basque Country, Spain are excellent and can be had for under 2€ a bottle . For example Olite.
I have converted many …but we are lucky here in the Basque Country as the culture is the same on either side of the political boundary 🙂

Hahahahaha – nice post; very funny 🙂

Géraldine - Your vie en rose

Hi Hilary,

Thanks for your post. 🙂

Your advice about the 4-10€ is really great as wine in France is seen as a “normal” thing. So don’t put too much each time, definitely.

Maybe a good idea for your readers would be to taste “one of each” during their stay in France.

I’m no expert in whine but your article made me smile as it reminded me of this one:
http://www.commeunefrancaise.com/2012/03/07/when-can-you-drink-alcohol-in-france/

As we don’t see alcohol as Americans do. For example, you would never drink a glass of wine without food, as we see in American shows.

Cheers!

Heather in Arles

Well, at least you say right up front that you are a rookie! 😉

A sure fire helpful hint is to buy wines that have won a prize in the AOC competition or the Maçon competition (there will be an extra little label on the bottle). Check the alcohol content (some of our wines here in the South can regularly reach over 14%, ouch) and “bio” or organic, while not always a winner, can be a safer bet in that price range.
Best bet of all is to go to a local caviste. I avoid chaines like Nicolas because they have certain wines to “push” each week but a smaller wine shop will have plenty of options in the under 10 range and should never poo-poo you for having a lower budget.

Hilary; this post made me laugh out loud…. in so many ways you’re right and although I live now in the Paris region for more than four years, I have never come across your Vin de Pamplemousse….
And sadly, I know a thing about CHAMPAGNE too as we have a wine making village in Switzerland, name is CHAMPAGNE and the French have actually FORBIDDEN them to name their wine (mostly RED!) to call Champagne because it doesn’t come from Champagne France…
The first photo surely shows tourists, you’d never find Parisians with two open bottles of wine along the quais. We just spoke about the fact that you now need to have two ethylotests in your car (alcohol testers for drivers) but that in all this time we haven’t seen one single drunk in the streets! What does THAT tell us about the French? They certainly have control over their wine consumption even if their driving in Paris suggests differently…
Dear friend; your post made me laugh so much because you really shouldn’t write about wines but then, your tips ARE surely helpful to many. I am a sucker for good wines but appreciate a less than expensive one easily if it pleases me. My advice is to follow closely the special offers of your preferred shopping mall. In my case it’s AUCHAN; for good and not cheap wines it makes a difference if you get 6 for the price of 4 or even 3+3; they do exist and after a while you know what you like. In Paris intra-muros it’s difficult though…
A ta santé
Kiki xoxoxoxo

Love this post! I have a really hard time picking out decent wine in France. So now I go to a wine shop like Nicolas and ask for a recommendation. One time, Monsieur recommended an amazing organic rose (I was in Nice). It was so good that I went back and bought several bottles as gifts for friends. Another tip – the house wine in any restaurant is always good. No self-respecting resto in France would serve bad wine!

I love rose wines especially in the summer time here in Texas. I’ve never been to Paris, but this will be very helpful when I go.. someday!

Oh, the vin de pamplemousse almost got me. They had it mixed in with the rosés at my local monoprix so I was thinking it was just a fun label. On second glance, I realized what it was and backed away. Do. Not. Want. It sounds really bad.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe without commenting

Join the HiP Paris Community
Receive our exclusive newsletter w/special offers, deals, giveaways, unique recipes from published authors plus insider travel tips and insights only for HiP readers.