In the cellar at Le Soufflot

An open book

Since it opened six years ago, Le Soufflot has always prioritised building up a monumental wine list. Now, around one thousand listings vie for a place on the wine list, in the underground cellars and in the dozen or so EuroCave serving cabinets. This treasure trove can only be maintained through military discipline – during the winter season, the team pounds the vineyards in the nearby Côte de Beaune, Côte de Nuits and Côte Chalonnaise in search of the labels that will soon feature on the list. Their latest finds are the boutique, natural pours by Burgundy wine producer Jérémy Carteret.

The haunt of the wine enthusiast

The cuisine with a modern twist recounts the story of the vineyard sites throughout the seasons, from the dozen local snails to the revisited ‘oeufs en meurette’ or eggs poached in red Burgundy wine, and the barbecue-grilled pig. “But the common thread among all of our customers is their exploration of the region’s wines, which represent nearly 70% of our listings”, says sommelier and front-of-house manager, Rémi Deschamps. Seated around the tables are a specific type of patron, both French and foreign, who have already developed a taste for wine – most of them are winegrowers and sommeliers from other restaurants. “It’s simple, all of our customers are knowledgeable about wine”.

Highly-prized labels

“Due to our pricing policy, some wines become more affordable and more wines are enjoyed by the bottle for the entire meal. Our customers tend to opt for wines from highly sought-after wineries that they cannot taste elsewhere. In fact, many of them choose the wines before the food because they come specially for a particular wine. The Holy Grail is Champagne by Jacques Selosse, Meursault by Coche Dury and Chablis by François Raveneau.”

The unfamiliar pours

Alongside Burgundy, which holds pride of place, the list also features wines from Italy, Spain, Germany, the United States and Switzerland with wines by Marie-Thérèse Chappaz, a biodynamic winegrower in Fully, in the Valais region. “For the past two years, we’ve also been lucky enough to have red wines by Kei Shiogai that you rarely find anywhere else. This Japanese winegrower based in Gevrey-Chambertin and Pommard crafts wines with very floral aromatics. Our rare bottlings also include wines by Pierre-Olivier Garcia, in Nuits-Saint-Georges, which are fermented in the same tank with very few inputs and three different winemaking techniques – whole clusters on the first level, individual grapes on the second and destemmed fruit on the third. The result is extremely crisp and driven by notes of fresh fruits”.

Bottles on display

“Front-of-house, our ten EuroCave serving cabinets display all of our listings. The wines are arranged by region and there are one or two bottles of each wine available, which provides direct access to them during the service. Afterwards, we bring up more bottles from our underground cellars. The cabinets are a showcase for the wines on our list – they are presented in the best way possible across an entire wall, which attracts every customer’s attention. It’s a proper exhibition!”