Le Bar à Vin — Attraction in Bordeaux

On a recent 3 week tour of France, we accomplished what we set out to do; sample cross section of French wines to learn if there are wines we truly enjoy. We love wine, and honestly have always preferred robust, rich and velvety red wines, and we enjoy many whites and rosés as well. They rarely seem to be Of French origin. We know price is not a consistently accurate indicator of weather or not a particular wine will enchant us. Therefore, we were excited to learn of Maison du Vin, just a few minutes from our Hotel on rue St Catherine in the city of Bordeaux. They offer a nice selection of vins rouge and blanc that can be sampled and otherwise purchased by the glass or bottle, from around the Bordeaux region, with examples of left and right bank wines, Medoc, St Emilion etc. We enjoyed a tasting of some particularly nice white wines, and some red wines that we found to be completely well suited to our palate. You can order some basic cheese and or charcuterie to accompany your wine selections, and the cost was very reasonable. They offer indoor and cafe style outdoor seating. On our lovely afternoon visit there wasn’t any outdoor seating available, so we tasted indoors. We were a bit surprised at what seemed to us anyway, quite a bit of out of character behavior of some patrons. Laying with bare feet all over the little couches, others playing a very long round of rummy and drinking water and with an unruly dog. All the while many others wanting to actually sample and enjoy the wines of Maison du Vin had to look on as the place was full. In any event, that isn’t a bad reflection on the Maison I suppose. We greatly enjoyed our Saturday visit so much we went back on Sunday only to discover it was closed on that day. Highly...

IF YOU ARE TOURISTS AND CAN’T SPEAK FRENCH, DON’T GO Really really disappointed by the rude employees. Saw this bar is highly recommended by Google or local map, me and my friend was so anticipated to have a wine in this nice city.

However, after we entered we were standing there for more than 10 mins, the employees were obviously saw us but choose to ignore us even they got nothing to do. So we made ourselves a seat and try our best to get their attention in order to get the wine list.

As the comments in google map said we could ask the employee for the professional advice on wine. So we tried another 10 mins to try to get the attention for the advice.

When the lady came, before we said anything she seems already so unimpressed and crossed her arm. Since my French is only good enough to able to ask “Excuse me, can you speak English?” So I have no choice and only can do the rest of the conversation in English, but the lady just being arm crossed and impatiently to response to our question. I was doing the whole conversation politely even waiting for 20 mins the employee came whom were free.

Eventually wine and ambience were not bad, but really really ruined by the...

A dear friend of mine had highly recommended Le Bar à Vin. We attempted to go there twice. The first time, we thought they were closed because the corner looks like an entrance, and it was closed. I'd say that I'm not too with it, but the second time we went, the same thing happened to someone else. They really should have a sign pointing to the entrance, which is pretty nondescript. So, we finally make it in and there are two people ahead of us and the venue is not full. It took us over 40 minutes to get seated, by then, the line just continued to grow. There were only two ladies waiting on the entire venue. There was a lady at a counter for shipping wine orders and another man, maybe the manager, walking around from time to time. Without a doubt, they were understaffed, but honestly, if no one is buying or shipping wine and you're the manager, pitch in!! Our waitress was nice enough and shocked when we only stayed for one tasting. Clearly, it's a place where people go to linger, but it definitely, at least that day, is unable to accommodate its clientele. A bid disappointment especially since there are many other such venues to relax and enjoy...