L'Etiquette - Cave à vins/Wine shop (vins bio, naturels & dégustation) — Restaurant in Paris

This is in response to a comment from Kevon Houghton:

Hi Kevon,

I recently took part in a tasting at L’Etiquette as well, and upon reading your comment I felt I should say something as I feel you are not giving Herve the credit he deserves, and I don’t think this cool experience should be depicted this way. L’étiquette is a natural wine cave, and it only makes sense that the way he puts on the tasting is unconventional, just as his wines are. His passion should not be mistaken for being condescending; he merely tells it like it is and customers can either accept it or don’t. He lends a refreshing point of view to the world of wine, which can sometimes be seen in a pretentious light.

As for the price, 25 euros for four different wines poured, plus an hour’s worth of education, is fair to me. He made sure no ones glasses were empty, and the reason the tastes seem “small” is due to the fact that it’s difficult to grasp the characteristics of the wine if the glass is too full. But he made sure to keep pouring and I did not feel ripped off in the least bit.

He was very nice, did not treat us like tourists, and explained things very simply to that we all understood. It was especially interesting to see the photos of the conventional vineyards vs natural ones, as well as conventional bottles vs natural ones. The fact that he kept the wines discreet until after trying each of them was beneficial in that we could really say what we felt about each wine instead of saying what we thought we should feel. His way of looking at wine is so simple yet so full of passion, and I learned so much.

I never felt that he was looking for a “correct” answer out of any of us; he just wanted us to step out of our comfort zones and really express what we felt about the wine. And if any of us seemed lost he steered us in the right direction.

I have never learned about wine the way I learned at letiquette. Herve genuinely cares about educating his customers, and these tastings are not just a way for him to make money. I do not understand how this in any way could seem exaggerated or false, as he has zero motive to present inaccurate information. The wines themselves were incredible and like nothing I have ever tasted. He really changed my perspective on the natural wine world, and i urge anyone visiting paris to make a stop in this homey cave and speak with Herve, even if it’s just for a...

After seeing all the 5 star reviews for this place, we thought it might be worth stopping in. Maybe the guy running the tasting that day was just having a bad day, or had too much to drink before we showed up, but our experience did not match the other reviews. I found the person to be condescending and sanctimonious. First, the store charges $25 eruo for 4 SMALL tastes. Even by Paris standards, that's a rip-off. When we asked what they were tasting, he was non-committal.. said something like, whatever the mood strikes me. At this point, I was thinking he could be either really cool and chill, and give us a neat education on wine, or this could be a disaster. I like to think the best of people so I went with the latter. He started out by giving us the spiel about how all of their wines are organic, sulfite free, etc, etc, and my hopes went down. He kept going on and on about how most wines were poison and how he didn't want any poison in his body and how he could spot poison wine in 5 seconds... a few minutes later he was outside smoking poison sticks. He had this whole presentation with pictures and rocks, having you tell him what you saw, and smelled (on the rocks). If you said something other than the "correct" answer, he would gruffly say... "No, that's not what you smell (see, taste)! It is ("correct" answer)". His tone seemed to say, "you moron!" if you answered "wrong". At the very end, he pressed to be paid in cash, rather than credit. I can't say the exact nature of the motivation for this, but after everything else, I can't think it was totally above board.

I am not a professional wine maker, but I have made wine and know quite a bit about wine, grapes, and horticulture in general. I love to drink wine. I go wine tasting a lot. I like to focus on smaller vineyards and producers who will take the time to talk to you about their process. I can honestly say that at least half of this guys presentation is exaggerated or false.

The wines themselves were ok. This is why it's 2 stars...

We had a tasting of organics wines led by James (? Not too sure about the name). We were subjected to an hour of his opinions on everything from modern politics to healthy food before we even got to taste the first wine. If I wanted to hear a lecture I would go back to the university and listen to an actual professional rather than this half-baked quack.

Besides being insanely long-winded, he also kept asking semi-rhetorical questions to which we had to guess his answers, all the while looking at us like preschool children and ignoring any of our attempts to engage in actual conversation. And when we were more knowledgeable than he anticipated (for example, when my friends and I picked his favorite wine from a line-up just by looking at the labels) he just continued his story pretending that we had chosen incorrectly.

James, if you're reading this, here is some feedback: stop whining about how terrible conventional wines are. Just tell us about organic wines don't try to explain chemistry, you clearly do not understand it have us taste the first wine in the first 15 minutes don't ask questions to which only you know the 'correct' answer do try to let your guests talk about their own experience in general, just keep your mouth shut

The only reason I give one star instead of zero is because we spent the rest of our trip laughing at his remarks and performing imitations of his ridiculous comments and gestures. If you want to see the stereotypical French arrogance in its purest form, this shop might be...