VINEUM Paul Jaboulet Aîné — Restaurant in Valence

Disclaimer. I never got to do an actual tasting but still would like to share my experience. Got an online reservation for lunch the day before and received confirmation email(as it turned out later it was a waiting list confirmation). Not suspecting anything the three of us arrive at 12 noon. The place looks very nice and upscale and is completely empty, except for a few workers. The man in front, who is meeting us, speaking perfect English, quickly found us in the computer and seemed to be visibly annoyed with us. "Its always a problem with you, foreigners" that you can't understand what's in the email, it clearly says "waiting list" and so on and so forth. We politely inquired that may be we can seat at the bar or anywhere in the corner and just taste a few wines. He said it is absolutely not possible, that he is expecting a large party any minute now and did not suggest any alternatives for us. He clearly wanted us to leave, which we did. we certainly did not appreciate his attitude and were taken aback by pure disregard of our situation even though mistake was ours. Will Not attempt to come back. There many other...

Good wine tasting. The wines of Jaboulet are some of the best from the region and showed very well. Our tasting guide was very kind. Food at lunch afterwards was good.

However, compared to other tastings, this was lackluster. The guide was just a bartender, he didn't have wine training, so we couldn't ask any technical questions. The tasting itself was done in the restaurant instead of a private room. Also, while we did the highest tier tasting, it actually didn't include the best wines from Jaboulet (like La Chapelle). The prices in the shop were also not much better...

If you want to do the lunch wine tasting, make reservations!! The lunch area is quite small. As we didn't make a rezzie, we just sat at the bar to tray some wines. The 2012 La Petite Chapelle Hermitage was our favorite glass...we also tried the cote rotie. I wish we had more time to try more wines here. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the wines in Hermitage or Croze Hermitage. Just absolutely delish...