Where to buy German wine in France?

WINE TALK
#1

Any known sources for German wine in France?

#2

Have you tried
http://www.wine-searcher.com ?

#3

Henry,

Your advice is certainly sound, but I can relate to Charlie’s dilemma.

I had the same question about Italian wines. I need help and guidance and someone to have pre-selected wines because I am fairly ignorant.

It is easier to find Australian or Chilean wines in Bordeaux than wines form Germany…

Henry, I suggest you ask your question on this forum: http://www.lapassionduvin.com/

Best regards,
Alex R.

#4

Thanks to both of you. In the meantime I found out, that German wine is pretty expensive in France and that it is cheaper to send it from Germany.

#5

Order it online; probably less expensive than say at La Vinia in Paris, which no doubt has a decent selection of German wine, but you pay a premium. In Strasbourg - if you make it that far then you might as well go to Germany - Au Millesime is an excellent store and has a decent selection of German wines. But online is the ticket in this case.

#6

Yep, buy from Germany and have it shipped.

#7

Charlie, Panos and/or Alex, How do most French winegeeks purchase their wines in France?

Here (atleast on this BB) it seems that most winegeeks use Winesearcher. There are definitely winery, auction house and retailer relationships. The majority of geeks have their wines shipped to them. Seems like shipping to consumers within France is much less common…true? Is there a French equivalent to Winesearcher?, why not? and why wouldn’t it be incredibly popular?

I enjoy lurking on lapassionduvin, even with a comprehension of about 75% of the material. Any other similar French BBs?

Merci.

RT

#8

I attempted to find german wine to buy in france to give to my hosts in burgundy when i visited summer 2011. I ended up buying a couple of mixed cases directly two mosel domaines and having them shipped to my friend’s office in beaune.

#9

Maureen,

I am a French resident wine geek rather than a French wine geek (the nuance is important!).

I have never bought a wine via Winesearcher and am wary of doing so.

So where DO I buy my wine? A lot of different places: hypermarkets, at the estate, at specialized wine stores (“cavistes”), and sometimes I have wine delivered by truck. Example: if I want wine from a particular French region, I may dip into the Guide Hachette and decide to order a case. Transportation expenses are not very great.

Foreign wine is a tough issue. The French by and large do not like German wines or Sherry (so I tend not to serve them) and these are difficult to buy.
I usually bring wine back with me from foreign trips, but since you can no long take wine as carry-on luggage, this is a lot more complicated…

In Bordeaux, there is just one place (retail outlet) to buy up-market non-Bordeaux wines: http://www.badie.com/
This is owned by Jean-Pierre Moueix.
They have, believe it or not, a decent range of Burgundies.

As for French forums, there’s also http://www.degustateurs.com/default.asp run by a Burgundian producer (Buisson-Charles) and http://www.buveurs-detiquettes.fr/

Best regards,
Alex R.

#10

Live in France too and I usually ship my Rieslings from Germany for a very modest fee. The best and quickest is usually Pinard de Picard, they have an excellent selection of Rieslings and if you read German they have a good catalogue with wine descriptions. Website is http://www.pinard-de-picard.de/

Alex is right that German wines are extremely hard to find here, it is a bit funny that even in the best wine stores you might find a (very) small selection of Alsace Rieslings but no Germans. When I ask they look very puzzled with the “who in the world would need a German wine?” expression…

Cheers
Christian

#11

Thanks a lot!

#12

Thanks Alex. There seems to be strong Local loyalty throughout much of wine-producing Europe…i.e.; you’re from/in Bordeaux, you should drink Bordeaux. I was recently in several wine shops in Nantes. Loire wines dominated, as expected, but there were often respectable amounts of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhones. Some other French regions too, including value offerings from the Languedoc-Roussillon. The Cavistes seemed to focus on a few preferred producers from each region.

German, Italian, Spain, Portugal or other countries (Austria, Greece, Switzerland, Balkan Countries)…virtually nothing. I would expect that stores like Nicolas and the hypermarches are making life increasingly difficult for neighborhood wine shops. If I lived in France, I’d want to receive mixed cases from all over the country…as well as neighboring countries.

RT