“Are you crazy? Bordeaux?” Meet new Bordeaux Ambassador Florian Valières
Today, we launch our first guide to what is considered by many to be the world’s winemaking capital, Bordeaux, and introduce new ambassador Florian Valières. It’s no small feat choosing destinations for discerning wine drinkers in a city at the centre of such a reputed (and sometimes divisive) broader wine region, so we got the sommelier's perspective on life in the Pearl of the Aquitaine.
When Florian Valières announced that he was leaving Brisbane, his home of 12 years, to take up a role in Bordeaux, his peers were summarily unimpressed by his choice of wine region.
“Most of the somms that I used to know or work with were like, ‘What are you doing? Are you crazy? Bordeaux? Everyone drinks Bordeaux! I never want to hear about anything else about Bordeaux!’ So I was very sceptical, because it was my first job in hospitality in Bordeaux and I was like, ‘Oh, what have I done? Am I doing the right thing?’”
Luckily, it seems he was and, two years later, the French sommelier is able to laugh about the episode from his home in the middle of the famous city, where he is happily ensconced as Wine Director at the Philippe Etchebest group. He is speaking to Star Wine List as our new Bordeaux Ambassador, helping us launch our first guide for wine lovers hoping to visit. We have started by listing 12 new Red Star destinations within the city itself, with more to come.
“You realise once you get there that, of course, there are places that focus on Bordeaux wine, there are places focused on French wines, but actually a lot of places focused on international wines as well as Bordeaux. And especially when you start working in a Michelin star restaurant, then the wine lists are usually quite extensive and open to the world of wine. And the guests that you have at the table, they don't come to drink Bordeaux wine – they come to drink what you can recommend to them and what pairs with the food. They're very open-minded and everything that I heard in Australia before I left? I realised that, ‘Ok, that's not the case. I'm going to have fun and it's a great city to live in.’”
Star Wine List's Bordeaux Ambassador
Born and raised in the Basque Country, Florian had originally planned to become a fitness instructor, meaning that wine didn’t exactly feature in his life except at things like Sunday lunch, when his family traditionally served it round the table. After completing a master’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science, he moved to Australia to pursue his career, but soon realised that he would need new certification and much better English to make that happen.
Hospitality beckoned.
Starting out as a kitchen hand, washing dishes, Florian became fascinated by the “ever-changing” nature of wine. “Wine is changing every day, every week, every month, every year,” he says. “You're always learning. I think wine is something that, once it catches you, it just hooks you and then you never stop learning. So every day is a different day.”
Making his way through the Court of Master Sommeliers, Florian is currently at the Advanced level and has passed one of his Master Sommelier modules, with two more to go.
He cites three main reasons as to why Bordeaux makes a top destination: its convenient location, a new wave of winemakers embracing a different style, and some exciting new openings in town (including the impending arrival of wine-focused luxury members’ club 67 Pall Mall, in 2026).
1. Perfectly placed
Our Bordeaux Ambassador might be slightly biased when it comes to the city’s position, as he grew up a keen surfer in the Basque Country and now very much appreciates his new home’s proximity to the coast, where there are good waves to be found.
“Apart from that, Bordeaux is a city where you, from there, can pretty much go and fly anywhere. So whether you want to go for a weekend away, or visit a wine region, it's very easy to connect to anywhere. And you can just drive and you're in the Cognac region; you can go to Jurançon, you can go to the Basque Country (there’s good wines there), you can go to Bergerac. I mean there’s so many wine regions not far from Bordeaux that you can visit.”
2. An evolving wine style
There is, let’s say, a slight cliché that follows the wines of Bordeaux around the world – not always helpfully. Yet, there are many producers bucking the long-established trends to create wines that are more approachable in youth and to show something different from the region.
“When I first started in the wine industry, back in Australia, all the Bordeaux wines that I came across were those big style, oaky, tannic, big-structured wines that need age to be enjoyed, obviously at a very expensive price as well. You still have those big, oaky styles that need to be aged, but you do [also] have these more approachable, more drinkable styles of Bordeaux that can be enjoyed very young and at a really good price, really good value.
“And back in time, having a wine under an AOP (whether it's Saint-Estèphe or Pauillac or so on), was really important. Now, you have a lot of winemakers that are willing to leave the appellation and have their wines labeled as Vin de France. Obviously, in consumers’ minds, it takes time to make them understand that just because you buy a wine under an appellation the quality will not necessarily be there; you can have a wine that is not under an appellation, but because the winemaking and the winemakers are doing such a great job, then the wine is outstanding. And that's quite exciting.”
3. A wine lover’s destination
When visiting Bordeaux, Florian recommends heading first to the wine museum and then finding a glass of something on the Place de la Bourse, to enjoy the water mirror. “There’s a lot of good places where you can just have a seat, have a glass of wine, whether it's a pub, whether it's a fancy restaurant. All along that river now, it's been regenerated – everything is new – making it very, very beautiful to sit, whether it’s winter or summertime.”
You may, of course, want to visit some châteaux while in the area and, since there are so many options, Florian recommends asking your sommelier for tips whilst at dinner. “They usually know where to go, what are the good places to to visit outside of those big names – even though they're good to visit, there's so many small producers that are really happy to welcome guests and showcase their small vineyards, and their small production, and that's always a good time.”
And what of those wines that these producers will be presenting?
“I think Bordeaux is coming back to the front [of the] scene, where there are so many young winemakers that are trying to do something a bit different and something that excites people – sommeliers as well as guests – and I think that makes Bordeaux such a great place to live. And I'm excited to see what Bordeaux is going to become in the next 10 years. I think there's a lot of things that are going to happen.”
The Star Wine List guide to Bordeaux
As part of the small, tight-knit sommelier community of Bordeaux (“everyone knows each other”), Florian finds new hang-outs and wine destinations mainly via word of mouth, and Instagram. He has begun his role as Bordeaux Ambassador by adding 12 Red Stars to our map… with more to follow.
Florian is incredibly excited to have joined the Star Wine List team. “It’s awesome,” he says, “because even in my last job, in Australia, I would always say to my colleagues and somms, ‘Oh, one day I wish I could be an ambassador!’ But I was in Australia at the time, where you guys had plenty of ambassadors.
“For me, it’s like the Google equivalent of the wine industry. Seriously, there’s so much information that you can find, whether you want to find a wine list, all those events, articles, and stuff about wines. I mean it's so complete, and I'm guessing there's so many things that you guys are going to add in the future.”
And what are people in Bordeaux actually drinking?
“Obviously, in Michelin-star restaurants, Burgundy is a big one, but if you look at other wine places where people don't want to break the bank, the Loire Valley is going crazy – I think Chenin Blanc has seen a massive increase in terms of consumption. In Bordeaux, this is not a grape that everyone knows, but once you have a good sommelier that is able to explain and recommend the wine, people are actually very happy. We see a lot of good wines coming from the Languedoc-Roussillon that are getting more and more popular – a region that is quite a hot climate, that used to produce wines that were very high alcohol, very rich, hard to drink, and now there's more and more producers managing to make those very fresh styles of wine, very elegant, very pristine. And we see a lot of increase in consumption, knowing that the wines are not that expensive anyway, so it is really good value. And I think the last region probably has be the Jura – it’s seen a nice increase because you find those Burgundy grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir) as well as Savagnin, and some that can compete with Burgundy without spending the price of the Burgundy wine, so it's really cool.”
Internationally, he finds that whites from Austria (be they Riesling or Grüner Veltliner) and reds from Spain and Italy (specifically Rioja and Barolo) are particularly popular.
But see for yourself by following our guide to the best wine bars and restaurants in Bordeaux, exploring their wine lists along the way. The initial trepidation was clearly a false alarm, because Florian's three-word description for the city now that he calls it home? “Eclectic, warm and buzzing.”
Do like the Pros - search 3000+ wine lists
