Le Taillevent wins Best Bordeaux Wine List in France 2025
The first ever Gold Star for Best Bordeaux Wine List has been presented to Le Taillevent in Paris at the Star Wine List of the Year France 2025 competition.
This inaugural award for France, sponsored by Château de Pez, had 11 finalists spanning Paris, Bordeaux, Champagne and the Côte d'Azur. Paul Robineau MS, the Executive Sommelier for the Taillevent group, was handed his Gold Star by Frédéric Rouzaud, CEO of Louis Roederer (Château de Pez belongs to the Roederer Collection), at a ceremony held during Wine Paris this week.
Frédéric noted the importance of both the Star Wine List awards, celebrating the sommeliers who champion producers' wines in their restaurants, and of reframing the general perception of Bordeaux within those establishments: “First, I want to say a big congrats to all the people that sell wine in restaurants, select wine in restaurants, because I think it’s such an important role to explain – very simply, sometimes – how good wines are and, of course, how well they can pair with fantastic food. So it’s so important the role that the people in restaurants can play.
“And, of course, we partnered with the Best Bordeaux Wine List category because there’s been some Bordeaux-bashing for some time, and I think it’s time that changes. I think that Burgundy is good, when served with conviction, but Bordeaux can be a really good wine, also for its value, and so we’re very happy and proud to be here, so thank you for inviting us.”
Le Taillevent has quite a connection to Bordeaux, given that its owners – the Gardinier family family – are from the region and used to own Château Phélan Ségur in Saint Estephe. “Le Taillevent is mainly based on Burgundy, originally, but Bordeaux has been a very important region for our customers, and for us,” Paul told us. “We are very, very close in terms of, let’s say, our connection to Bordeaux. And Bordeaux is also the longest of wines that you can find on the market. I think that people are not drinking Bordeaux probably at the right time, because Bordeaux with 10, 20, 30 years of age is just incredible.
“You know, with the Bordeaux-bashing of the past 20 years Bordeaux has, I would say, a unique situation where people were going away to go to Burgundy or Rhône Valley or reserves. I think we have the chance to guide people through hundreds of vintages of Bordeaux. And the chance we have [as a team] is to be able to go to Bordeaux quite often, to the big chateaux of course, and also the newcomers. There are plenty of newcomers in Bordeaux – as in Loire Valley, Champagne and Burgundy – where you can find light, different styles of grape (more Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot). So Bordeaux is not only Cabernet and Merlot – you have a wide range of very different styles as well.”
Judge Jérôme Gagnez singled out Le Taillevent's Bordeaux selection as “exceptional in several ways,” praising its “very fine selection of high-quality white Bordeaux; incredible verticals across a large number of great wines as well as certain less-renowned estates; many wines offered in ready-to-drink vintages. This wine list is testimony to the huge amount of work done by the restaurant, initiated a long time ago, to ensure continued transmission.”
Meet all the winners at Star Wine List of the Year France 2025.
Runners Up
Silver Stars for the Best Bordeaux List were awarded to:
Aux Quatre Coins du Vin, Bordeaux
Drouant, Paris
Le Clarence, Paris
Le George, Paris
Le Parc at Domaine Les Crayères, Reims
Le Petit Sommelier, Paris
Les 110 de Taillevent Paris, Paris
Restaurant Espadon, Paris
Vignobles et Châteaux Wine Bar, Saint-Emilion
Expert jury panel
The international jury for France included four top names from the wine world:
• Kathrine Larsen-Robert – Master Sommelier
• Nina Jensen – Second-Best Sommelier of the World 2019, 2023 (ASI)
• Pascaline Lepeltier – Best Sommelier of France 2018
• Jérôme Gagnez – wine writer and radio presenter
Categories and criteria
Star Wine List judges the wine lists in several categories such as the Best Sparkling Wine List and Best By the Glass List. These categories are the same across all of the awards. In addition, local categories may be added. We have commercial partners for certain categories, such as the Best Austrian Wine List, presented by Austrian Wine. The commercial partners are, however, never involved in the selections of finalists or winners — that is completely up to our independent jury panel.
The criteria for the jury are straightforward but not simple: vote for the most exciting wine list representing the category.
The winners in the international categories will qualify for our International Final in June 2025, where they will face off with the category winners from other countries and continents.
Read about the terms and how Star Wine List judges the wine lists here.
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