Meet our French wine list winners, creating a “dreamland for wine lovers”
March 10, 2026 (Stockholm, Sweden) — Star Wine List has named the best wine lists in France at an awards ceremony in Paris, with Gold Stars presented to teams not just from the capital, but Cannes, Reims, Bordeaux, Bourg-en-Bresse, Ploemeur and Belleville-en-Beaujolais too. This is the third edition of Star Wine List of the Year France, and forms part of a global tour that is stopping in 14 locations around the world during this 2025/’26 season.
Star Wine List’s Founder and Publisher, Krister Bengtsson, was joined by new Paris Ambassador Alicia Dorey to announce the winners of Star Wine List of the Year France at KEDGE Wine School this week. Restaurants and wine bars across the country were invited to submit their wine lists for assessment by an esteemed panel of sommelier judges: Pascaline Lepeltier (Best Sommelier of France, 2018; Beverage Director of Chambers, in New York), Kathrine Larsen-Robert (Master Sommelier; Head of Wine, Europe at 67 Pall Mall in London), and Pierre Vila Palleja (runner-up in the Best Sommelier of France competition in 2016 and 2018; Star Wine List’s existing Paris Ambassador).
Paris institution Le Taillevent received a Gold Star for the second year in a row, this time for the Best Long List. Other Parisian winners included Le Taillevent’s sister restaurant, Les 110 de Taillevent, in addition to Restaurant Janine and Géosmine. Elsewhere in the country Gold Stars were awarded to La Maison des Beaujolais (Belleville-en-Beaujolais), Tentazioni (Bordeaux), L’Asphodèle (Ploemeur), Quille (Cannes), Brasserie du Théâtre (Bourg-en-Bresse) and Le Wine Bar by Le Vintage (Reims).
Winners in the nine ‘international’ categories will now automatically be entered into the Star Wine List of the Year Global Final, which will take place in southern Sweden in June 2026 – the grand culmination of this world tour in which sommeliers from every region across the globe will compete for international glory.
Gold Star winners:
INTERNATIONAL CATEGORIES:
Best Long List, presented by Château Tour des Termes
For wine lists with more than 600 references
Best Medium-Sized List, presented by Joseph Phelps
Recognises the best wine list with 200-600 references
- Brasserie du Théâtre, Bourg-en-Bresse
Best Short List
Recognises the best wine list with fewer than 200 listings
Best Sparkling Wine List
Recognises the best list for sparkling wines
- Le Wine Bar by Le Vintage, Reims
Best By-the-Glass List
Recognises the best ‘by-the-glass’ list
- Les 110 de Taillevent Paris, Paris
Best Newcomer List, presented by Champagne Tarlant
Recognises a venue that has recently opened
Sustainability Prize
Assesses the sustainable commitment of both the wine list and broader venue via a supplementary questionnaire submitted during the application process
Best Italian Wine List, presented by Ceretto
Recognises the best list for the wines of Italy
Special Jury Prize
Rewards a wine lovers’ place that does something out of the ordinary
- La Maison des Beaujolais, Belleville-en-Beaujolais
LOCAL CATEGORY:
Best Rosé Wine List, presented by Château Galoupet
Rewards the strongest rosé section
About Star Wine List
Star Wine List is the international wine lovers’ guide to great wine bars and restaurants. Available as an app and at starwinelist.com, it was launched in Stockholm, Sweden in 2017, and is now live in more than 45 countries. All venues are selected by top wine professionals for the quality of their wine programmes.
The Star Wine List of the Year competition celebrates the wonderful wine lists of the world and the dedicated sommelier teams who create them. Since its inception in 2018, this global tour has evolved to cover numerous territories. Its highly anticipated awards events recognise excellence in the wine and hospitality industries, and culminate in a Global Final each summer.