Haut les Vins – the wines

Wednesday 16 April 2025 • 21 min read
The Vino Gross table at Haut Les Vins 2025 tasting in Paris

Wines from 'fanatical winemakers' (according to the associated tasting booklet), mainly but not exclusively French. Above, at the Vino Gross table, an animated Michael Gross is pictured with his wife Maria (seated, on the right) and Beaujolais winemaker Pauline Passot.

Whenever I flick through a French wine magazine or look at a wine list in a restaurant in France, I realise that what we call the English Channel and the French call La Manche represents quite a gulf in terms of wine distribution.

Although France is the major supplier of wines imported into the UK, only a fraction of France’s...