A Seat at the right table

The Making of Taste: How Wine Acquires Its Value

Is a great wine made in the vineyard and cellar, or in the minds and institutions that recognise it? This essay traces how personal taste is shaped by social codes, technical choices and the authority of critics, classifications and price — and how that value, in turn, reshapes the taste we believe is our own.

From Bourdieu to Parker, from oak ageing to the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, it reveals the forces that turn a bottle into a symbol, and a price.

Read it to understand what your palate perceives, what prestige constructs, and how to choose wine with greater freedom. Read the essay »

The Latest

The journal
Beaujolais: The Gamble to Build a Premier Cru Hierarchy
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Beaujolais: The Gamble to Build a Premier Cru Hierarchy
News

Beaujolais built its name on the wine you don't keep. Fleurie is seeking INAO premier cru status for wines that can age five to thirty years, with Château de Poncié at the heart of the story.

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Provence Rosé: Anatomy of an Icon (and What It Says About Us)
Society
Provence Rosé: Anatomy of an Icon (and What It Says About Us)
Society

More than a summer wine: how pale Provence rosé became a cultural icon. A complete guide to its history, styles, grapes, food pairings and prices.

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Society
Why Paris Is Still the Food Capital of the World
Culture
Why Paris Is Still the Food Capital of the World
Culture

French cuisine is no longer the world’s best — so why is Paris still the food capital of the world? Food historian Loïc Bienassis explains the enduring power of French food culture and French cuisine culture.

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Culture
Wine Etiquette for Non-Drinkers: How to Handle a Dinner Without Drinking
Society
Wine Etiquette for Non-Drinkers: How to Handle a Dinner Without Drinking
Society

You do not need to drink to master wine at a dinner. Learn the etiquette, the phrases and the questions that keep non-drinkers fully in the conversation. Wine literacy is not optional — it is an asset.

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Society

One Image, One Story »»

“Bon Vin”: The Art of Raising a Glass, Between Tribute and Caricature

Four men at table, glasses held high, empty bottles rolling across the floor: this popular nineteenth-century print from Épinal seems to sing the pleasures of wine without reserve. Yet behind its bold colours and its air of merriment lies something slyer — a picture that celebrates good fellowship even as it smiles at its excesses, and that reveals a great deal about the manners and roles of a bygone popular France. Discover the image »

A popular French print, from the Pellerin imagerie of Épinal, showing a convivial gathering around wine, a group of four men enjoying drinks at a table, with a woman in the background, and the words 'Bon Vin' at the bottom of the illustration.

The Magazine »»

Issue 01 is out

cover of issue 01, the gce review, the art of deliberate choice

In a boardroom, what truly gets decided is rarely said aloud. Power speaks in subtler ways: in the wine poured, the pause held just a beat too long, the restaurant chosen.

Read the Table, Then the Wine
The Chinese Business Meal
The Map Changes. The Logic Never Does.
Between the Words
Jean Monnet: Authority Without a Mandate
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Current Favorites

The journal
The Bottle as a Diplomat: How French Wine Quietly Shapes World Power
Politics
The Bottle as a Diplomat: How French Wine Quietly Shapes World Power
Politics

From state banquets to trade tables, French wine has long been an instrument of soft power. How the bottle became a quiet ambassador — and what it still signals today.

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French Business Culture: Hierarchy, Formality and the Codes of Professional Life
Culture
French Business Culture: Hierarchy, Formality and the Codes of Professional Life
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Hierarchy, tu vs vous, email etiquette, meetings — the codes of French business etiquette and business protocol in France, and what really builds trust. A cultural intelligence guide on how to navigate French workplace culture with confidence.

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How to Choose and Gift French Wine
Culture
How to Choose and Gift French Wine
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Choosing a wine as a gift is never neutral: it reveals taste, knowledge and intent. From a wine’s gift potential to the subtleties of selecting the right bottle, discover what makes a French wine an appropriate gift in both professional and private settings — and what it communicates beyond the bottle.

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French Table Manners: The Social Codes Behind Every Gesture
History
French Table Manners: The Social Codes Behind Every Gesture
History

From Louis XIV to the business lunch: how French table manners and dining etiquette still encode power, status and belonging — and what every gesture really signals.

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History

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