Follow these tips for buying wine in Paris. Photo: DesignWallah Few beverages seem as intimidating as wine. Images of blind tastings, snobbish conversations about vintages, and hefty price tags immediately come to mind. Coming to Paris, wine drinkers are like kids in a candy store. Affordable and delicious wine flows freely, but travelers can easily be duped. Whether you’re looking for some vin rouge to go with your dinner or you want a bottle for a friendly picnic, here are some tips to keep in mind for picking an affordable wine. Higher prices and pretty labels are not indicative of how much you will like a wine. Bottles at restaurants can cost €20, €40, €60 and beyond. While the wine will probably be good, less discerning pallets can opt for the much cheaper and equally tasty carafe or pichet of wine. This is a house wine that is served in a small pitcher or glass bottle that comes with none of the frills of a Saint-Emillon or Chateauneuf du Pape, but it will still be a tasty accompaniment to most French meals.

Don’t feel goofy asking for a pichet at lunch or dinner, because even the locals will order up some house red, white, or rosé on a typical evening. When purchasing a bottle of wine at the grocery store or wine store, even Cheapos have a limit. Any bottle under €3 is rarely something that you’d want to drink, more often reserved for cooking or wild student parties. Stick to the €5-10 range to ensure that the wine won’t make you wince. Look for the AOC, or appellation d’origine contrôlée on any bottle you purchase. This indicates that the wine is a credible Bordeaux, Burgundy, or whatever other region (origine) it may claim. Without the AOC, there is no way to know if the wine was made by a professional or from some guy down the street in his bathtub. Still, if you go to a wine bistrot like Le Verré Volé, many of their wines don’t have a AOC. However, you can be sure that the specialists in the store have visited the vineyards and know exactly where that wine is coming from.

Box is OK, but plastic jugs might be pushing it. Box wine is not quite trendy, but is accepted with wine stores like Nicolas offering up affordable varieties.top 10 grocery store red wines The liter-sized plastic jugs at the supermarkets, however, are not to be trusted. best wine courses londonTake a tip from someone who may or may not have been there – it’s not worth testing unless you want your wine to double as a paint-remover.wine and food salads If you taste a wine and it doesn’t suit your tastes, hopefully you didn’t buy a whole bottle of it at a restaurant. good wine to drink with turkey dinner

That said, if a wine tastes particularly offensive, with smells and tastes that seem unfit for any mouth, it may be corked, which means the wine has been spoiled in the bottling or aging process.best glass to serve wine While rare, receiving a corked glass or bottle of wine can happen, and if you are really unable to drink the wine, ask your bartender or server what they think and they will usually be honest with you.where to buy wine late in nyc With aisles devoted to all sorts of regional French wines, Parisian supermarkets like Monoprix and Franprix are acceptable places to buy a bottle for dinner or a picnic. If you want to ask questions or are looking for something specific, however, head to a wine shop, or caviste. Nicolas or Le Repaire de Bacchus are two such chains found all over the city. Additionally, there are countless independent wine shops and bistros that will be happy to help you find what you’re seeking.

Your wine questions or advice? What other questions do you have about wine in France? Have some advice to share with our readers? Join the conversation in our comments section! Also in our guide: Heading to Paris soon and looking for advice on great affordable sleeps? Our editors have hunted down the best hotel deals, all visited, inspected and reviewed by EuroCheapo. Read more in our Paris guide. Note: This post was updated on September 30, 2015 with new links, photos and information.How the Experts Wash a Wine Glass 3 Red Wines to Drink with Oysters 6 Uco Valley Wines to Buy Now 50 Amazing Wines for $15 or Less 4 Wine-Pairing Rules for Your Roasts The Ultimate Wine Party Snack Top 10 Winter Wines for $20 or Less How to Pour Wine Without Dripping 11 Best Things to Drink with Southern Food Why Sparkling Rosé Pairs with Everything Olivier Magny, owner of Paris's Ô Chateau Wine Bar and School. Photo © Benjamin Raimbault and Vincent Défossé Vincent Vin

Olivier Magny is the eyebrow-raising owner of Paris's Ô Chateau Wine Bar and School. Here, he explains why Americans are the future of wine and reveals his favorite value bottles and regions.Here, he explains why Americans are the future of wine (the French are too busy drinking beer and feeling depressed) and reveals his favorite value bottles and regions. Q. You were only 23 when you opened Ô Chateau 10 years ago. Are a lot of young people in France fascinated by wine? A. The level of interest in wine in France is pretty much collapsing, but we are seeing a resurgence among people in their late twenties and early thirties. It's funny, because they're kind of mimicking what they see on American TV shows! Sex and the City, Friends, White Collar. They all want to act like New Yorkers. Q. Back up: Are you saying that Americans know wine better than the French? A. In my experience, they do. Americans study wine more. And, contrary to what people think, French DNA doesn't come with the genes for wine knowledge.

Q. This is definitely wrecking my idea of French culture.A. Look, the French eat more pizza per capita than practically any other country. Paris is Diet Coke, kebab shops and hamburgers. The surest way to recognize a tourist in Paris is to look for the person at a café with a glass of wine. The Parisian will be drinking Coke or beer. We're also one of the biggest consumers of antidepressants. Q. If all these gloomy, hamburger-eating French people aren't drinking their own wine anymore, I suppose Americans should step up. What are your favorite regions for wine values in France?A. First, the Loire. It's like the El Dorado of incredible wines at amazing prices. Places like Montlouis, Vouvray, Muscadet—you find fantastic wines for $12 or so from producers like François Chidaine,Jo Landron and Domaine des Huards. France: We have high taxes but cheap wines. Q. Where else in France should people look for great values?It's one of the few places in the country where land is approachable in terms of price, which means that new winemakers—ambitious young guys—can buy a vineyard without an insane financial stretch.

There are really good things happening here—in Corbières, Minervois, Coteaux du Languedoc, Roussillon—from producers like Léon Barral, Domaine de Bila-Haut and Olivier Pithon. Q. What's the biggest mistake US wine lovers make in France? A. Falling for what I call the "house wine myth." It's this idea that you come to France and order the house wine and it's amazing, the best thing you've ever had. OK: We don't even have a phrase for "house wine" in French. If you go to Paris and ask for the house wine, you're 200 percent busted as an American, and they're going to serve you some random bottle they bought for one euro. Q. Do you have other tips for American wine travelers in France?A. If you want to go to the fancier places—grand cru classé châteausin Bordeaux like Pavie, Pontet-Canet and Cos d'Estournel—then book a fair bit in advance, say, three months. Also, watch out for weekends because a lot of wineries will be closed. Wine people here love Americans. Q. Any exciting new projects in the works at Ô Chateau?

A. We've leased a 6,000-square-foot cellar right by the Louvre. The Louvre was once a royal residence, so the sommelier would bring the wine right from this cellar to the king. It's been abandoned for years, but we want to bring wine back to the place. Clients will be able to blend wines, bottle them and create their own labels. Q. What aspect of wine do you think people spend too much time worrying about?The whole subject is completely overblown. I mean, Google a pairing for turkey: You'll find so many wines that have nothing to do with one another. All you really need to do is pay attention to the power. When you have a delicate cuisine, for instance, go for a delicate wine. Q. I have to ask: If you could open a bottle for anyone in the worldat Ô Chateau, who would it be?A. Easy: Chris Rock, my idol. I have no idea if he drinks wine, though, so I'd just pour him a wine I love—Château de Fonsalette, from the Rhône. Related: Wine Experts to Follow on TwitterWorld's Best Wine-Tasting ExperiencesParis Travel Guide