Musée du Vin, Paris (Wine Museum)

The Musée du Vin is a small private museum of wine history in medieval vaulted cellars at 5 Square Charles Dickens, in the Passy district of Paris's 16th arrondissement, below the Trocadéro. It suits wine lovers, visitors who want a quiet hour away from the crowds, and anyone planning a tasting course or lunch in a cellar.

Medieval quarries used by the Minim friars

The galleries were cut as quarries into the limestone of the hillside in the Middle Ages and, from the fifteenth century, belonged to the friars of the Minim order of Passy, who stored wine in them from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The religious orders were suppressed in 1790 and the abbey was gradually demolished, leaving the cellars unused. After 1950 they were brought back into use and for a time stored wine for the restaurant of the Eiffel Tower. In 1984 the Conseil des Échansons de France, a wine brotherhood, opened them to the public as the Musée du Vin, and it still owns the museum.

Presses, barrels and 2,000 objects on display

The visit covers about 1,200 square metres of low stone galleries holding more than 2,200 objects linked to vines and wine, around 2,000 of them on display. Vineyard tools, wooden presses, barrels and coopers' equipment show how grapes were grown and pressed, while bottles, glasses and corkscrews trace how wine was stored and served. Figures set in small scenes illustrate cellar work in earlier centuries. The museum receives around 28,000 visitors a year, so the galleries rarely feel crowded.

Adult tasting courses booked online

Tasting courses have run here for about 30 years, for beginners and for people refining their skills. They are booked in advance on the official site and are for adults only.

Le M. restaurant and Friday jazz in the vaults

The restaurant Le M., opened in 2023, sits in the vaults and has a list of more than 200 wines. Jazz concerts take place on Friday evenings, and the cellars can be hired for groups of 10 to 200 people.