Margaux Reine — Founder · Head Sommelier

01the long version

How she
got here.

Grew up in the back booth of her parents' bistro in Lyon. Pulled her first cork at eleven, mostly to impress an uncle. Moved to New York at twenty-three with a duffel bag, a corkscrew, and her grandmother's tarte recipe written on the inside of the lid.

Credentials

✦Court of Master Sommeliers — Advanced
✦WSET Level 3 with Distinction
✦Le Cordon Bleu Paris — Pâtisserie Diplôme

Past Lives

Spago, Los Angeles

floor sommelier, two years

Frenchette, NYC

wine director, four years

Marchand-Tawse, Beaune

harvest stagiaire, 2019

Specialties

—Cru Beaujolais (especially Morgon and Fleurie)
—Loire Chenin Blanc — dry, off-dry, and the weird stuff in between
—Old-vine Carignan from the Languedoc
—Anything from a producer she has personally eaten dinner with

Signature skill · Blind tasting

Margaux can call a wine's region in under seven seconds from a single sniff. She is fastest on Burgundy, slowest on Spain, and refuses to play the game on Riesling because it “feels like cheating.”

Off the clock

·Restores a 1974 Citroën DS in a garage in Greenpoint
·Bakes a kouign-amann that has its own waitlist
·Reads M.F.K. Fisher in bed, every winter, like clockwork

Classes she teaches

The First Pour France in a Night

“I do not care if you know the word terroir. I care that you know what you actually like, and that you can ask for more of it without flinching.”
— Margaux Reine

02the bottle