L'Etiquette is for sale

And I need one of you rich wine people to buy it for us

February 13, 2025

When I first visited L’Etiquette, the night ended with me and a fellow “wine person” drinking pink pét nat from the bottle on the banks of the seine.

I wrote about my experiences there for Pellicle — it was my first journey abroad after the pandemic, and I was deeply troubled, as I’m sure everybody was at that time. However, in L’Etiquette, owners Hervé and Elaine were steady hands at the rudder, bringing me in and pressing glasses of delicious natural wine into my hands. It was an important time to remember that life existed before Covid-19, and it would exist afterwards too. The grapes that made my wine grew before any of this had happened, of course, and I was in another country, no longer restricted to my house in the bleak heatwave of 2020.

I’m not alone. L’Etiquette means a lot to a great deal of people. It’s enviable position on a cobbled road just moments from Notre Dam on the Isle de Cité makes it a perfect place to visit on your tourist walking route, and it’s always busy, with fold-up tables and chairs spilling out over the pavement and into the street. Reason one why this wine bar needs to be snapped up quickly.

Not just by anyone. I want to run it with you, fictional rich group of fellow natural wine fans. And I’m going to tell you why I deserve to be brought in to help run such a beautiful little wine bar in the heart of Paris.

  1. I really “get” the vibe here. There’s something underground and punky about the place — not in a James Watt way, in a genuinely subversive way, the way only a truly, authentic alternative person can be. Hervé and Elaine aren’t different to be contrarian. They are different because they just are. And I love that, and I can carry on that legacy.

  2. I’m fun, and I know how to get excited about old rocks and roots lying around a shop.

  3. Every single wine in the shop is worth waxing extremely lyrical about, and I’m not afraid to go entirely galactic with my descriptions and tasting notes.

  4. I’ve had the full Hervé sulphur talk and understand it. I breathed in the rock and everything.

  5. As a northern English person with an un-pin-downable accent that dresses like a 12 year old nu-metal boy, I can be an oddity that brings influencers over the river to call us a “hidden gem”.

  6. Hervé gave me a corkscrew and I put it in my cabin luggage without thinking about it. I was stopped and searched for so long at Paris Charles de Gaulle I nearly missed my flight. When they took out the waiter’s friend, which had a sharp little knife on it too, of course, I said “oh sorry, I’m a sommelier” and the security guard went “Oh. A sommelier? Okay” and let me go pack my things back up and be on my way. I feel like this is a relevant story but I can’t remember why.

  7. I love serving customers. I’m actually really good at it.

  8. I love putting on events.

  9. I’m really great at making friends with winemakers, because I’m happy to help with all the shitty winery jobs nobody else wants to do. Read: GRAFTER.

  10. I might have no money to invest in the project, but you’ve never met someone who can happily live on less. Read: WILL NOT EMBEZZLE. WOULDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

  11. You can be the experts if you like, and swan around in red pants talking about volatile acidity, and I’ll do the stock counting, service and comms; as long as I can choose the playlists. Read: ZERO EGO. NO POWER GRABS. GREAT TUNES.

I hope this information has been useful to you, and to anyone I may have convinced, please email me directly to discuss our plans moving forward.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Bisous bisous, Katie xox

A photo of L'Etiquette. A blue shop with wine bottle sin the window. A sign reads "Organic wine tasting in English with a French accent (sorry)

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