Made inLittle France

Maxence Masurier opened Made in Little France on St John Street in Clerkenwell in 2013, moving from Paris to sell wines he had grown up with rather than a general list. The shop holds around three hundred French wines, champagnes and spirits, chosen by staff who taste the range themselves rather than working from a supplier sheet. Customers can return a seventy-centilitre bottle for a refill of the house wines on tap, a system aimed at cutting down on packaging rather than at novelty. A second, smaller shop later opened on Stoke Newington Church Street, keeping the business to two sites under the same ownership. Staff talk customers through unfamiliar regions and grape varieties at the counter rather than leaving bottles to sell themselves off the shelf.