Sommelier, food critic and leading figure on the French culinary scene

He began his career as a sommelier at the Ritz Paris, then at the Relais Louis XIII, before joining the Royal Monceau in 2010. As a true gourmet, he joined the team at the Guide Lebey, with whom he revived the Association for the Preservation of the Mayonnaise Egg. A member of the Association des Sommeliers de Paris, he contributes to *Le Journal du Dimanche*, *L’Express* and *Marie Claire*. Since 2017, he has been co-hosting ‘La Chronique Vin’ alongside François-Régis Gaudry on the Paris Première channel as part of the programme ‘Très Très Bon’. In 2019, he was awarded the ‘Prix Curnonsky’ by his peers for his book ‘Le Petit Livre du Sommelier’, and in 2021 he launched the eponymous board game. The following year, he presented the wine segment on RTL’s programme ‘L’apéro Club’. Now serving as France’s sake ambassador to the Japanese government, this year he is presenting, alongside Caroline de Maigret, Zazie Tavitian and Manu Payet, a guide to the best spots in Paris to be titled ‘La traversée de Paris’. He has created Millésime for MOMUS.

Do you remember your first coffee?

Gwilherm : I think it was during the summer holidays. I must have been about 7 or 8. I’d nicked my mum’s bowl. And back in the 90s, there was this craze for instant coffee. From a brand I won’t name. And she used to add milk to it. So, for me, I’ve really got this image of that big Spanish earthenware bowl. Because it was a house in Spain. With that instant coffee, with a dash of milk. And I was actually trying to savour it. But she wouldn’t let me. And it was always a bit frustrating. She’d always say, ‘It’s for grown-ups.’ And so, even at a very young age, I already wanted to be a grown-up so I could enjoy that coffee.

The perfect place for a coffee?

Gwilherm : Pretty much everywhere, because coffee is actually a constant companion in my everyday life. My passions and my work mean I travel a lot. So for me, coffee has to be versatile. It’s true, I really enjoy discovering French and international cuisines. So yes, coffee is with me at mealtimes first and foremost, but it’s also the first thing I do in the morning, because I don’t eat breakfast, I just have a coffee. So for me, coffee is very important.

If you had to choose one person to have a coffee with, who would it be?

Gwilherm: There are loads of people who spring to mind, obviously. You know, I come from the world of wine and fine dining, so we love sharing and exchanging ideas. That’s how we learn and grow. Just for a laugh, I’d say George Clooney – just to test the waters, a bit of a friendly competition, you know.

Packaging Millésime Créé par Gwilerm de Cerval posé sur un table avec grand bouquet et lampe dont le pied est une femme en bronze
What do you like about coffee?

Gwilherm : What draws me in is the atmosphere. Right away, there’s something comforting about it. The first impression is, of course, visual, it’s very dark, and occasionally it can lean a little towards that terracotta, orangey hue, and then when you pick up your cup, there’s the warmth, and warmth is a source of comfort. And then what I’m looking for is, first and foremost, an aroma with floral, spicy and, of course, fruity notes, and then a good balance between the intensity of the aroma and the acidity. It’s really that balance that I’m looking for: comfort and, of course, complexity.

Why Millésime ?

Gwilherm : When I met Lionel, the chairman of Momus, and he told me about this project. Actually, I gathered that there was no traceability in the way the coffee was grown. There’s no ‘coffee library’, if I can put it that way, and it’s true that I didn’t really understand why.

Coffee is a world where there are lots of blends, where people seek to create a flavour, a brand, a recipe – a bit like the Champagne houses, the major Champagne merchants, do, to ensure they always achieve the same flavour. And what interested me was bringing the approach I’m familiar with from the world of wine to coffee, that is to say, coffee is the fruit of a tree, a fruit-bearing tree, and that fruit will vary depending on the aspect, the climate of each year, and the fact that it’s changing more and more.

So the idea was to highlight this: the fruit from a single producer, a single variety, sourced from a single farm, which naturally operates in line with my vision of modern agriculture, ideally biodynamic, and using water sparingly. The coffee industry uses an enormous amount of water, and we also need to be mindful of transport and how the money is channelled back into the system. So we found we were very much on the same page with Lionel, with what Momus was offering, and with my own values – that’s what we tried to achieve, whilst capturing the essence of the Millésime.

I understand that coffee freezes very well, so the idea is to freeze some every year, and then after 5 or 10 years, we’ll hold a masterclass with Daniela, the MOF-awarded roaster, to carry out a comparative study and see if there’s any real change in our coffees.

What parallels do you draw between coffee and wine?

Gwilherm : I see a great many similarities, in other words, the world of coffee is, in fact, a bottomless pit. Wine, in itself, is already a bottomless pit. Many people are daunted by the world of wine because there’s so much knowledge to acquire, and that’s what puts people off a bit. And that’s what makes it both daunting because you realise you’ll never know everything and fascinating, because you can really nurture your passion in every possible way. And the world of coffee, with the sheer number of coffee varieties and the human element involved, namely roasting, is a world within a world; in other words, there are a number of flavour profiles that can vary even within a single variety. You can make thousands and thousands of different coffees, and that’s just fascinating. It’s daunting, because we’ll never know everything, but it’s fascinating.

What does setting up a café mean to you?

Gwilherm : It was really all about making fair-trade coffee. I was given free rein. And that’s rather nice. And we were completely on the same page about our shared values regarding how it’s made and who it’s made with. It wasn’t just about making coffee for the sake of it. It was simply about using common sense and trying to create something. We’ve created something, Millésime, to bring a bit more happiness, I imagine, I hope, to people.