Carla Bruni reveals Nicolas Sarkozy’s unusual wine habits

In an interview with French celebrity gossip magazine Gala, the former First Lady shared that her husband tastes wine, but never drinks it.

Though you might expect the man who was President of France from 2007 to 2015 to enjoy partaking in a glass or two of something with lunch, Sarkozy is actually teetotal and claims to have “never drunk a drop of alcohol” in his life.

In the interview, Bruni disclosed: “He only likes the scent of wine, he doesn’t like the taste and I think he doesn’t like letting go either. Maybe that’s a good thing. My husband is so vibrant. If he had tasted drunkenness, I don’t know where we would be.”

At a lunch at the Élysée Palace, Sarkozy once retorted to a guest who questioned why he wasn’t drinking: “I don’t drink wine and yet I am very interested in French wine. You don’t need to practice something to be interested in it…”

Indeed, he is still appreciative of wine, once being served a 1961 Château Margaux at a banquet held by Queen Elizabeth II. In the first volume of his autobiography, The Time of Storms, he revealed that on that same 2008 state visit he was so nervous he mistook a glass of gin for water and gulped it down.

Furthermore, despite Sarkozy’s refusal to swallow alcohol, he is in the wine trade. Château d’Estoublon, the luxury Provencal estate, was put up for sale in 2020 and is now co-owned by Bruni, Sarkozy, LOV Group founder Stéphane Courbit and the Prats family.

Sarkozy’s involvement goes beyond just the business, as he partakes in tastings of the Roseblood rosé, a blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Tibouren. “He smelled it, tasted it and spat it out”, according to Bruni.

By contrast, current French President Emmanuel Macron is known to enjoy drinking wine, rather than just smelling it. His recent re-election could well be good news for the industry.