Maitre et Chef Traiteurs Inc

There are thousands of bottles of wine safe in the dark of a St-Jacques Street basement in Montreal’s Saint-Henri neighbourhood. These bottles do not belong to a restaurant or to the SAQ, but to private clients who choose to store their collections at Cave St-Jacques. It is a one-of-a-kind wine storage service in Montreal.

“What you want for wine is it to be in a perfect environment, so that it evolves through the years – wine is alive,” says Michel Prince, owner of Cave St-Jacques. Much like food, wine needs love and care.

“It started in 2007 when there was a surprise party trend, a lot of 50th birthdays.” Cave St-Jacques is a division of Michel’s catering company Maître and Chef and “it always came down to the same thing,” says Michel. “It would be the husband or the wife of a wine fanatic organizing a party at home. They would invite me to see their wine cellar and ask for tips. And I would usually discover that it wasn’t a very good wine environment.”

“I started to do research online about existing wine services. I found out that the SAQ does offer wine storage, but at the time it was completely full.” Michel pressed deeper. “There was one other private wine storage business but I wanted to do something different, offer the whole package of related and custom wine services.”