World-Class Wine Meets Classic French Cuisine at Bleu Provence

It was fated that Clément Cariot would become an advanced sommelier and co-owner of Bleu Provence, an upscale French bistro that’s a fixture in the Naples culinary scene. 

Around age 7, Clément tasted his first wine — a prestigious Chateau Lafite Rothschild. “My father asked me what I thought,” he recalls. “I thought it was way too young, too much tannins. I told him, ‘Send it back.’” 

Several years later, “Somebody blind taste-tested me,” he adds. “They didn’t even let me taste the wine. All I could do was sniff it. I had to give the appellation and the grape, and to pick out the producer. And I got all those correctly. That was my ‘aha’ moment that I had a future in this business.”

That career path was all but fated, too. Jacques and Lysielle Cariot, who settled in Naples after moving from the Provence region of France, founded Bleu Provence in 1999. The couple built a former sandwich shop into a fine-dining institution. Located in the southeastern part of downtown, the restaurant’s exterior — white with light-blue trim — has an inviting air. The interior, with a similar color scheme that blends design elements of France and Florida, has been called “coastal Provençal.”

Clément and his brother Kevin effectively grew up in the restaurant. They took the reins when their parents retired in January 2026. 

Bleu Provence is decidedly French in many ways, but one aspect that defines the restaurant is how the food and the wine are equally important. Clément selects the wines — “mostly by tasting” — and is on hand to help guests choose the very best wine to pair with their meals. His options are all but limitless, with some 3,000 wine references and an untold number of bottles. 

In 2015, Bleu Provence was one of the 92 restaurants in the world to earn the coveted Grand Award from Wine Spectator magazine. “It’s the ultimate distinction for a great wine list, but also service and food,” Clément says. Bleu Provence has maintained its position on the list from 2015 to 2026.

The wine menu complements the food, and vice versa. “The relationship between how the chef develops the menu and the wine list is pretty easy,” Clément says. “He has a lot of range because we have pretty much all the wines you can think of.”

While the selection is vast, Clément focuses on French wine — not just the classical regions like Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne, but also Languedoc, Provence, the southern Rhône Valley, Corsica, and the Loire Valley. Executive Chef Gaspard Toulouppe is free to create such delicacies as Seared Foie Gras, Pan-Grilled Mussels, Duck Leg Confit, Wagyu Short Ribs Bourguignon and Provençal Vegetable Couscous. 

Many of the vegetables and herbs the kitchen employs are grown in Sanctuary Organic Farm, a 65-acre tract owned by the restaurant. Located in the Corkscrew Swamp area of Florida’s Paradise Coast, the farm grows everything from papayas to peppers, all of which are personally chosen by the chefs who visit the fields. That means fresh, unprocessed ingredients in every dish they cook, with no chemicals or pesticides.

This legitimate farm-to-table approach furthers the synergy between wine and food. “Because the kitchen sources ingredients from Sanctuary Farm, it pushes me to make choices for the wine list that tend to be more eco-friendly and healthier,” Clément says.

With so many wines to choose from, it’s perhaps surprising that Clément can easily name the one bottle he would pick. “I would go for the Domaine Leroy Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2004,” he says. “It’s a white Burgundy, a Chardonnay that’s grown in the Côte de Beaune area of Burgundy.”

So why doesn’t Clément just uncork a bottle of his favorite wine and enjoy a drink? Probably because it costs $8,000 at Bleu Provence.

What about Clément’s preferred wine and food pairing? “Our Creekstone Farms filet mignon that I would order medium-rare,” he says, “with a wine from Bordeaux, probably a Left Bank Pauillac, like the Château Grand-Puy-Ducasse. 

“We want something with nice tannins and body to match the weight of the dish,” he explains. “And also the crust of the filet mignon is going to neutralize the tannins in the wine and just make something very smooth in your mouth and absolutely delicious. I highly recommend it.”

And we highly recommend that you call upon Clément’s talent and expertise to make the perfect pairing for you. 

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The restaurant has an adjoining wine shop, Bleu Provence Fine Wines, which has a storefront around the corner.