At Bulle 1924, Matthieu Aigron imagines what happens on the plate. Lilou Rollet brings everything around it to life. A trained sommelier and co-founder of the restaurant, she thinks about the wines, the pairings, the dining room and something much harder to put on a spec sheet: the pleasure of feeling good at the table.
Her career almost seems to have been written to open a restaurant in Reims. There is Champagne, a lot of wine, sommelier work, service, management and an intimate knowledge of the region.
With one common thread that has never really left her: wines and spirits.
(opens in a new window)Champagne as a starting point
For Lilou Rollet, the story begins in Reims and in the Champagne vineyards.
She discovered this world from the inside very early on, notably with a first experience at Veuve Clicquot in 2015. There she already touched on several aspects of the trade: harvest declarations, client meetings and discovering the whole Champagne production process.
Wine gradually took up more and more room in her career.
After a Bachelor of Business Administration at NEOMA Business School, she specialised in wines and spirits at Avize Viti Campus, before going on to a Master’s degree in gastronomy and oenology management at École Conte.
Two worlds were already meeting: wine and restaurants on one side, management and entrepreneurship on the other.
A few years later, they would come together under one roof at Bulle 1924.
Understanding wine before serving it
Before becoming a sommelier, Lilou Rollet wanted to know what happens on the other side of the bottle.
She worked with several players in the Champagne vineyards. At Champagne Xavier Leconte, she helped develop wine-tourism offers, welcome visitors and promote the estate. She then joined Champagne Chapuy, working in the Grand Export department.
This experience showed her the whole life of a Champagne house: orders and shipments in France and abroad, tastings, cellar tours, sales at the estate and representing the house to the public and to professionals.
She also worked as a wine merchant in Reims, at Millésimes et Saveurs.
A different school from the classroom: here, you have to listen, understand the tastes of the person in front of you and manage to talk simply about a world that can quickly become intimidating.
From the cellar to the sommelier’s role
The next chapter naturally took place in the dining room.
From 2020, Lilou Rollet worked as a sommelier in several Reims restaurants, including Le Clos de Bacchus, Le Coq Rouge, Le P’tit Coq and then La Villa, where she was head waiter and sommelier.
She then joined Les Coudes sur la Table, still in Reims, as sommelier and floor manager, before moving on to Le Petit Carbet.
These years spent working the tables inevitably change the way you look at a bottle.
Because in a restaurant, knowing the appellations, grape varieties or vintages is not enough. Above all, you have to understand what the guest is looking for.
The right wine is not necessarily the most expensive, the rarest or the one that needs five minutes of explanation. It is the one that naturally finds its place at the table.
This is the vision of the sommelier’s craft that Lilou brings to Bulle 1924 today.
Bulle 1924, a shared adventure
In 2025, her career took on a new dimension with Bulle 1924, in Reims, which Lilou Rollet co-founded alongside chef Matthieu Aigron.
Each has their own territory, without ever drawing a border between the two.
Matthieu works on the plate; Lilou builds the experience that goes with it.
The kitchen, the wine and the dining room must speak the same language. A bottle is therefore not chosen simply because it is well known or prestigious. It must have something to say, find its place on the list and, above all, work with the chef’s cooking.
In Reims, Champagne obviously holds a special place. It would be hard to imagine otherwise, knowing Lilou’s background and the very identity of Bulle 1924.
Even so, a wine list does not stop at the borders of Champagne. It is also a chance to travel between regions, appellations, estates and styles.
Wine without the ceremony
Talking about wine can get very complicated, very quickly.
Terroirs, grape varieties, ageing, vintages, appellations… a few words are sometimes enough to give the impression that you need to have studied before ordering a bottle.
At Bulle 1924, the idea is exactly the opposite.
Knowledge should serve the advice, not overwhelm it.
Her experience as a sommelier allows Lilou Rollet to go into great depth with those who wish to. Some like to know about the estate, the winemaker or the grape variety, or to understand why a bottle works with their dish.
Others simply want the answer to a much simpler question: what would be good with this?
Both approaches are perfectly legitimate.
The sommelier’s job is precisely to understand who is in front of her and to suggest rather than impose. To introduce new wines without giving a lecture on oenology, in short.
A dining room with a personality
Lilou’s role at Bulle 1924 goes far beyond the wine list.
Her years as a sommelier and floor manager taught her that a restaurant is never just about what is on the plate.
There is the welcome. The pace of service. The advice. Knowing when to be there and when it is better to leave a table in peace. All these details often go unnoticed when they are done well — and become immediately visible when they are not.
This is also where a restaurant’s personality is built.
Bulle 1924 wants to be a house where you eat well without making a ceremony of it, where you can come to discover a bottle or simply have a good time around a table.
A story deeply rooted in Reims
Looking at Lilou Rollet’s career, Bulle 1924 ultimately appears as a fairly natural continuation of everything that came before.
There is Reims, where she spent most of her career. There is Champagne, discovered from the side of the houses and the growers as well as from the commercial side. Then there is the wine merchant’s trade, followed by several years as a sommelier and floor manager. And finally, training that combines business, wines, spirits, gastronomy and oenology.
All these experiences come together today at Bulle 1924.
On one side, Matthieu Aigron’s cooking. On the other, the world of wine and hospitality carried by Lilou Rollet.
Two different careers that come together around a fairly simple idea: a restaurant should make you want to come back.
For the food, for the bottle, for the welcome.
Or, better still, for all three.
Discover the Bulle 1924 cellar and Champagnes, the seasonal menu, or book a table. Back to the team or to the Bulle 1924 home page.
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