Yves Cuilleron. “les Vignes d’a Cote” Syrah 2017
Background
In the last decade, Yves Cuilleron has made a name for himself, as one of the rockstars of modern wine in the Northern Rhône. This area is the home of the best Syrah in the world (we’ll save the Syrah/Shiraz argument and Penfolds’ 100pt Grange for another day, we DO love you Australia). Northern Rhone villages like Cote Rotie and the famed Hill of Hermitage produce many prestigious, expensive, and soul-touching wines.
While there are many large producers in the region, Cuilleron represents a more hands-on approach. He was one of Rhône’s best natural winemakers, even before that term was being used by the industry. A testament to his quality is that his wines are featured in many three Michelin star restaurants in Paris. This particular wine is the by-the-glass Syrah option at many of France’s best bistros. It’s produced using organic agriculture, hand-harvested and fermented with natural yeasts in large open vats, and aged in mature French oak barrels.
Tasting Notes
The Vignes d’a Cote has all of that hallmark Syrah black fruit, like blackberry and cassis, reinforced by a savoury backbone of allspice, black pepper and smoke. The wine has a distinct dark, floral aroma. Like violet or lavender. At the risk of sounding too fancy, this is a very elegant wine. We’ve had Cuilleron’s wines on the menu at DaiLo for years. We love this stuff!
Syrah’s florality is a great match for anything cooked with woody herbs. Tarragon, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Maybe a roasted rack of lamb or braised beef cheeks. The dark rich fruit tends to lend itself well to rich soft cheese. Especially with cheese that has a little ‘tang’ to it, like goat or sheep cheese.
Food Pairing
Beef Jerky – This wine is great with all of the beefy peppery flavours in jerky. At DaiLo we’ve found that wines with dark fruit and dark florality are great the sweet, fermented soy flavours of teriyaki. You don’t need a food dehydrator to make great jerky at home. Check out some oven jerky recipes online.
Indian Take Out – South Asian food can be pretty hard to pair with wine. There are a ton of flavours, and many wines just kinda get lost under it all. A Northern Rhone Syrah, particularly one with pronounced pepper and warm spice flavours can highlight those flavours in the food, without getting buried behind them. The well balanced acidity in this wine will temper some of the spice, and cut the rich butter or paneer.
Gouda (smoked/with caraway/cumin seeds) - If you were to design a cheese and wine pairing for your bomb shelter, we think this one would be fun. The creamy, spiced cheese is great combo with the wine. This is also a cheese you can find in almost any grocery store. In a pinch, you could also use the Cracker Barrel Monterey Jack with the little chili pepper flakes in it.
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