Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food

Savoie Faire

Winery: Domaine de l’Eperviere/Gérard & Julie Portaz
Cuvée: Cuvée Eugénie
Appellation: Vin de Savoie — Apremont
Type: White
Vintage: 2020
Alcohol:  11.5%
Grape Varieties: 100% Jacquère
Average Retail Price: U.S. $13

Sitting around a fondue pot with friends dipping crusty cubes of bread into velvety cheese is fun. Sitting around a fondue pot with the friends, cheese, bread, and three different Savoie wines is even more fun. Trust me, I know this from personal experience.

Together with Provence WineZine’s Susan and her husband, Towny, we shared such an meal this autumn in front of a blazing fire, and I thought it would be a perfect subject for a pre-holiday post. For the Fondue Suisse Classique recipe, please visit Cocoa & Lavender.

I was new to Swiss Fondue, and relied heavily on Susan and Towny to guide me. We opted to have two whites and a red, and all three went well with the fondue, although one stood out to me.

Cuvée Eugénie by Julia Portaz, while being light in body and low in alcohol, offered a complex flinty bouquet of herbal notes — thyme and mint, with some bright fruits — green apple, peach, and gooseberry. The acidity in the wine was a perfect foil for the unctuous cheese laced with white wine and kirsch.

While we mostly dipped bread in the fondue, Susan introduced me to some other delicious options for dipping: tomatoes, scallions, pickled cocktail onions, cornichons, and artichoke hearts (preserved in water). The onions, cornichons, and artichoke hearts can be difficult for wine pairing, but the Cuvée Eugénie held up well to them.

Along with the Cuvée Eugénie, we also tasted some other Savoie wines: another white wine produced by Julie Portaz  in Apremont (cuvée Les Jumelles, 2020) and a Mondeuse (red) produced by Domaine de l’Idylle in Arbin (cuvée Le Coteau d’Albert, 2020). I suggest you get out your fondue pot and try some of these wines.