Spotlight on the wines and dishes of the Savoie : Yapp Brothers Wine Merchants

Food and wine matches from the Alps: Know your Raclette from your Tartiflette and Jacquère from Roussette.

Nestled in the foothills of the Alps above the Isère river valley, the vineyards of the beautiful Savoie enjoy terrific elevation and enviable light levels. Known for its range of outdoor pursuits in both summer and winter, most of the region’s production (from 2,000 hectares of vines) is consumed in the local resorts.

“The tiny Savoie wine region in eastern France seems to have everything going for it: a range of indigenous grapes; light, acidity-driven wines; ambitious, young producers; and those chocolate-box images of steep vineyards, with a backdrop of snow-capped Alpine peaks.”
Wink Lorch – decanter.com

Two-thirds of Savoie wine is white and most of this is made with the Jacquère grape, although Roussanne, Roussette (aka Altesse) and Chardonnay can also be found. The red grapes (20% of the region’s output) include Mondeuse, Pinot, Gamay and the rare Persan, while a spot of rosé (6%) and sparkling (4%) makes up the balance. Crémant de Savoie, a methode traditionelle sparkling wine which must contain a minimum of 60% local grapes Jacquère and/or Altesse, became the eighth Crémant appellation in France in 2015.

Yapp Brothers have shipped wines from the Tiollier family since 1999, although the Tiolliers have nurtured vines around the village of Cruet in the Massif des Bauges national park since 1840. Their wines might never be called Grand Vin, but they have plenty to admire – crisp, refreshing whites and juicy, crunchy reds. Of course, one is tempted to serve them with fondue, raclettte and tartiflette but their lower-acidity and mountain freshness work well alongside shellfish, line-caught lake trout, poultry dishes, caviar de Cruet (a delicious concoction of anchovies, garlic and aubergines) or local cheese such as Reblochon, Tomme de Savoie or Beaufort.

Here’s our quick and easy guide to cuisine savoyarde:

Fondue – cheese or oil based? Bread or meat to dip? Traditional cheeses: Swiss gruyère (AOC 2001) or Emmental (AOC 2000) and French Comté (AOC 1958) cheeses, cornflour to prevent the cheese coagulating and white wines to keep things running.

Raclette – rather than heat the cheese in a dish from below (à la Fondue), a small heater is provided against which the wheel of raclette can be roasted. The melted cheese is scraped off (racler – ‘to scrape’) to a separate plate where potatoes, gherkins and charcuterie await.

Tartiflette – from the Haute Savoie this is, in effect, a potato gratin made with local cow’s cheese reblochon (AOC 1958), lardons and onions. The dish has several variations, including smoked salmon.

While Tartiflette can only trace its roots back to the early 1980s – some say invented by the Reblochon Cheese Marketing Board to reduce the height of their cheese ‘mountain’ – it has its origins in a traditional Savoyard dish called Péla that uses similar ingredients. Not dissimilar to Alsace’s Baeckoffe, such communal dishes that combined potatoes with whatever local ingredients were available into flavoursome, hearty dishes cooked for hours in the residual heat of the village baker’s oven.

Michel Roux Jr’s recipe from his 2005 Matching Food & Wine echoes this by melting the cheese in the oven to finish but for reasons of speed, I often just toast it under the grill and add onions by choice.

Ingredients – Serves 6:
1kg firm, waxy potatoes, diced.
260g dry-cured bacon lardons or pancetta.
500g white onions, sliced.
500g Reblochon.
Chives, chopped.
Vegetable oil.
Salt and pepper.

Method:
Blanch the diced potatoes in salted water then drain well. Gently render the lardons/pancetta in a large pan with a dash of oil then remove. Use the remaining fat to slowly soften the onions without allowing them to colour (15-20 mins). Add the potatoes and pancetta and fry over a medium heat until slightly coloured. Season with plenty of black pepper and taste to see if any salt is needed. Roughly chop the Reblochon and either scatter into the potato mixture to melt or transfer to an ovenproof dish to grill/bake in a hot oven for up to 15 mins to caramelise the cheese. Scatter artistically with chives and serve with a green salad (with a vinegar-heavy vinaigrette) and a glass of Jacquère 2024 – our white wine of the month for Janvier!