Sunny, Chance of Savory
Notable wines from Champagne, Saint-Joseph, Etna, Vittoria, and California’s south coast
Welcome back to Notable, where I write about interesting wines from recent tasting. I have a grab-bag of bottles today, linked not by geography but by deliciousness. There’s the Saint-Joseph Blanc from Cuilleron, Bollinger’s Special Cuvée champagne, an Etna Bianco from Pietradolce, the Cerasuolo di Vittoria from Cos, and three wines—Chardonnay, Pinot noir, and a Pinot-Gamay blend—from a new project called The Set, in the Sta. Rita Hills.
Yves Cuilleron Lyseras Saint-Joseph Blanc 2023
13% ABV | About $36; imported by Skurnik | Cave Yves Cuilleron
An equal blend of Marsanne and Roussanne organically farmed in southeast facing vineyards in Chavanay, Cuilleron’s hometown. It’s an ambient fermentation, with malolactic in barrel and cask; the wine ages nine months with no lees stirring or racking before bottling. The results are golden hued with honey-floral aromas of wax and sunshine: yellow apple skin, sultana, dried hay. It smells like the apple Paris handed to Aphrodite. Texturally it’s expansive, waxy but not heavy, with honeydew freshness and flavors of green pear. The acidity is modest—common in Marsanne-Roussanne blends—but the wine also has that Roussannean tannic flourish. It’s a dimensional wine, spherical, or at least nonlinear.
