French Alpine Wines and Pairings To Go With Them

Today I am sharing about French Alpine Wines and Pairings To Go With Them. This is my contribution to the French Winophiles event for February – the Forgotten Wines of France.

Sure, I like common wines like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot. Yes, Merlot!

But I love delving into off the beaten track wines, finding gems that don’t have the big price tags you see with say Napa Cabernet. For years now, I’ve been tracking the different wine grapes I tried. I was first at the local wine shop to hit the “century club” mark, and kept going until I surpassed 300 grapes sampled.

So when Lynn from Savor the Harvest invited us to write about Forgotten Grapes of France, I knew I had to join the fun!

The timing was great, as a new French wine and cheese shop called Nouvelle Maison had recently opened in Winchester, the neighboring town. I headed there to pick out some wine that would be a good fit for the forgotten grapes them, and cheese to go with it.

After conferring with the owners, I determined that a focus on French Alpine wines would work well with what the shop had available in terms of wine and cheese.

French Alpine Wine Regions

Savoie and the Jura are the two regions that come to mind for me when I think of French Alpine wine regions.

The Savoie wine region is located in southeastern France, near the borders of Switzerland and Italy, within the French Alps. The region is known for crisp whites and lighter red wines, with the white grape Jacquère being particularly well-known. We’ll get into the Savoie wines we tried in a moment.

The Jura wine region is located a bit west of the Alps in eastern France, between Burgundy and Switzerland, along the Jura Mountains. We’ve previously explored Jura wines with the Winophiles group. This was a great chance to revisit the region!

In researching for this article, I also came across a reference to another Alpine wine region, IGP Isere, which lies in the foothills southeast of Lyon. I didn’t get a chance to try any of these wines for the article. Will have to put that on my to do list!

Switzerland is of course an Alpine country. I have enjoyed some light Swiss Pinot Noirs, especially back when my brother in-law traveled there regularly for business and came home with wine. But this is a French Winophiles article, so we will save Swiss wines for another day!

Time to get to the wines that we tried!

Jura Wines

The first bottle we opened for the Winophiles event was the 2020 Bourdy Côtes du Jura ($43, ABV given as 11 – 14%) This Jura red wine is a blend of Trousseau (34%), Poulsard (33%) and Pinot Noir (33%).

I get red berries and cedar on the nose of the Côtes du Jura, rasbperry fruit and a bit of cinnamon on the palate. 

We started by trying the Côtes du Jura with some Alpine cheese from nearby Switzerland, via Nouvelle Maison.

The Vacherin Fribourgeois Sangle cow’s milk cheese caught my interest in the shop, and I liked the sample I tried there. The woodsy, buttery flavored cheese comes in a spruce bark wrapping. Both the wine and cheese have earthy notes, making for a good pairing.

The Jura red was also good with the more familiar Gruyère cheese. The pairing worked pretty well, but I’d say liked Vacherin and Côtes du Jura better. We’ve got more Gruyère cheese wine pairings here on Cooking Chat if you’re curious!

The Jura blend also went well with our dinner, steak with mushrooms and a side of Parmesan flavored parsnip fries.

Although this is a fairly light red wine, the earthy aspects of it played well with the mushrooms, and it was hearty enough for the steak.

About the grapes

Trousseau is a grape varietal native to the Jura region in eastern France, known for producing wines with distinct aromas and earthy notes. It’s production is quite limited in its native France. You can find a bit in other regions, including Portugal Spain and California.

I first tried Trousseau at the Cambridge restaurant, Craigie on Main, which has since sadly closed. After trying it there, I tracked some down at our local wine ship to pair with a couple of our recipes — Pulled Pork with Cabbage and Bacon as well as the Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs.

In both of those cases, we were pouring 100% Trousseau based wines as opposed to the blend we sampled for our latest pairings.

Poulsard is another red wine grape variety native to the Jura region. It is often blended with Trousseau and Pinot Noir, as in the Cotes du Jura that we tried. The light, thin-skinned grape is also used in rosés and in making blanc de noir.

My curiosity was piqued when I read about the single varietal Poulsard that Martin tried for this event. I wasn’t able to track down the same bottle, but was able to get the 2020 Badoz Grains de Poulsard ($28, 13% ABV).

The Badoz Poulsard has an interesting orangey hue in the glass. Notes of prunes, bing cherry and white pepper on the palate. It was very good paired with our Moroccan Chicken Thighs, and is definitely something I would look to buy again…either this bottle or another 100% Poulsard.

Savagnin is a third wine grape native to the Jura. We didn’t get a chance to try it for this article, but look forward to doing so one of these days! Savagnin is a white grape that can produce crisp, dry white wines as well as Vin Jaune.

Check out our Exploring Jura Wines article for more information.

Savoie white wines

After the Cotes du Jura, we moved to trying two white wines from the Savoie region. First, we opened the 2021 Jean Masson Apremont ($21, 12% ABV), which is made from 100% Jacquère grapes. That is typical for Apremont wines, which is a cru region within Savoie.

I get pine notes on the nose of the Masson Apremont, with lemon curd, minerality and a fresh clean finish on the palate. The wine was very good with the Vacherin cheese, and worked pretty well with the Gruyère.

Our final wine for this Winophiles event was the 2023 Maison Phillippe Viallet Savoie Blanc ($18, 11.5% ABV).

This Savoie Blanc is a blend of Jacquère, Chasselas, Chardonnay and Altesse, a typical combination for a Vin de Savoie. I got honeysuckle notes on the nose. On the palate, a touch of kiwi, tropical notes and some peach fruit. Notable acidity. 

The Vin de Savoie was also very good with the Vacherin cheese! I’m going suggest that is a winning pairing to try – Savoie white wines with Vacherin Fribourgeois Sangle!

We also served the Phillippe Viallet Savoie Blanc with our Indian spiced butternut squash and lentil soup. Excellent pairing!

About the grapes

Jacquère is a white grape variety primarily grown in the Savoie region of France, known for making refreshing white wines with good acidity. The grapes are thin skinned due to the alpine climate, and make lightly hued white wines. Jacquère can be found in single varietal wines such as the Apremont that we opened, as well as blended with other Alpine grapes as in the Vin de Savoie we had. Jacquère is rarely found outside of Savoie.

I was not very familiar with Chasselas coming into this event. I was surprised to read that it is among the top 30 most cultivated grape varieties in the world! It is largely associated with Switzerland, where it accounts for some 25% of plantings. I gather a bit has made its way over the border to blend with Jacquere in Vin de Savoie.

Altesse is a white grape variety primarily grown in the Savoie. It is also known as Roussette. Wines with Altesse tend to have floral aromas and good minerality. Although we had Altesse in a blend, it produces some highly regarded single varietal wines, such as Roussette de Savoie. I don’t recall having a 100% Altesse / Roussette, perhaps for a future Winophiles event!

More Forgotten Grapes of France Articles

• Martin from Enofylz Wine Blog shares “Forgotten Grapes of France: Poulsard Shines in the 2022 Domaine Dugois ‘La Sombarde“
• Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm shares “A Sauvignon Gris from Bordeaux paired with a Chicken Stew from Zambia“
• Robin from Crushed Grape Chronicles shares “Rosé d’Anjou with Groulleau and a budget-friendly variation on Crab Mac & Cheese!“
• Camilla from Culinary Cam shares “A Pair of Picpoul – From Two Continents – with a Simple Salmon Dinner“
• David from Cooking Chat shares “French Alpine Wines and Pairings to Go With Them“
• Gwendolyn from Wine Predator shares “Beat the Wintry Blues: Meet Sciaccarellu, Niellucciu, Carcaghjolu Neru, and Minustellu from Corsica!“
• Cathie from Side Hustle Wino shares “Channeling Warm Weather Through Forgotten Grapes of France“
• Linda from My Full Wine Glass shares “Jurancon Noir: A very berry grape from southwest France“
• Payal from Keep the Peas shares “Pineau d’Aunis and Ovalie Cendrée: An Exquisite Pair!“
• Terri from Our Good Life shares “Rediscovering the Gems: Exploring the Forgotten Grapes of French Wine“
• Jeff from Food Wine Click! shares “Forgotten Grapes of France: Fer Servadou from Aveyron“
• Lynn from Savor the Harvest shares “Forgotten Wine Grapes of France – Alpine Wines of Savoie“