French Riviera's Wine Appellation

The Bellet wine appellation lies within the city limits of Nice

The hills above Nice are filled with jaw-dropping villas and bougainvillea-framed panoramas of the Mediterranean.  These hills are also home to France’s smallest urban wine appellation, Bellet.   Comprising less than 150 acres of vines with fewer than 10 producers, Bellet wine is well known to locals but unknown to the world since it rarely leaves the area---the mere 120,000 bottle production is snatched up by Riviera wine-lovers and restaurateurs in-the-know.

 The Bellet area has been making wine for < 1500 years

Formed in 1941, the tiny Bellet appellation has a unique terroir.  At an altitude varying from 600-1,200 feet above sea level, vines often cling to the hillsides in terraced vineyards.  Manual harvesting is the only possibility in these inhospitable conditions.  Soil, washed down from the Alps for millenniums, a mix of sand and rocks, provides a perfect drainage system for grapes.  Furthermore, Bellet is less than three miles as the bird flies from the Mediterranean so this allows its vines to  recuperate at night when the marine influence brings coolness to the hot, dry daytime temperatures.

                 Wine-Knows will be visiting Bellet this autumn....there is only one spot available!

Bellet produces red, white and rosé wines.  White grape varieties include Chardonnay and Rolle (aka Vermentino in nearby Italy).  These two are often blended together creating a spectacular white not seen elsewhere in France.  For reds, Grenache  (one of southern France’s greatest grapes, e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape), is mixed with unknown native Riviera varietals such as Braquet and Folle Noire.   

"I love cooking with wine....sometimes I even put it in the food."   Julia Child

Wine-Knows will be visiting the Bellet appellation during its Week in Provence at the villa where Julia Child wrote her masterpieces, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.    There is only one seat remaining.  For more information about this special “Julia” trip, visit our website:

http://www.wineknowstravel.com/julia-2022-1-itinerary-2/

Easy Drinking Summer Whites

Viognier and Vermentino are synonymous with summer.  While both of these grapes are popular in Europe, they remain mostly unknown in the US.  (But, they are increasingly popping up on our wine lists).   The two varietals can make for simple poolside drinking, but they both can also be complex, serious wines.   Viognier and Vermentino are versatile in that they can be served as an aperitif, or with a summer meal.  I especially like them with grilled fish, and they’re terrific with shellfish.  A light summer pasta (veggies & pesto, or cherry tomatoes & arugula) also work well.

Viognier hails from the Rhone Valley in France.  It is often used in blending, but in the appellation of Condrieu, it is 100% varietal.  Condrieu is ground zero for lovers of Viognier.  I am a great fan of Viognier’s perfume-like aromas (think summer honeysuckle or fragrant roses), but I also am taken with its exotic fruit profile (mango, or even sweet tangerine).  I highly recommend any of Rhone winemaker Yves Cuilleron’s Viogniers.  One of the best Viognier I’ve had outside of France is Spain’s Vall Loch from the Priorat region. Greece is also knocking it out of the park--- producer Gerovassiliou makes a killer Viognier.  For the US, I’ve not tasted anything that can beat Santa Barbara’s rendition by boutique Jaffurs Winery.  If you can find any of these Viogniers, buy every bottle they have.

Vermentino (known as Rolle in the South of France) is another rock-star summer sipping wine from the Italian Mediterranean.  Like Viognier, it can be highly aromatic.  It is similar to Sauvignon Blanc in weight and shares many of the same citrus-like qualities.  Vermentino, however, often serves up some intriguing minerality as an added bonus.  The best Vermentinos come from the island of Sardenia (Argiolas is a great producer).   Tablas Creek in Paso Robles is one of the few US producers that grows Vermentino.

Enjoy the last weeks of summer, and drink plenty of “Vitamin V.”