Savoie wines: what to drink with tartiflette, pizza or a steak

The Savoie vineyard is one of the smallest in France and one of the least understood. It happens to produce precisely what mountain cooking asks for: acidity, freshness and modest alcohol.

A high vineyard built on freshness

Savoie has around 2,000 hectares of vines, most of them on the slopes between Chambéry, Aix-les-Bains and the Isère valley. The vines sit largely between 300 and 500 metres, on limestone scree, in a climate where the nights stay cold even in high summer.

That night-time chill preserves acidity in the grapes. It is the defining feature of Savoie wine and the reason it works so well against rich food: these wines clean the palate rather than adding to the weight of the plate. The Vins de Savoie appellation covers some twenty named crus, of which Apremont, Abymes, Chignin and Chignin-Bergeron are the ones you will meet most often on a wine list here.

The grapes worth knowing

Three white varieties dominate. Jacquère, planted across half the vineyard, gives light, taut wines with a flinty edge. Altesse, sold under the name roussette, gives broader wines with hazelnut and honey notes and the structure to age. Roussanne, known locally as bergeron in the Chignin cru, gives rich, almost sunny whites.

Among the reds, mondeuse is the local signature: peppery, tightly built, with an acidity that sets it well apart from southern reds. Serve it lightly chilled, at around 14°C.

With melted cheese dishes

The rule is straightforward: acidity and lightness. An Apremont or an Abymes at 10°C cuts through the fat of a tartiflette, the potato and Reblochon gratin, or a raclette, the wheel of cheese melted and scraped over potatoes, and lets you keep eating without the palate closing down.

The usual error is to reach for a tannic red. Tannin and molten fat fight each other: the wine turns drying, the cheese turns heavy, and the pairing fails from both directions. If you want red with a Savoyard dish, a young mondeuse served cool is the only choice that genuinely works.

With Neapolitan pizza

A tomato and mozzarella pizza needs a wine that can live with the acidity of tomato. A sharp white does the job, though a light Italian red, barbera, dolcetto or a young chianti, sits more naturally with the toppings and with the char of a wood-fired base.

For a richer pizza built on cream and cheese, such as our Savoyarde or our Tartufo, go back to a fuller white: roussette or chignin-bergeron. The general rule is to follow the sauce, not the toppings.

With meat and pasta

A côte de boeuf or a slow-cooked lamb shank will carry a mondeuse with a few years on it, or a structured Italian red. With steak tartare, counter-intuitively, a taut white works better than a red: the acidity lifts the raw meat rather than flattening it.

For pasta, the sauce principle applies again. Tomato sauce: a light red or a sharp white. Cream, gorgonzola or truffle: a broader white. Seafood and vongole: a dry, mineral white, jacquère or vermentino. The texture of the pasta matters here too, as we explain in our note on fresh and dried pasta.

Altitude changes the tasting

At 2,300 metres two things happen at once. Aromatic perception drops slightly, the dry air affects the mucous membranes, and alcohol takes hold faster. Heavily alcoholic or heavily oaked wines start to feel tiring within two glasses.

This is a further argument for Savoie wines, which usually sit between 11 and 12.5 degrees. They drink well at altitude without weighing on the evening, which powerful southern wines rarely manage. The resort sits higher than any other in the Trois Vallées, so the effect is more marked here than in the valley.

Ordering by the glass, and by the bottle

Savoie whites are among the few wines where ordering by the glass costs you nothing. They are made to be drunk young, within two or three years of the harvest, so an open bottle turning over quickly in a busy dining room carries no risk. A glass of Apremont with a starter, then a red with the main course, is a sensible way through a meal here.

For a table of four sharing cheese dishes, a bottle is better value, and Savoie remains the least expensive serious wine on most lists in the resort.

A few serving notes

Savoie whites want to be cold but not iced, between 9 and 11°C. Below that the aromatics disappear. Mondeuse is better between 14 and 16°C, never at the 20°C room temperature people give a Bordeaux.

Finally, drink water. A glass of water between glasses of wine does more for the quality of a dinner at altitude than any clever pairing, and it makes the following morning on the slopes considerably easier.

Our weekly suggestions follow the dishes on the dinner menu and change with what arrives from the growers. If you are planning something particular, an anniversary or a dinner for two, mention it when you book and we will set the bottle aside.