Thursday Tasting — Northern Rhône | September 3

Six wines. Fifty miles of river. Granite under nearly all of it.

The northern Rhône is a narrow stretch of river where the vineyards climb straight up off the water, and tonight runs most of its length. We start at the southern tip with Saint-Péray, an appellation of barely ninety hectares that almost nobody pours, and Cuilleron's stony, struck-flint Marsanne-Roussanne. Then André Perret's Viognier — one of the two or three names that define Condrieu, working vines right up against that appellation's border, at half his Condrieu's price. The last white is the rarest kind of Saint-Joseph: Jean-Claude Marsanne's Blanc, made from the grape that happens to share his family name. Then the Syrahs. Chave Sélection's Silène is the bottle that ends the argument about Crozes-Hermitage being the cheap seats; Faury's Les Ribaudes comes off pure granite, farmed by a world-champion water jouster whose wines don't fight you; and Rostaing's Les Lézardes grows close enough to Côte-Rôtie to see it from the rows, eight years old and gone deep and savory. Two bonus bottles pour by the ounce alongside the flight: Guigal's single-vineyard Saint-Joseph, and a true Hermitage from a family that has farmed the hill since 1893. No reservation needed. Just show up.

The Lineup

• 2023 Yves Cuilleron Saint-Péray Les Potiers — $45
• 2023 André Perret Viognier — $54
• 2022 Domaine Jean-Claude Marsanne Saint-Joseph Blanc — $60
• 2024 Jean-Louis Chave Sélection Silène Crozes-Hermitage — $40
• 2023 Lionel Faury Saint-Joseph Les Ribaudes — $40
• 2018 Domaine Rostaing Les Lézardes Syrah — $40

Bonus Pours

• 2022 E. Guigal Saint-Joseph Lieu-Dit — $5 an ounce
• 2019 Jean-Michel Sorrel Hermitage Le Vignon Vieilles Vignes — $5 an ounce

Thursday, September 3 · 5:00–8:30pm · $30 · No reservation needed

What's Pouring Next

• September 10 — Sangiovese
• September 17 — Bordeaux
• September 24 — Sparkling

Same corner, same time, every Thursday.