what:
AOC
Northern Rhône, France
100% Syrah

where:
Gene & Georgetti’s
500 North Franklin
Chicago

when:
midwinter

 

character:

Cornas is the outsized country cousin of the Rhône: the farmer, carpenter, horseman, and general contractor of the family. A wide, brawny man with a heavy step and booming laugh. A man in a rough shirt, no jacket, with his sleeves rolled up. A man who comes to dinner with stains on his hands and dirt beneath his fingers, and the pervading smell of tobacco about his person. A man who pursues a debate by way of volume rather than reason. A man who built the house you are invited into, trained the horse you rode in on, farmed the grilled vegetables now simmering on the enormous farmhouse table that he constructed, and both raised and brought home the game he has roasted and now serves as dinner for the entire family. A man, that is, whose handshake leaves a mark.

tastes like:

Driving a team of Clydesdales.

pairs nicely with:

The kind of winter nights where the cold sets into your bones, the kind of fireplace one can walk into with room to spare, and the roaring through-the-night fires made within; gigot d’agneau, cote de boeuf, and any slightly undercooked beef accompanied by a rich bourguignon sauce; ten years or so of wine cellar dust, a decanter, wine glasses that may easily be classified as ‘goblets,’ and the phrase, ‘you know my trouble with most wines is that they just aren’t tannic enough’; most wild game including boar, venison, partridge, pheasant, and woodcock; Courbet’s The Stone Breakers, Millet’s The Sower, and most Turner seascapes involving something having been set on fire; Roquefort, Bresse Bleu, Tomme, St-Marcellin, the sweet-soreness that comes after a day of hard physical labor, and a nice strong Picodon.