Wine Pairing with Cellier des Princes Côtes du Rhône

By David Scott Allen for Provence WineZine

Wine Club Surprises

I joined The Wall Street Journal Wine Club to access some off-the-beaten-track wines. No, I am not advocating that you join, nor is this post about the club. It’s about the fact that every quarter I get a really nice selection of surprise red wines. And often they include some very nice Côtes du Rhône wines. This time around, I got two bottles of 2017 Le Prince de Courthézon Prestige, which was perfect timing for my food pairing post for Provence WineZine, with a Pork Tenderloin en Croûte with Porcini Demiglace.

Winery: Le Prince de Courthézon
Cuvée: Prestige
Appellation: Côtes du Rhône
Type: Red
Vintage: 2017

Côtes du Rhône Red

In my research, I found that this wine was made in the only cooperative cellar in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and the fact that it gets its grapes from neighbouring vineyards outside the famed appellation is the only reason this wine is not considered a Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This oft-gold medal-winning wine is the work of the young and very talented Thierry Ferlay. In effect, this is a Châteauneuf-du-Pape at Côtes du Rhône prices.

Cellier des Princes

Established in 1925 the cooperative cellar in Châteauneuf-du-Pape is called Le Cellier des Princes with 580 hectares of vinyards. One hundred eighty-nine (189) winegrowers participate in the co-op, and each one of these individuals remains dedicated to high-quality agricultural techniques. The growers and agronomists collaborate throughout the year to harvest time, and this ensures that only the best fruit is selected. Once the grapes arrive at Le Cellier des Princes, the medal-winning winemaker Thierry Ferlay and his time take charge of vinification and assemblage (blending). Ferlay is French, born in the Southern Rhône Valley. He earned his winemaking stripes in other wine regions in France and as far-flung as Australia’s Rutherglen Estate in Victoria. His winemaking style is traditional, but he adds the ‘New World’ structure to the wines.

Cellier des Princes
758 Route d’Orange
84350 Courthézon
Open daily

Susan Newman Manfull

It was love at first sight when my family and I arrived in the charming village of Lourmarin for a short vacation, nearly 20 years ago. We returned home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the next thing I knew, we were planning a much longer sojourn in that village and making arrangements to enroll our daughter in the local school there. That led to buying a maison de village— actually two, then a courtyard, a parking spot, and a bergerie— in our favourite Provençal village where we (readily) adopted that certain joie de vivre, established dear friendships, and, to this day, endeavour to blend in with the crowd at Café Gaby.

We no longer own property in Lourmarin, but we continue to hang our hats there frequently and gather fodder for our souls and The Modern Trobaors and Provence WineZine. There is never a shortage.

The Modern Trobadors, conceived in 2008, is about all things Provence: its markets, hilltop villages, lavender, art, literature, culture, history, food, wine, and news. Provence WineZine, launched in August 2014, focuses on wines from Provence and the Southern Rhône Valley regions—with a special emphasis on Provence's world-renowned rosés—and the men and women who make them.