#I am 100% ready to write somm Booker

[victimhood]

Me: thinking about TOG restaurant AU

Somm!Booker’s favorite wine would be a Côte Rôtie (in particular the Marie et Pierre Bénetière Dolium) and when asked about what wine he would “match” to each of his coworkers he says Nile is a viognier (bc of my shipper heart) but look it’s basically saying he thinks Nile is pretty with real substance but he’s also saying Nile could be a delicious addition to his life ajsjdhddjjd SIR STOP.

Viognier

Floral, aromatic white grape variety, with the finest examples coming from Condrieu AOC (yellow circle in diagram), which is just beneath Côte Rôtie in the Northern Rhône.

Condrieu AOC permits only 100% viognier white wines, the wines here come from very steep vineyards (50 degrees even!). The vineyards are located on terraces carved into the southern facing slopes of granite rock. The wine is highly perfumed with delicate floral notes and stone fruit aromas, with medium acidity.

Côte Rôtie

Côte Rôtie tends to be made out of the Syrah grape, though a blend of up to 20% viognier (usually <5% though) permitted to add the floral aromas. It is a very dark and tannic wine, and in hot climates can become a very jammy, overpowering wine. In the Côte Rôtie we find the most elegant expressions of this wine due to the colder climate (it is the northernmost region of where this grape varietal can grow), and the wines require long bottle aging to fully develop. It’s a very hyped wine, with prices to match, but the unique combination of terroir can’t be replicated by the other regions that grow this grape. This is a brutal wine to make and yet the difficulty is what makes it so special. To wit, this description, which makes me think of our boy: “Côte Rôtie is a excellent wine, and totally unique, but not far off from being a complete disaster.”

As a side note, our boy Booker attended the Lyceé hôtelier de l’Hermitage, which contributes to his preference for his “home” region of Rhône Valley wines. Maybe he did a stint in Australia, because Australia is a major producer of Syrah wines but also bc I love me an Aussie shoutout but also a lot of young French people do go to Australia to study wine for the dynamism I guess maybe they want more sun too idk but they do!! They do go to Aus for whatever reason.

[ID: map of the wine regions of the Nothern Rhône, with the northernmost regions of Côte Rôtie (red wine) and Condrieu (white wine) highlighted for reference in this post]