2019 Yannick Alleno & Michel Chapoutier Cotes du Rhone 750 ml

Yannick Alléno and Michel Chapoutier’s rare Côtes du Rhône is a bold, Syrah-dominant blend from one of France’s most acclaimed chefs and a man who has forty 100-point scores to his name. Named a Best Buy by Wine Enthusiast, it has the power and complexity of wines twice its price, with all the polish and attention to detail you’d expect from two noted perfectionists. 

Alléno is a chef who’s taken three separate restaurants to MICHELIN three-star status, and currently holds nine stars himself. He’s obsessed with the “gastronomisation” of terroir—the idea that a chef can use techniques in the kitchen to highlight what's special about the origins of a raw ingredient—which led him to take a deep foray into the world of wine.

His partner is none other than his friend Michel Chapoutier, whose forty 100-point scores anoint him as one of the gods of French winemaking. For their collaboration, they chose to stay in Chapoutier’s backyard: the Northern Rhône. Syrah is king here, and Chapoutier has a masterful touch with the grape—and an intimate knowledge of the region’s best sites.

The Alléno & Chapoutier project works primarily with sites in St.-Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage—some of the best appellations in France for the intersection of quality and value. Chapoutier and his team keep the winemaking restrained with 12 months of aging in concrete tanks, allowing the wine to harmonize without the intrusion of oak flavors.

The result is a merger of elegance, class, and the inherent power of Rhône Syrah—in other words, the realization of it’s terroir. That it comes at a glass-pour price makes it a no-brainer to stock up on, even if you don’t own multiple restaurants.