Lionel Faury Côte-Rôtie Les 3 Brunes 2022
We have 4 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
The Land
Côte-Rôtie translates as "roasted slope," but Lionel Faury's family is not based among the famous terraces of Ampuis at all. Its home is Chavanay, farther south at the northern tip of Saint-Joseph and Condrieu, and its Côte-Rôtie comes from a small holding of 1.7 hectares planted between 1993 and 2008. Les 3 Brunes is assembled from three sites. Fourvier is a steep, south-facing slope. Le Plomb and L'Arselier sit on hilltops facing east and southeast. Grades here run up to 45 percent, on decomposed mica-schist and clay. The schist warms quickly and drains hard, which pushes Syrah toward ripeness. The higher, east-facing parcels catch morning sun and cooler afternoons, and that keeps acidity and perfume in the wine.
The Wine
Lionel Faury Côte-Rôtie Les 3 Brunes 2022 is 90 percent Syrah and 10 percent Viognier. The three parcels are vinified separately and blended about a month before bottling. The wine then ages 18 months in 600-liter demi-muids and 220-liter barrels, roughly 30 percent of them new. The large share of demi-muids keeps the oak in the background and lets the schist-grown Syrah speak first. Expect juicy blackberry and blueberry, violet and cracked pepper, bacon fat, and an earthy, bitter-cacao edge. The tannin is fine-grained and the finish is fresh. The 2022 growing season was the hottest and driest in the Rhône Valley since 1950. Only around 300 mm of rain fell from October 2021 to September 2022, half the norm, before mid-August storms brought relief. Even so, this bottling came in at a moderate 13 percent alcohol.
The People
The Faury story begins after World War II, when Lionel's grandfather Jean planted vines and fruit trees in the hamlet of La Ribaudy above Chavanay. For decades the family sold wine, peaches, and cherries locally. Philippe Faury formalized the domaine in 1979, expanded the vineyards, and began exporting. His relationship with Kermit Lynch dates to 1994. Lionel took the lead in 2006 at age 23, making him the third generation on this land. Philippe still works alongside him. Lionel has moved the wines toward finer detail and a clearer sense of each site. The estate farms by lutte raisonnée, managing the canopy closely to protect natural acidity. He also unified the label worldwide, ending separate bottlings for the US market.
Food Pairing
Syrah from Côte-Rôtie loves pepper, smoke, and rare red meat. Try a grilled ribeye with a green peppercorn and cognac pan sauce; the tannin grips the fat and the pepper in the wine meets the sauce. Roast squab or quail wrapped in pancetta, with a red wine and juniper jus, plays to the bacon and violet side of the wine. Venison loin with roasted celery root and blackberry gastrique matches dark fruit with dark fruit. For something humbler, Lyon-style lentils with smoked sausage and Dijon show how the acidity cuts richness. Open a bottle now with a steak dinner, and put one away to see what another decade brings.
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The Rhône Valley is a diverse and historic wine region, divided into two distinct areas. The Northern Rhône is the birthplace of Syrah, with steep, terraced vineyards that produce some of the world's most revered wines, such as those from Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie. The Southern Rhône is much more expansive, offering a wider range of styles, but typically based around Grenache-based blends, with wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape known for their complexity and power. While the region is celebrated for its reds, it also produces incredible textured whites, and as a whole the region displays the spectrum of French wine and the incredible differences that can come from small geographic changes.
Rhone Valley
Syrah is a dark-skinned grape of French origin, specifically from the Northern Rhône Valley, where it produces some of the world's most powerful and complex wines. Known as Shiraz in Australia, Syrah is capable of displaying a wide range of aromas and flavors. Cool climate Syrahs tend to express floral notes like violets, along with savory elements like olives, while those grown in warmer climates like Australia are more likely to show black pepper and dark fruit notes such as plum. The grape's versatility allows it to adapt to various climates and soil types, but it maintains its unique characteristics no matter where it is planted.
