Chapoutier Belleruche 2024

Here’s another French white blend from the south of France that punches above its weight. 

Approximately three years ago, I had a glass of this wine at the very good Sans Façons in Gatineau. A five-ounce pour cost $10.

At the very same time, the same five-ounce pour of the very same wine at a group of Ottawa restaurants cost $17. The exact same LCBO price for the full bottle at the time. Considering you get five glasses out of a bottle, that was a healthy margin. 

It’s the kind of pricing too common in Ottawa, and it’s why I rarely drink wine in Ottawa restaurants. I’ve also been in this business long enough to buy any excuse for these egregious mark-ups. 

There may be other factors but despite the fact that taxes for dining out are slightly higher in Quebec, I find myself generally paying less and that’s especially true for wine. 

It’s also generally true that for wine aficionados, the wine choices are far more interesting on the other side of the river. It really is one of the benefits of living in Ottawa.

My feeling is that it has to do with how wine is viewed in Quebec versus Ontario. When it comes to things like wine in Ontario, we’re just tourists and we’ll pay tourist pricing.

Belleruche provides hints of pink grapefruit, all that yellow stone fruit of pears, apple and plums, the warm ripeness of hami melon and a finish of calamansi lime. Nothing is ever either too much or too little and it finishes with a flourish of fennel fronds.

It has an appealing round mouthfeel and a balanced acidity at the finish leaving you thinking that you should have ordered food. 

This is another reasonably priced white for a variety of occasions and dishes. I mentioned fennel and I see this as a fine accompaniment to seared scallops over egg fettuccine with cream and a dusting of fennel pollen. Poetry.