Savoie Rare native grapes and old-fashioned methods are spurring the resurgence of winemakers in France’s Alpine country, who are making the most of their extraordinary and rarefied terroir. Jeffrey T Iverson reports
S
ki-lovers revere the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, for its snowcapped peaks and pristine nature, but the region’s wine enjoys no such fame, viewed generally as light, eminently forgettable tipple best limited to accompanying after-piste fondues. Yet Savoie boasts an ancient viticultural tradition, as the country of the Allobroges, the wine-loving Celtic tribe that settled here in the Iron Age. With picture-perfect vineyards overlooking Alpine lakes, a mosaic of Cretaceous and Jurassic soils and endemic grapes whose cultivation predates the Roman conquest of Gaul, it’s a wine region unique in the world. Today, thanks to a growing number of passionate vignerons, warmer growing seasons and a thirst among oenophiles for surprising bouquets from under-the-radar locales, Savoie’s wines are finally in ascension. It’s a stunning comeback. With 20,000 hectares under vine in the 19th century, the region’s wine culture was nearly decimated by phylloxera and war, crumbling to 1,000 hectares by World War II’s end. The industry slowly rebuilt itself to 2,000 hectares, largely thanks to the 1970s advent of
86
CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
ski tourism. Yet a ready market demanding cheap wine in quantity, bottled and shipped by first snow, had a deleterious effect on quality. “Savoie has extraordinary terroirs, but too often growers haven’t taken the time, or the effort, to showcase them,” says third-generation vintner Dominique Belluard (domainebelluard.fr). Now that’s changing. In 2012, David Schildknecht – then of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate – climbed the vertiginous rocky moraine and chalkclay slopes of Ayse, south of Lake Geneva, to visit Belluard‘s small estate, where his family at one time earned more farming livestock and fruit trees than winegrowing. There, the critic discovered a white grape so rare, barely two dozen hectares remain on the planet – gringet. The still and sparkling wines it rendered – aged on their lees for up to three years, redolent of smoke and jasmine, Persian melon and iris perfume – constituted for Schildknecht “the most remarkable, not to mention improbable vinous excitement and promise I have witnessed anywhere in France during the past decade”. Today, Belluard is part of a small vanguard returning to the foundations of winemaking in Savoie – patient vineyard
Savoie Rare native grapes and old-fashioned methods are spurring the resurgence of winemakers in France’s Alpine country, who are making the most of their extraordinary and rarefied terroir. Jeffrey T Iverson reports
S
ki-lovers revere the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, for its snowcapped peaks and pristine nature, but the region’s wine enjoys no such fame, viewed generally as light, eminently forgettable tipple best limited to accompanying after-piste fondues. Yet Savoie boasts an ancient viticultural tradition, as the country of the Allobroges, the wine-loving Celtic tribe that settled here in the Iron Age. With picture-perfect vineyards overlooking Alpine lakes, a mosaic of Cretaceous and Jurassic soils and endemic grapes whose cultivation predates the Roman conquest of Gaul, it’s a wine region unique in the world. Today, thanks to a growing number of passionate vignerons, warmer growing seasons and a thirst among oenophiles for surprising bouquets from under-the-radar locales, Savoie’s wines are finally in ascension. It’s a stunning comeback. With 20,000 hectares under vine in the 19th century, the region’s wine culture was nearly decimated by phylloxera and war, crumbling to 1,000 hectares by World War II’s end. The industry slowly rebuilt itself to 2,000 hectares, largely thanks to the 1970s advent of
86
CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
ski tourism. Yet a ready market demanding cheap wine in quantity, bottled and shipped by first snow, had a deleterious effect on quality. “Savoie has extraordinary terroirs, but too often growers haven’t taken the time, or the effort, to showcase them,” says third-generation vintner Dominique Belluard (domainebelluard.fr). Now that’s changing. In 2012, David Schildknecht – then of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate – climbed the vertiginous rocky moraine and chalkclay slopes of Ayse, south of Lake Geneva, to visit Belluard‘s small estate, where his family at one time earned more farming livestock and fruit trees than winegrowing. There, the critic discovered a white grape so rare, barely two dozen hectares remain on the planet – gringet. The still and sparkling wines it rendered – aged on their lees for up to three years, redolent of smoke and jasmine, Persian melon and iris perfume – constituted for Schildknecht “the most remarkable, not to mention improbable vinous excitement and promise I have witnessed anywhere in France during the past decade”. Today, Belluard is part of a small vanguard returning to the foundations of winemaking in Savoie – patient vineyard
ILLUSTRATION MARC ASPINALL
Fare
and cellar work, exceptional terroirs and perfectly acclimated grapes. “Savoie’s greatest treasure is our multitude of grape varieties,” he says. “Other regions tore up their native grapes long ago to plant cabernet and the like; here, forgotten jewels are still coming to light.” From the glacially carved terrain south of Lake Geneva, to the slopes north of Lac du Bourget, to the foothills south of Chambéry, the region cultivates 23 grapes. Most prevalent are whites jacquère and altesse (or roussette), and red mondeuse – the same grape that once yielded the socalled vinum picatum, a wine extolled by Pliny the Elder in 77AD. No wonder, then, that Michel Grisard in Fréterive, a keen student of Savoie history, began a crusade in the 1980s to once again “make mondeuse a great wine”. Joined by neighbour Louis Magnin (domainelouismagnin.fr), in the 1980s and 1990s they pioneered quality winemaking techniques that would renew Savoie’s image: favouring old vines, yields at half those of big wine cooperatives, organic viticulture and long barrel ageing. They unveiled mondeuse’s potential to produce spicy, structured, age-worthy red wines. In Jongieux, Noël Dupasquier (domainedupasquier.over-blog.com.fr) would rehabilitate the fragrant white varietal altesse, patiently maturing it in old oak barrels instead of rushing it to bottle like others. The result was his Roussette de Savoie Marestel, a wine of sublime mineral freshness capable of ageing decades. By 2010, a host of quality-minded, organic Savoie estates, such as Les Vignes de Paradis (les-vignes-de-paradis.fr) and
Domaine Gilles Berlioz (domainepartagegillesberlioz.fr), had emerged, together promoting their wines internationally as the association known as Pétavin. Among them, Jacques Maillet in Chautagne had only just left the local wine cooperative in 2007. Two years later, his 100% jacquère cuvée Autrement was a pairing menu mainstay at the legendary Noma in Copenhagen. Impeccable biodynamic vineyard work, Maillet admits, was just one factor in his success. “We’re harvesting three weeks earlier than 25 years ago, yet achieving ideal grape maturity,” he says. “If Savoie is progressing so fast today, it’s simply because the climate is changing.” But the next winemaking generation credits more than just weather for their sunny prospects. “The generation of Grisard, Belluard and Maillet restored this region’s former nobility; they’ve essentially made Savoie what it is today,” says 25-year-old Florian Curtet (domainecurtet.fr), who earlier this year, with his wife Marie, took over Jacques Maillet’s estate. In 2010, Michel Grisard passed on his passionate crusade, and his steep, schist vineyards at Domaine des Ardoisières (domainedesardoisieres.fr), to Brice Omont, whose clientele now includes the Courchevel palace hotel Cheval Blanc. There, to taste Omont’s electrifying cuvées paired with Yannick Alléno’s avant-garde, three-star cuisine at restaurant Le 1947, is indeed to recognise how great mondeuse, altesse and all of Savoie’s wines can truly be – whether or not it’s après-ski.
CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
87