This cartoon by Glen Baxter was commissioned in the mid-2000s by Yapp Brothers, UK importers for Savoie’s Domaine de l’Idylle.

MOVEMENTS AND PEOPLE THAT HAVE INFLUENCED THE WINES TODAY

Events in the wine world since the mid-19th century impacted on the vignerons and the wines from the French Alps in a different way to elsewhere, due to the isolation of these mountain areas. This chapter follows the movements – and the people behind them – that have had a profound influence on the wines we enjoy from the French Alps today.

After phylloxera took its toll, as it did everywhere, the rise of Savoie as one of the most important regions in France for specialized vine nurseries is a key part of the wine region’s story. The vines from those nurseries are not only international names but also less familiar indigenous varieties, and one man crucial to their modern survival is Michel Grisard. Born into a family who made their living from a vine nursery, he is best known as a vigneron who, alongside championing organics, was the first to command higher prices for wines from Mondeuse and Altesse. Michel is also a founder and current president of the CAAPG, an organization dedicated to rescuing, preserving and making the world aware of rare grape varieties from the Alps.

In the hard, commercial world of wine in the 1960s all wine regions of France were looking for new markets as domestic consumption began to decline. Exports beckoned for many. However, in Savoie, it was the rise of ski tourism that provided both a huge market and the impetus the region needed to work on improving the quality of its wines. But the vignerons could not manage this on their own: they needed help to produce quality wines. Regional wine technicians and consultant oenologists have been very influential across the regions of the French Alps.

Today, the worldwide trend in wine to seek quality rather than quantity leads the story of Savoie and other French Alps regions full circle. Whereas the highest, steepest vineyard slopes were once deserted because they were just too hard to work, since the 1990s the high ground is slowly being reclaimed. New vineyards are shooting up again on abandoned slopes and these vineyards may well provide some of the most exciting wines of the French Alps in the future.

Savoie’s vine nurseries

Out of the phylloxera crisis was born an important local trade. Honing skills first learned in that difficult period of the 19th century, since the 1950s Savoie has been an important French department for vine nurseries. For decades, the small commune of Fréterive, in the Combe de Savoie, was second only to Montpellier in the south of France for the number of grafted vines sold each year. Not only have some of these nurseries had an important influence on the wines made in Savoie today, but their expertise has also helped to preserve rare local grape varieties, on the brink of extinction.

A few years after phylloxera reached Savoie in 1878, the solution of grafting Vitis vinifera (the European vine) onto American rootstocks was discovered. But for growers to replant, they had to learn the technique of grafting. The lead in this was taken by the departmental plant nursery and by a commercial horticultural nursery in Chambéry, created by Martin Burdin (1740–1820), which was already reputed for its expertise in growing fruit trees. Other horticultural nurseries turned to propagating vine plants and grafting, and entrepreneurs took advantage of the crisis to set up nurseries.

The south-facing Bauges mountain foothills above the marshes by the Isère river, which had been dammed and canalized in 1860, were considered ideal to propagate the baby vines. The area around Fréterive especially had light, easily worked soils with plenty of underground water, and the slopes were aerated by the wind and therefore not too prone to humidity and disease. This was not work for the faint-hearted: by 1920 the success rate for establishing viable grafts was still only 30%. Technical improvements brought this figure up to 50% by the 1950s and gradually the Savoie vine nurseries built a reputation for quality, which created a demand from other wine regions, especially Champagne. Over 100 nurseries were established and by 1955 they were supplying about 11 million baby grafted vines each year, peaking at over 33 million in 1990. The vast majority of grafted vines were sent to other French regions and some were exported.

In the 1970s technical changes in grafting took place, making the process more effective. These included changing the graft itself from the so-called ‘greffe anglaise’ (English graft) to the omega graft; using treated paraffin to protect the grafts from botrytis; and laying down plastic protection on the ground. From the 1960s the plantations moved from the slopes to the plain, making them easier to mechanize, but more prone to disease, and therefore requiring a higher level of treatments. The success rate for grafts today is about 60% unless it’s a particularly wet year with high levels of mildew. Savoie now produces about 20% of France’s total grafted vines, with 30 million planted each year by around a score of nurseries.

Grafted Persan vines awaiting planting in Philippe Grisard’s vineyard.

Whereas some commercial vine nurseries in Savoie focused on mainstream grape varieties that outside markets wanted, such as Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon, others made sure to preserve the Savoie varieties. And over the decades several nursery owners have turned to wine production themselves – notably the late Gilbert Bouvet (one of the first in modern times to use Persan in a blend), the Vullien family, the Grisards and most recently the Vendange family. Champions of preserving the local varieties are the Grisard family, not only Michel, but also his brother Jean-Pierre, who runs the family vine nursery with his son Benoît, alongside their wine estate Domaine Grisard, and Michel’s youngest brother Philippe with his estate Maison Philippe Grisard. As well as providing significant seasonal local employment, the vine nurseries prepared the ground for the revival of rare Alpine varieties in Savoie and the French Alps.

The CAAPG: Saving the Alpine grapes

Although Savoie has so many vine nurseries, official regional wine organizations had done surprisingly little research into the main local grape varieties. Those with historical significance, but which had been dropped once the AOC designation was adopted, had disappeared almost into oblivion. The situation was no better in neighbouring Bugey, although in Isère and Hautes-Alpes, with no appellation constraints, some ancient varieties had survived. This century, across Europe, organizations to save almost extinct grape varieties have sprung up, run voluntarily by determined individuals: vignerons, agricultural or scientific specialists, and amateur wine lovers. One of the earliest was created in Savoie in 2007 under the name of the Centre d’Ampélographie Alpine Pierre Galet (CAAPG) and it thrives today under the presidency of Michel Grisard.

Born in 1921, Pierre Galet (see also here) is described in Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine as ‘the father of modern ampelography’ and is the author of around 50 books, notably several editions of his dictionary of grapes, translated into many languages. In the early part of this century he was distressed that the archives of his vast body of research notes and papers was inaccessible for others’ research, languishing in the basement of a university building in Montpellier. Gilbert Nicaise (died 2014) tried to find a solution. He was a retired tree and vine specialist and had done much to rehabilitate Viognier in Condrieu. In 2004 Gilbert helped move the archives to a château in the Ardèche, in the hope of founding a centre for ampelography, but two years later the project fell through. Gilbert was friends with Roger Raffin, another retired agricultural specialist. Roger had a long-term interest in obscure grape varieties and is credited with being the first to ferret out plants of Mondeuse Blanche to replant in Savoie in the mid-1980s. He also knew the Grisard family. Ever the ideas man, Michel Grisard suggested to Gilbert and Roger that Pierre Galet’s archives be brought to Savoie to create an ampelographical centre at Cevins, where he had established Domaine des Ardoisières. Pierre, who knew and loved Savoie, was enchanted by the idea.

The CAAPG was born, with its first official meeting in December 2007; Pierre Galet was a speaker and the much younger ampelographer, then relatively unknown, José Vouillamoz from Switzerland, agreed to offer technical help. Roger Raffin worked tirelessly as president of the CAAPG until December 2010, including overseeing a move of the archives and CAAPG office from Cevins to Montmélian’s wine museum. Michel Grisard devoted more and more time to the association too. He inspired younger vignerons to become involved, not only from Savoie but also from across the French Alps and over the borders into Switzerland and Italy. The Isère vigneron Nicolas Gonin has been a key player too and one of the CAAPG’s vice-presidents.

The role of the CAAPG

The main aim of the CAAPG is to save the genetic heritage of grapes and encourage diversity in the Alpine vineyard environment, partly to be able to meet the future needs of a changing climate. Among the CAAPG’s activities are the following:

•Each summer before harvest, trained groups make inspection and identification visits, looking for very rare or completely unknown grape varieties, growing, for example, in private gardens.

•Cuttings of rare varieties are propagated. In its first decade, the CAAPG rehabilitated several Alpine grape varieties, achieving listings on the French register of grape varieties to allow them to be officially planted in France. These include Douce Noire, Onchette and Mècle reds, and Blanc de Maurienne or Rèze white.

Michel Grisard looking at a new edition of Pierre Galet’s dictionary of grape varieties; the CAAPG supported its publication.

•The CAAPG oversees several experimental vineyards: in Myans, near Apremont, looked after by Philippe and Sylvain Ravier, with different clones of Jacquère; in Montmélian, growing various clones of Altesse, Mondeuse and Persan; and three in the Maurienne Valley. Certain individual vignerons and vineyard associations have been charged with growing and reporting on specific varieties, such as Nicolas Gonin with Mècle and the Trièves association for Onchette.

•Each year at the annual meeting in Montmélian, members gather for a conference on rare grapes. The day includes a walk-around tasting where members bring wines from sometimes extremely rare grapes, which might include some made for the first time, in demi-johns.

There is more detail about the varieties that have been saved by the CAAPG in the Grape Varieties chapter in Part 2.

Technicians and consultants

After the Second World War, technical help was essential as vineyard holdings and wineries grew, farmers gave up polyculture to become dedicated vine-growers, and VDQS/AOC designations demanded specific requirements. Until the 1970s, most farmers were largely uneducated and once they made the decision to give up their cows and crops, they had little time to take wine courses. From the 1950s, the regional wine-growers’ associations or syndicates employed technicians, usually with a degree in agronomy or agricultural science, to advise in the vineyards. Even with little oenology experience, these technicians became involved in the wineries too. From the 1980s, independent companies set up to provide technical assistance, which ranges from filtration and mobile bottling services to wine analysis and comprehensive oenology consultancy. The influence of these companies on wine styles became extremely important.

Gaëlle Defour, in Oeno Conseil’s laboratory in Apremont, is testing red grape juice – harvest is the busiest time for the laboratories.

A roll call of characters

The following have all played their part in the development of French Alps wines since the middle of the 20th century.

Pierre Galet is a world-renowned vineyard consultant, author and ampelographer (see also here). His knowledge was profound and remained so at the age of 96 when I met him in 2017. Although he travelled the world, he had a soft spot for Savoie and in the 1950s he worked with André Goddard in delimiting the Savoie appellation for the VDQS and then later the AOC designation. He was also involved in the same work for Bugey. He conducted detailed inventories of grape varieties in most French Alpine wine regions.

André Goddard worked early on as a technician for the Syndicat Régional des Vins de Savoie, and Pierre Galet, in his biography, pays tribute to the work he did in calming the conflicts between négociants and vignerons in the 1950s in order to achieve the Savoie VDQS designation. Vigneron André Quenard related how, along with giving technical advice, André Goddard helped these inexperienced vignerons with their administrative paperwork and arranged trips for them to visit other wine regions.

Claude Paul was the first director of the Bugey wine syndicate, from 1968 to 1995. He set up the first wine analysis laboratory in Belley and was instrumental in improving quality in the region. In 2017 (in his late eighties) he told me of the commercial reality of helping wine producers make a living in the 1970s. Due to their erratic production levels, he felt local grapes such as Mondeuse or Altesse should not be replanted and instead the focus had to be on Chardonnay for sparkling and still wines, and on Gamay and Pinot for reds, a legacy for Bugey that is not applauded by everyone.

Claude Marandon (died 2015) was an early technical advisor for the Savoie syndicate. Later he became a sommelier, bon viveur and weekend vigneron in Monterminod. He advised many vignerons on their wine-making and is honoured by a plaque in Chignin’s churchyard for having suggested the solution to the black rot fungal disease.

Jules Chauvet (died 1989) was a Beaujolais-based négociant and widely respected taster. Several natural wine producers in the French Alps cite his influence on the way they make their wines, alongside his colleague and disciple, the oenological consultant Jacques Néauport, who advocates making wine without added sulphur dioxide.

Pierre Masson (died 2018) is the most widely cited biodynamic consultant, teacher and supplier of biodynamic preparations. He has influenced every vigneron in this book who practises biodynamics. His business is continued by his son Vincent Masson.

CMC Station Oenologique de Savoie and Oeno Conseil

CMC, as it is known today, was founded in 1986 by oenologist Jean-François Thomassin, who was joined for a short time by Olivier Turlais. They created the first dedicated wine laboratory in St-Baldoph, near Chambéry, primarily for wine analysis. The Station Oenologique de Savoie expanded, offering filtration and bottling services, and was bought by Eric Petitjean, also the director general of the Institut d’Oenologique de Champagne. The Savoie company began to offer sparkling wine services of riddling and disgorgement and the name CMC, standing for Le Centre de Méthode Champenoise, was born; since 2003 CMC has been managed by Pierre Dusserre Bresson, now a well-known figure in the area. CMC, with branches in southern Bugey and in Provence, provides sparkling services for the vast majority of producers in Savoie, southern Bugey and Isère, and also offers still wine services, winemaking consultancy and analysis.

Oeno Conseil was founded in 1988 by Olivier Turlais, who qualified as an oenologist in Dijon in 1983. Initially he offered mobile bottling services and in 1992, together with Michelle Saugy, created a laboratory for wine analysis in Apremont. Today Oeno Conseil works closely with all the major Savoie négociants, Cave de Cruet (the largest Savoie co-operative), and around 70% of independent vignerons in Savoie – as well as in Bugey, Isère and beyond. Oeno Conseil offers winemaking consultancy, filtration, bottling and analysis services in any combination. Olivier’s son, Ulysse Turlais, joined the business in 2017.

Although a few are self-sufficient, most producers in Savoie, Bugey and Isère use Oeno Conseil and CMC for some services, hence their influence on the wines is important.

Olivier Turlais – the yeast whisperer

I am convinced that Olivier Turlais of Oeno Conseil is the most hard-working person in the wine world of the French Alps. Across the spectrum of wine producers from large to small, young to old, biodynamic to conventional, Olivier garners huge respect. Over the two-month period of harvest and subsequent wine fermentations, Olivier works from 8am to 2am every day and he tells me it is because he has to talk to the yeasts. He is a circus trainer of yeasts, he said in a documentary on the history of Savoie wine. Controversially, Olivier differentiates little between cultured and indigenous yeasts; he is happy to talk with any of them. In many ways Olivier is cut of the same cloth as the famous Bordeaux-based world-travelling wine consultants Michel Rolland or Denis Dubourdieu – he is known for speaking his mind: ‘The story of Savoie is not very pretty; it was too easy in the past to simply sell wine to the négociants.’ He forbade me to take photos of him.

Olivier can take a large amount of credit for raising the overall standard of Savoie wines over three decades, crusading to reduce residual sugar levels in white wines, teaching growers how to control malolactic fermentation and advising on how to improve Mondeuse wines by encouraging producers to use gentle pump-overs, with short maceration periods, unless the year is really good. Overall, he tries to persuade producers to do little in the winery and to practise what he calls the ‘cuisine de grand-mère’ (grandmother’s cooking), a common-sense approach.

There are two other aspects in which Olivier is second to none. Firstly, he is highly respected as a top-class taster, writing meticulous notes, which many producers have told me really help them. Secondly, he has nurtured and encouraged several vignerons, by employing them part- or full-time in Oeno Conseil, while allowing them time off to establish their own vineyards and estates. David Giachino worked for him for many years; among others, Adrien Berlioz, Romain Chamiot and Julien Viana have had spells working for him, and at the time of writing, Maxime Dancoine, an oenologist and experienced vineyard consultant, is viewed in many ways as Olivier’s right-hand man. Maxime works part-time for Oeno Conseil, having set up his own estate, L’Aitonnement, and is also a partner in the négociant Des Vins d’Envie. Fabrice Bouché, who also works as winemaker for Raphaël St-Germain, has been in charge of filtration at Oeno Conseil for over 20 years.

Thomas Finot told me that Olivier is ‘someone who understands where the vigneron wants to go’ and Franck Peillot said that he ‘has the sensitivity of a vigneron and loves wine’. Even natural wine producers respect him, observing that his attitude towards lowering SO₂ levels has changed greatly in the past few years. The young vigneron Julien Viana told me firmly: ‘It is thanks to Olivier that since the 1990s the quality in Savoie has risen,’ and Jean-François Quenard summarizes: ‘It’s important to have an outside view, Olivier has helped raise the game.’

Le Boum: how spas and snow saved Savoie wine

Even back in the 18th and early 19th centuries, tourism in the French Alps helped boost the reputation of Savoie wines. First it was intrepid travellers passing through France to Italy; later there were wealthy summer tourists searching for health cures and clean mountain air. In the 1840s the prolific British author Frances Trollope travelled in Savoie, at a time when it was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In her Travels and Travellers: A Series of Sketches (published in 1846) she wrote an account of an incident during a hair-raising carriage ride from Yenne to Aix-les-Bains in the sketch titled ‘Midnight passage of the Mont du Chat’. The story involves a bottle of sparkling Altesse and a driver who finishes the bottle and falls asleep, dead drunk, while Mrs Trollope is out of the carriage looking at the views down to the Lac du Bourget.

The spa town of Aix-les-Bains, with its stunning location on Lac du Bourget, drew those taking the curative spring waters. Britain’s Queen Victoria visited more than once and is said to have enjoyed the local sparkling wines. This inspired the producer Varichon et Clerc (see Gérard Lambert) to create the brand Royal Seyssel, which led also to the creation of the Seyssel AOC in 1942.

Up until the Second World War, tourism in the French Alps was mainly restricted to summer, with visitors coming for the spas, for hiking or simply to admire the mountain views. Even in the 1960s, summer tourism was more important than winter and vignerons would deliver their wines in barrel to the hotels and restaurants in tourist centres such as Aix-les-Bains, Annecy and Chamonix.

The white stuff: a golden opportunity

Following the example of the Swiss, who embraced ski tourism much earlier, in the 1930s the Savoie mountain villages of Megève, La Clusaz and Courchevel, already welcoming summer tourists, began to install ski lifts and encourage holidaymakers to visit in winter to try out winter sports. At the foot of Mont Blanc, Chamonix is an all-year-round resort encouraging both winter sports and summer mountaineering enthusiasts. But in the past, these tended to be serious mountaineers, less likely to indulge in the pleasures of eating and drinking.

By the late 1950s, it was realized that the high-altitude (above 1,000m) Alpine communities were under threat. The local populations were shrinking fast as younger generations shunned the hard-working agricultural mountain life for less demanding and more secure jobs in the cities. Fears grew that local customs, traditions and produce (cheeses especially) would disappear too. Developing winter sports tourism became a priority for the French government from the mid-1960s. The beneficiaries turned out not only to be the residents in these mountain communities, but also a whole range of ancillary industries. And Savoie wine was one.

The French ski industry became huge, with ski areas and resorts literally carved out of the mountainsides. The French school terms were changed to allow a two-week February holiday especially for skiing. Staggered regionally so that the peak time stretched over four weeks, the period became known as ‘le boum’ and snow tourism was referred to as l’or blanc, ‘white gold’ – potentially a licence to print money. Restaurants proliferated and, along with the shops supplying the self-catering tourists, they needed wine. More than anything else it was this that encouraged more vineyards to be planted from the 1960s and for Savoie to seek AOC status. Once the Vin de Savoie AOC was achieved in 1973, the region put all its energy into making wine to supply to the stations (ski resorts) and this meant the latest vintage had to be ready to deliver in mid-December, with a top-up before the peak February season. This had a major influence on the type of wines produced in Savoie, made to be drunk within just a few months of harvest. Momentum built and the Savoie wine-growers decided to make a big publicity splash for the Winter Olympics of 1992, which took place in Albertville, close to the vineyard area. Unfortunately, their enthusiasm was not backed up by quality at the time and both the local public and the tourists recognized this all too well. Things came close to being not boum but bust.

It has taken a generation to change the perception of wines from Savoie being fit only for the ski slopes. Many Savoie wine producers still sell more than half of their production to the stations. Today climate change threatens the survival of ski resorts, and some newly established Savoie vignerons, who work organically and seek higher prices for the fruits of their labours, deliberately look to sell in different markets, not even offering their wines in the ski resorts. Domaine Saint-Germain’s Crac Boum’Bu (shown above) bucks this trend.

As a négociant supplying shops and restaurants in all the major ski resorts of Savoie and Haute-Savoie, the Perrier family did much to help the Savoie wine region’s quality reputation.

Reconquering the slopes

From the late 1990s there has been a movement to replant some of the old hillside vineyards, abandoned decades, or sometimes longer, before. The land is usually laborious to clear, requiring expensive machinery, the upper slopes often having been invaded by the forest, and lower slopes, if not taken over as building land, left barren or used for animal grazing. This renaissance is gaining even more traction in the second decade of the 21st century, with some projects destined to provide a whole new range of wines from 2020 onwards. The reasons that make these initiatives viable are varied, but they include the availability of better machinery to work on steep slopes, climate change allowing more reliable ripening, and the commercial possibilities of obtaining a good price for the wines.

Within the established Savoie AOC vineyard areas, vines are once again carpeting higher and steeper slopes above Chignin, St-Jean-de-la-Porte and Jongieux, for example. In Bugey, the same thing happened on the slopes of the crus Montagnieu and Manicle, and more recently other less well-known historic slopes are being revived. Vineyards have also been (re)planted higher on the slopes of the Coteaux du Grésivaudan in Isère and in various parts of Hautes-Alpes.

But some of the most exciting projects are outside the AOC limits on reclaimed vineyard slopes that had been almost completely neglected, save for a few privately owned vines for family use. The only sour note is that many of these projects in Savoie have been actively opposed by the Syndicat des Vins de Savoie, which feels it needs to protect members from these developments.

Replanted from 1998 to become Domaine des Ardoisières, a century earlier this hillside above Cevins in the Tarentaise Valley had been covered with vines, but since had been almost completely abandoned.

Cevins becomes a phoenix

The first and arguably most ambitious project was that of Domaine des Ardoisières, the vision of now-retired vigneron Michel Grisard. He took up the idea of a local association, Vivre en Tarentaise, who from the mid-1990s were looking for a vigneron interested in replanting abandoned vineyard slopes. With their support and that of the mayor and villagers of Cevins, he created a plan that was bigger than anyone else could have envisaged. Located roughly halfway between Albertville and Moutiers, the Cevins vineyard slope is steep, south-facing, with poor, mainly mica-schist soils, and – like all the Tarentaise Valley – it was left out of the VDQS and thereafter AOC Savoie delimitations. The slopes receive less sun than the main Savoie areas and by the time the delimitations were made, there was no wine of repute from the Tarentaise vineyards.

The project involved creating a company to buy or lease around 400 plots of land. Some of the terraces and stone walls were in reasonable condition and the project included a plan to restore these as well as some of the sartots or vineyard cabins, built in the typical Tarentaise style. The estate is named for the slate (ardoise) roofs of the sartots and the slate-stone walls supporting the slope. Michel, whose own vineyard in Fréterive was run biodynamically, aimed to farm biodynamically at Cevins too.

A small plot of 0.2ha Altesse was planted in 1998. After significant land clearing, more vines were planted from 2000–2002 to reach about 5.5ha, with a further 0.5ha in 2010. The varieties chosen were all local, including the then virtually unknown Mondeuse Blanche for whites and Persan for reds, and Michel’s vision was to make blends, to differentiate these wines from the single varietal Savoie AOC wines. Michel had always planned to find a young vigneron to work with on the project and in 2003 he took on Brice Omont. The two worked together until 2010, when a difficult split took place and Michel stood back, leaving Brice to run the estate, which he still does (see here). From the beginning, these wines attracted attention as Michel already had a good following from top French and export buyers for the wines from his own estate. The wines proved that with the right terroir, combined with the right people, a phoenix could rise from the ashes.

Other projects across the French Alps

Across the French Alps, since the turn of the century, associations have formed to revive or preserve vineyard slopes, known historically through records, photographs, memories or the fact that private individuals still owned a few vines. Some of these small vineyards simply provide an enjoyable hobby for the participants. However, the aims of other projects are more serious, including an element of protecting the environment, so most are farmed organically. Often there is a social aspect too, such as offering work to the economically, physically or mentally disadvantaged, or creating work to attract younger people to live in areas with an ageing population. Two important projects are described in Part 3, namely the revival of vineyards in Savoie’s Maurienne Valley and in Isère’s Trièves area. Even the city of Grenoble has a newly revived vineyard.

In the Tarentaise Valley, there is a thriving vineyard association in Aime, further up the valley from Cevins, incorporating cider-making too. And in Haute-Savoie, vineyards are being revived near Annecy.

Vineyards sprout on Lake Annecy’s slopes

Until the phylloxera epidemic the slopes above Lake Annecy were covered in vineyards, but it would be impossible for this area ever to regain even 10% of the vineyard area; for many decades, the slopes have been covered with smart villas. Since the easing of planting restrictions in France, following an EU directive, the possibility to replant vines arose and interest grew. The motivation in this wealthy area is mainly to recreate the heritage of local vineyards. There are currently three notable projects and I hear there may be others to come. All the wines will be classified as Vin de France, as even the IGP Vin des Allobroges does not cover this area at present.

Clos du Château

Below the fairy-tale, family-owned Château de Menthon-St-Bernard is a beautiful, well-exposed site. The mappe Sarde shows there were vineyards on this slope in the 18th century and they were replanted following the phylloxera devastation, but disappeared in the 1930s. Financed by an association that includes the owners of the château, the vineyard is managed by vigneron Florent Héritier of Frangy, who works biodynamically. In 2018 1.2ha of vines were planted with Altesse, Viognier, Mondeuse and Gamaret. The plan is to plant a further 1.5ha in 2020, with the potential of a total 4.5ha of vineyards.

Coteaux des Girondales

With a mountain rather than lake view, Francis Rousset’s vineyard is in the village of Villaz, near an old Roman road, in the hamlet of Les Vignes, on the Route des Vignes…. The last known harvest in Villaz was in 1892 and wines were made simply for local consumption. Francis wonders if the Romans planted vines here first, and he has found vineyards marked in the exact same spot on the mappe Sarde, also finding mention of the red César grape variety (from northern Burgundy). Francis had many jobs, including running a bistro in Canada; he returned to study wine at Beaune, with work experience at Savoie’s organic Domaine Saint-Germain. He currently works full time at a winery in Geneva, but in 2016, part-financed with a grant from the Fondation Alpes Contrôles (an organic certification company), he planted 3ha in Villaz, where his wife’s family live. He works organically, with help from his father-in-law and friends, and plans to build a winery in 2020. He grows Jacquère, Altesse, Chardonnay and Roussanne for whites; Gamaret, Mondeuse, Persan and a few César vines for red. This is the closest vineyard to my home in the Alps, and I confess to being very excited about its future.

Vignes du Lac

Supported by an association in Véyrier, Frangy vigneron Bruno Lupin planted a 0.36ha plot above the town of Véyrier in 2015, farmed organically. The first vintage in 2018 produced 590 bottles, which were launched in spring 2019 to great local fanfare in the presence of Laurent Petit of the three-star Michelin restaurant Clos des Sens and Bruno Bozzer of La Java des Flacons in Annecy, who has been involved in the project from the start. The plan is to plant Mondeuse in 2020 and reach 1ha eventually.

This new vineyard below Château de Menthon-St-Bernard faces directly south, overlooking beautiful Lake Annecy.

Francis Rousset’s young Coteaux des Girondales vineyards lie at around 600m altitude near the Aravis mountains.