AROUND THE RHÔNE AND LAC DU BOURGET
Forget Syrah, Grenache or Viognier grapes, the Rhône Valley areas of Savoie are home to Altesse, Jacquère, Gamay and Mondeuse, among other varieties. Much of this sector lies close to the southernmost Jura mountains or between the Jura and the Prealps. Some of the areas are the warmest in Savoie, with the proximity of the Rhône river and, further south, Lac du Bourget – France’s largest inland lake – moderating the climate greatly.
To the northwest of Annecy in Haute-Savoie, the small Roussette de Savoie cru of Frangy is located mainly in the valley of the Usses, a tributary of the Rhône. Just to the south, the town of Seyssel straddles the Rhône river – its sparkling wines were once the most renowned wines from Savoie. Heading south into the department of Savoie, the climate becomes distinctly warmer and the more densely planted vineyards of both the Chautagne and Jongieux crus are on hillsides some way up from the Rhône, but often in sight of it. Warmest of all is the small vineyard area on the eastern side of Lac du Bourget near Aix-les-Bains – these vines were first farmed by the monks from the Abbaye de Hautecombe on the opposite shore.
Apart from the area close to Aix-les-Bains, the other areas have always been quiet backwaters, rural farming areas. However, the waterways of the Rhône river, partly canalized; the Savières canal, which links the Rhône with Lac du Bourget; and the lake itself provide delightful opportunities for summer visitors to relax and enjoy water sports. Close to the lake are a cluster of upmarket hotels and restaurants, where some of the best Savoie wines can be enjoyed alongside lake fish and top gastronomic cuisine.
The main wines to expect
In Frangy and Seyssel, Altesse is king. Frangy is a cru for AOC Roussette de Savoie and producers generally make at least two versions; some make Altesse sparkling wine too. In Seyssel, expect to find still and sparkling AOC Seyssel. In Seyssel and Frangy, producers may also use AOC Savoie for whites from other grapes, and for reds and rosés. Although Chautagne is the realm of Gamay, and Jongieux is known for Altesse, especially from the Roussette de Savoie crus Marestel and Monthoux, most producers also grow Jacquère and Chardonnay for whites, and Gamay, Pinot and Mondeuse for rosés and reds. Crémant de Savoie is increasing in production. In the area near Aix-les-Bains, Chardonnay is a speciality.
Frangy
The small town of Frangy is within commuting distance of both Annecy and Geneva. Until the early 20th century it used to be part of the free trade zone with Switzerland, with no tax on either wine or the milk from the many dairy farms in this area. Most of Frangy’s vineyards lie above the small Usses river that flows into the Rhône to the west. The area lies at what was effectively the end of the glaciers that formed both Lac d’Annecy and Lac du Bourget and the vineyards are southwest of Le Vuache, a long mountain, which is one of the southern extremities of the Jura.
The area around Frangy has around 35ha of vineyards, including about 20ha of Altesse for the cru Roussette de Savoie Frangy, in the communes of Chaumont and Desingy as well as Frangy itself. The main vineyards are on a wide slope behind the town, part of which is called Coteaux des Aricoques, between about 320m and 400m altitude. Much of it faces full south and it has a predominantly limestone soil with scree in the higher parts. The lower areas are frost prone, whereas the highest areas are cooler. Desingy vineyards, some facing southwest towards Seyssel and the Rhône, are at around 400m, with more clay-rich and colder soils than in Frangy. In general, the cooler climate makes Frangy Roussette de Savoie fresher and more angular than those from Jongieux.
With the exception of wines from Domaine Lupin, it is rare to find Frangy outside Haute-Savoie and Savoie. Other producers whose wines are available locally include La Treille, and various estates of the Neyroud and Courlet families. Grandsons of Auguste Courlet are the three Héritier brothers: Stéphane (based in Clermont), Philippe and Florent, all of whom have small organic wine estates in the Frangy area, although each one has another job too. Not profiled here, Cave Stéphane Héritier, whose Roussette de Savoie is an attractive example, has also taken over some of the Mondeuse vines from the now defunct Domaine de Vens-le-Haut estate in nearby Seyssel.
Florent Héritier
This tiny estate, run part-time by Florent Héritier since 2004, was, in 2017, the first in Savoie to become Demeter certified. Florent started official conversion to organics from 2010 but does not believe that the organic certification requirements are strict enough. He finds biodynamics interesting, especially in terms of soil management, and believes the main biodynamic preparations are very important. He uses Bordeaux mixture in combination with plant preparations, which he makes from local herbs and plants. He smiles when he explains that today he spends one-fifth the amount he used to on chemicals.
Following wine studies in Beaune, Florent originally planned to go into partnership with Vincent Courlet, but that did not work out, so he decided to work outside of wine (selling cherry-pickers) for his main employment. Florent’s vineyards include 1ha of Altesse on the lower part of the hillside behind Frangy, which was originally planted by Auguste Courlet. The remainder of his Altesse is grown in Desingy, where in 2006 he also planted 0.4ha of Mondeuse on a very steep clay-rich limestone scree slope. Most of his vineyards are in shared plots with his brother Stéphane and they share some of the machinery too, although they work separately. Florent does not like bare earth as he believes grass will protect the soil and insects. Except just before harvest, he doesn’t mow the grass between the vine rows, instead he rolls it down.
Florent Héritier in his biodynamically-run vineyards in Designy.
The winery on Frangy’s main street is simple, with no air conditioning, and Florent notes that the fermenting wine often needs warmth to finish, particularly with indigenous yeasts, which he has used for several years. As well as tanks, for his top cuvée, Altessima, Florent used old oak barrels for a time, but he has replaced them with one concrete egg. This Altesse is usually 100% from the Frangy slope, which is based on pure limestone. Florent shares the bottling line with his two brothers and uses the minimum of SO2 at bottling, having added some at harvest to select the right local yeasts and bacteria. He hasn’t chaptalized Altesse for many years and avoids it for Mondeuse in the warmer years.
From limited tastings, my impressions are that Florent’s wines are full of vivacious fruit, minerality and life. His main Altesse is Confession d’Etrables (Etrables is a hamlet in Desingy, and Confession is in homage to The Confessions from the 18th-century writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which evoked the wine of Frangy). Altessima remains in tank or concrete egg for an extra year and is more expressive and linear. The Mondeuse combines delicious fruit with elegant structure. He makes a nicely dry Crémant de Savoie, L’Alliance, with 40% bought-in Jacquère and 60% Altesse, while waiting for his own small plot of Jacquère to mature. Florent sells mainly to restaurants in the immediate locality, and a little makes its way to Belgium and Japan.
The parents of Florent’s wife, Laure, live in Menthon-St-Bernard, close to Lake Annecy, and this was how Florent became entrusted to farm the newly planted vineyard at Château de Menthon-St-Bernard. Once this is fully productive, he should be able to give up his day job, which will be an important change for Florent, who refers himself as a vigneron paysan, roughly translated as a farmer-winemaker.
Florent Héritier
160 Route d’Annecy, 74270 Frangy
Tel: 04 50 44 52 56/06 68 22 33 78
Email: florent@vin-savoie-heritier.fr
Map ref: C7
Vineyards: 2.5ha
Certification: Alpes Contrôles and Demeter
Visits: Preferably by appointment
Domaine Lupin
Bruno Lupin never intended to join the family domaine, but it’s lucky for Frangy and for us that he did. Bruno’s grandfather, Jean Lupin, sold wine in bottle to the Swiss when Frangy was still in the free trade zone. Bruno’s father, François, farmed dairy cows and was also a wine-grower. The existing Domaine Lupin building was the farm building and doubled as a small winery to make wines to sell in a tasting room on the main street. In the 1970s the family opened the restaurant, La Cave de la Ferme (sold in 2019), which also helped to sell their wine.
Bruno Lupin, whose Roussette de Savoie Frangy travels the world.
Bruno, the second youngest of four children, studied wine at Beaune and in 1983 he started work managing the cellar of the Cave de Genève, the wine co-operative in the Geneva canton of Switzerland. During his 15 years there, he learned about working with high volumes in a technical, super-clean environment, and discovered that the best approach was to do nothing with the wine – the work needs to be done in the vineyard. Despite a long commute (he was not allowed to live in Switzerland), he had a good life, got married to Suzy and started a family. It was hard to leave, but his father asked him to help him, and as his two brothers were not interested and his sister Claudine ran the family restaurant, he felt that he had no choice. In 1994, while continuing his Swiss job, he began working in Frangy too, but administratively this was hard, and from 1998 he moved to Frangy full-time. Looking back now, he is pleased he made the move, partly because he loves the Altesse variety.
For many years Bruno has worked sustainably, with grassed-down vineyards; he hasn’t converted to organics as herbicide is still used on the steepest vineyards, but his sprays are all organic now. He does much of the work in the vineyard himself, with some help from Suzy and from seasonal workers, and is hoping to find a permanent employee. All his vineyards are on the slope behind the village, including the original steep parcel of his grandfather’s vines with Altesse (used for his Frangy Cuvée Pépé) and a little Mondeuse, both planted in the 1950s, trained sur échalas. Bruno planted more Mondeuse in 2003, partly sur échalas. He works hard to control the canopy and leaf-pluck the very productive Altesse and Mondeuse; for the latter he does a green harvest.
In the basic cellar Bruno has used indigenous yeast for many years, as well as low SO2 levels. Over the years he has reduced the residual sugar in his two main Altesse cuvées and with climate change is finding that to keep a fresh acidity he now needs to reduce the amount of malolactic fermentation. He gives the wines some time on fine lees and for Cuvée Pépé he is trialling a concrete hexagonal tank, with a horizontal egg inside, but finds he needs to move the wine out after a few months to keep that freshness. Bruno is equipped for bottling and bottles small lots throughout the year, believing that it’s better to monitor the wine in tank until it’s ready. The basic Frangy cuvée accounts for about three-quarters of the total output; floral and fresh, this simple Frangy is almost dry with less than 4g/l residual sugar. The lovely Cuvée Pépé is sold a year later and accounts for just 2,500 bottles; after a year in bottle, this is consistently my favourite, with much more intensity. Bruno enjoys making other smaller lots of Altesse, one in barrique, another in acacia barrels, a wine that is growing in popularity, and – if the season permits – a late-harvest version. For many years he has made about 1,500 bottles of traditional method sparkling Altesse with at least 18 months sur lattes, and as Bruno isn’t convinced about planting Jacquère to make Crémant de Savoie, it will be Vin de France in future. Bruno’s very enjoyable, easy-drinking and fruity Mondeuse is partly from destemmed grapes; some are foot-trodden; he uses a little pump-over and bottles it unfiltered.
Bruno is a regular marathon runner (he’s even run the New York marathon) and he has steadily built up the distance with his wine estate. Not for him the endless round of wine shows around France – instead he enjoys nurturing his increasing export markets, which account for one-third of his sales, primarily going to the UK, US, Belgium and Japan; other sales are divided between private sales and to wine shops and restaurants mainly in the local area. Bruno is also the vigneron charged with managing the tiny organic vineyard and making the wine for Vignes du Lac in Véyrier, one of the revived vineyards close to Lake Annecy. This development makes it even more urgent for Bruno to find a trusty partner or full-time employee, as although his grown-up daughters occasionally lend a hand with the vineyard work, they are forging other careers.
Domaine Lupin
302 Rue du Grand Pont, 74270 Frangy
Tel: 04 50 32 29 12/06 14 83 12 84
Email: bruno.lupin74@gmail.com
Contact: Bruno Lupin
Map ref: C7
Vineyards: 6ha (including 0.6ha Mondeuse)
Visits: Preferably by appointment
Domaine des Orchis
Philippe Héritier is one of the most unusual wine producers in this book; he makes just two wines, and they are very good. In 2006 Philippe gave up banking when he was offered a promotion to work in Paris, deciding city life was not for him. Instead, in 2007 he became an organic snail-breeder (try to imagine 300,000 snails) and vigneron, and today the snail farm is behind his winery near Annecy, and his vineyards are half an hour’s drive away, near Frangy. While working for Crédit Agricole (a French bank that specializes in working with farmers) he visited many vignerons, including Michel Grisard, and, interested in the organic and biodynamic techniques Michel used, he had started lending him a hand on Saturdays. Philippe was no stranger to vineyard work, having from about 12 years old often missed schooldays in summer to help his maternal grandfather Auguste Courlet. And why snails? In 1995 his father, Joseph, had started a business breeding snails, selling them prepared in various ways – when Joseph retired, Philippe was the only one of the three brothers available to take over. Today, at the modern winery they built in Poisy, Philippe and his wife Catherine have an event space where groups can enjoy a snail and wine tasting. The prepared snails (in jars or frozen) are sold privately and also to some of the best local restaurants, where Philippe sells his wines too.
Inspired by Michel Grisard, Philippe began planting vineyards in 2006: firstly Altesse and a little Mondeuse on 2.5ha of former vineyard land in Desingy, not classified within the Frangy cru, and secondly in Collonges, at the top of the main vineyard hill behind Frangy, where he planted 0.6ha of Mondeuse on very heavy clay soil with molasse from the Vuache mountain above. He also bought a plot situated a few kilometres north of Frangy, in Peillonnex, a hamlet of Clarafond, also outside the Frangy cru limits. The Swiss owner had planted 0.8ha of Altesse in 1992 and this gave Philippe his first crop in 2007; Philippe changed the training from Guyot to Cordon de Royat to limit the yields, planted Mondeuse in 2011 and later some more Altesse and a 0.1ha plot of Mondeuse Blanche, which so far hasn’t properly ripened. In 2020 he plans to plant more Altesse, as well as Molette, possibly to make sparkling wine, and maybe Gringet and/or Jacquère – he wants to work with local Savoie varieties and uses mass selections.
Snail-breeder and vigneron Philippe Héritier leans against a rock extracted from one of his new vineyards, near Frangy.
Philippe has a degree in agricultural engineering and took some courses with biodynamic viticulture consultant Dominique Massenot, and later with Pierre Masson, whose company today supplies his biodynamic preparations. He converted the vineyards to organics, becoming certified in 2014, and uses entirely biodynamic methods (uncertified), with a focus on the humus in the soil. Philippe describes his vineyards as fields of experimentation, helping him to better understand life and wine. Up to now he has worked on his own, with temporary staff, but he’s hoping to take someone on who shares his enthusiasm and philosophy.
In 2008 Philippe began construction of his unusual hexagonal winery, built according to the rules of the golden number or ratio. The proportions and the shape of the building are like a beehive, which is supposed to bring a positive energy balance. The same techniques of exact location (in terms of latitude, longitude and angle) were used by Leonardo da Vinci and by those who built Europe’s great cathedrals. For Philippe the idea is that both the wine and the people working or visiting the building are in resonance with the place. There are two specific advantages: first there is a smaller area of walls than a normal rectangular building, giving economy of space; secondly it allows the cosmic forces from above to be in harmony with the telluric forces from below. There is no air conditioning, but the barrels – and Philippe matures all his wine in barrel – are in the coolest north-facing part of the building. With very low yields, rarely reaching 30hl/ha and thus a potential of 20,000 bottles, Philippe does everything here including bottling.
For Philippe, in every vintage you start from scratch in the winery and he takes blending of his two wines very seriously – he doesn’t rule out making a special cuvée for each variety in the future. Biodynamics enter fully into the winery – for example, he aerates a wine by taking out a bucketful and stirring it biodynamically before adding it back. Only indigenous yeasts are used. The barrels are of different sizes, mainly from Seguin-Moreau and Damy; some for reds were bought from Michel Grisard.
The Quintessence d’Altesse (Roussette de Savoie AOC without the Frangy cru) is fermented in barrel with malolactic fermentation, if it occurs, and usually the wine stays on lees until being blended and moved to tank in July or September. After a year or more in bottle the minerality and herbal character emerges, sometimes quince too. For the Quintessence de Mondeuse, Philippe looks for intensity and density: most is usually destemmed, and he leaves it macerating for at least four weeks at relatively high temperature, mixing limited punch-downs with pump-overs. The wine may show a strong floral character, redcurrants or even smoky dark fruit in some years, with tannins that are softened by the spicy oak and balanced by juicy fruit. Bottling is generally 15–18 months after harvest for both wines, with 40–60mg/l of sulphur added. So far these wines have been proven to age supremely well. Top local restaurants are Philippe’s best client sector, with some wine also sold to restaurants in Paris and the south of France, to top wine shops and private individuals. About 10% is exported to the UK, Switzerland and Belgium. Philippe is always learning and is especially focused on the concept of channelling energy, which is something Catherine teaches in her work as a life coach.
Domaine des Orchis
705 Route de L’Ecole d’Agriculture, 74330 Poisy
Tel: 04 50 46 46 06/06 33 24 81 71
Email: philcatheritier@orange.fr
Web: domainedesorchis.fr
Map ref: D5
Contact: Philippe Héritier
Vineyards: 5ha
Certification: Ecocert
Visits: Tasting room, by appointment
Seyssel
The sleepy town of Seyssel straddles the Rhône, marked by two beautiful bridges, the old one by the middle of town, and a modern one, carrying the main road. These bridges link Seyssel-Ain with Seyssel-Haute-Savoie. Thanks to the Royal Seyssel brand, in the early 20th century Seyssel was the most internationally renowned vineyard area of the French Alps, but today it struggles for recognition and even survival. There are less than 100ha of vineyards; at most 75ha are classified each year as Seyssel AOC (the rest is sold as Vin de France and includes carbonated sparkling wines); about 40% of Seyssel AOC is sparkling. There are only about 5ha of vineyards in Seyssel itself; the remainder are in the village of Corbonod in Ain (also eligible for AOC Seyssel). The Ain vineyards lie between the Rhône and the foot of the eastern side of the Grand Colombier mountain with vineyards at around 300m altitude. On the opposite side they are at a similar altitude. Corbonod is noted for its clay-rich limestone soil, ideal for Altesse, but the closer the vineyards are to the Rhône, the higher the humidity.
Whereas Altesse is the most planted variety and has a very long history here, it was the Molette grape that was traditionally dominant in sparkling Seyssel, for which the appellation was originally created. Royal Seyssel is now owned by Gérard Lambert, who has been president of the Seyssel appellation syndicate since 2014. Before this he was involved in the heated discussions concerning subsuming Seyssel into AOC Crémant de Savoie, to which he was vehemently opposed. When the officials from the Paris-based INAO (who control appellations) came to taste Seyssel, it was the Molette-dominant Royal Seyssel and another from Aimé Bernard, rather than the Altesse-dominant blends, which convinced the INAO that Seyssel was sufficiently different to other Savoie sparkling wines to preserve its own AOC. This led to an ongoing problem that the proportion of Molette in the blend is supposed to be 75%, and there is a lack of plantings – many were grubbed up in the late 1990s and 2000s, when the Boisset wine company owned Varichon et Clerc. Discussions are ongoing to lower the requirement.
For decades, two companies dominated the appellation. The largest sparkling wine producer was Varichon et Clerc (and since 2007 has been Domaine Gérard Lambert), owning Royal Seyssel; Maison Mollex remains the largest still wine producer. Both companies used to buy many more grapes from smaller producers than they do today. There are several other producers who sell their wines mainly locally, larger ones being Aimé Bernard and Maison Gallice.
Domaine de Vens-le-Haut, owned by Swiss scientist Georges Siegenthaler, was a small estate full of promise, founded in 2002 and certified organic in 2010. The aim was to give life to an abandoned slope in Seyssel-Haute-Savoie, working organically with local varieties, and to create a garage wine concept. The domaine made a name for itself on export markets, but Georges was let down by a partner, and reluctantly he decided to retire; the final vintage was 2015. The vineyards have been taken over by Gérard Lambert, Stéphane Héritier and Le Vigneron Savoyard/Cave de Chautagne.
Domaine de la Brune
Although Pierre Alain Vionnet was born in Corbonod, he is considered locally to be a promising newcomer. His father was an engineer in the French Air Force and the family farmed cows in Corbonod. But both uncles on his mother’s side worked in the vineyards and Pierre Alain spent time with them as a child, developing his passion for vines and wine. After studying wine in Beaune, he worked for three years for Maison Mollex. When one of Pierre Alain’s uncles retired, he took over his vines and created this estate in 2009, taking on more vineyards from a near neighbour, who was retiring and whose small estate was named Cellier de la Brune.
All Pierre Alain’s Seyssel vineyards are in Corbonod, with about 3ha Altesse, 2ha Molette and 1ha of Gamay and Mondeuse. In 2017, he formed a partnership with Régis Mollex of Domaine du Clos d’Arvières to take over management of Domaine de Bel Air in Bugey, only 20 minutes’ drive to the south. In 2019, Régis and Pierre Alain sought the HVE sustainability label for all three estates and also set up a CUMA to share an intercep and other equipment. Pierre Alain is keen to eliminate herbicide and has for some years used it only below the vine rows, grassing down every other row and working the other with a small tractor, but the soil is very clay-rich and heavy to work.
Originally the wines were made in an old stable at the Cellier de la Brune estate, then in 2013 Pierre Alain built a new family house in the vineyards, combined with a wine cellar and tasting room. And it is from there that the vast majority of his wines are sold. The whites have relatively high residual sugar: some are sold as Vin de France instead of AOC Seyssel, because sugar levels are higher than the AOC allows. There are two Molette wines, including the estate’s most interesting wine, L’Antique, from nearly century-old vines, redolent of honey and grapefruit, but a touch sweet. Depending on the year, two or three Altesse wines are made. The Seyssel La Roquine is good of its style, off-dry with fresh acidity and minerality. Weightier is L’Ancienne from at least 60-year-old vines, aged in acacia barrels, and in some years he makes a vin de paille style. The sparkling Seyssel is mainly from Altesse, and thus may lose the AOC at some point. The small quantity of Gamay is used for rosé and Mondeuse is for the oak-matured L’Authentique. Pierre Alain caters mainly for a very specific local market at present, but with added contacts through Domaine de Bel Air, maybe he will adapt.
Pierre Alain Vionnet outside his winery; his very old Molette vineyard can be seen in the background.
Domaine de la Brune
485 Chemin de Charveyron, 01420 Corbonod
Tel: 06 84 33 14 17
Email: pierre.alain.vionnet@gmail.com
Contact: Pierre Alain Vionnet
Map ref: B6
Vineyards: 6ha
Visits: Tasting room by appointment
Domaine du Clos d’Arvières
The idyllic tasting room in the hills above Corbonod was built in the 14th-century cellar of the Arvières monks, who lived just to the west at the foot of the Grand Colombier mountain. The founders of the estate in its modern form, Bernard and Martine Mollex (no relation to the Maison Mollex family) named the tasting room L’Abbaye (The Abbey). Son Régis sells half the estate’s wine from there, with the rest sold through local wholesalers, plus a little exported to Belgium. Bernard’s father Louis was a mixed farmer with some vines, selling most of his harvest; Bernard and Martine joined him and from 1986 they devoted themselves to wine, building a new cellar at the end of the 1990s. Régis took over on Bernard’s retirement in 2015, working alongside his mother. He studied wine at Beaune, but before returning to the estate worked for the local council water board.
There is 1ha of Gamay and Pinot Noir to make small quantities of red and rosé, alongside 7ha Altesse and 3ha Molette, some of which is sold to Gérard Lambert. The vineyards are partly up near the winery and partly down by the river, where the humidity makes organic growing difficult. The family have worked sustainably for some years and limit chemical spray use. Since 2017, as explained in the Domaine de la Brune profile, Régis has also co-managed the Bugey estate Domaine de Bel Air. The shared intercep is allowing Régis to reduce herbicide use, which he hopes to eliminate, but the heavy clay soils mean that there is not always a weather window to work the vineyards. Now that dependable pickers are so hard to find for manual harvesting, Régis has invested in his own machine harvester and notes that with Molette, for example, he can set it to harvest only those grapes that are properly ripe.
This family have always produced some of the more reliable local wines, which include a delicate Molette, redolent of hawthorn and grapefruit, dry and tangy (now sold as IGP Vin des Allobroges) – for this they use the free-run juice, reserving the rest for their sparkling Seyssel. The latter is usually 80% Molette, 20% Altesse and spends 12–18 months sur lattes, with the Molette adding that tangy grapefruit note. The family’s largest production is the basic still Seyssel, for which fermentation is stopped to leave about 5g/l of residual sugar and the wine does not go through malolactic fermentation. Much better is the small-volume Seyssel Cuvée de l’Abbaye from a south-facing slope of older Altesse vines, with about half aged in barrel and 100% malolactic, released somewhat later. The joint venture in Bel Air should help provide sufficient resources for Régis to maintain this family estate, which his parents built up with so much dedication.
Domaine du Clos d’Arvières
L’Abbaye, 131 Chemin de la Cascade, Eilloux, 01420 Corbonod
Tel: 04 50 56 10 02/06 81 14 38 71
Email: vins.mollex@wanadoo.fr
Web: vinsmollex.fr
Contact: Régis Mollex
Map ref: B6
Vineyards: 11ha
Visits: Tasting room
Domaine Gérard Lambert
This is the home of Royal Seyssel sparkling wine and Gérard Lambert can justifiably claim to be its saviour. Royal Seyssel was created by Henri Varichon in 1901, who later associated with Charles Clerc. In the 1980s the Varichon et Clerc company moved out of family hands and went through various owners until it was purchased by Boisset of Burgundy in 1997. Ten years later Boisset closed the Seyssel winery, retaining the Varichon et Clerc brand, which it still uses for non-Savoie sparkling wines.
Gérard’s own great-grandparents and subsequent generations all sold grapes to Varichon et Clerc and he feels intimately connected with Royal Seyssel. And Royal Seyssel inspires amazing affection in the US and the UK, although at the time of writing none is exported to the latter. As a wine student in London in the 1980s I saw it regularly presented as a good example of a non-Champagne French Méthode Traditionnelle. In 1988, Gérard and his wife Catherine had bought Les Caves de Seyssel, an ailing wine négociant founded in the 1930s, and subsequently sold wines from all over France. Gérard bought the Royal Seyssel brand from Boisset and vowed to continue buying grapes for it from the long-time suppliers. He moved to a building on the edge of Seyssel-Haute-Savoie to create a retail shop with a winery behind. At first, he produced only one Royal Seyssel, always as a vintage wine, then from 2010 he gradually added special cuvées. Some years later, coming full circle, Gérard was in contact with Olivier Varichon, the grandson of the last Varichon connected with Royal Seyssel and co-owner of Domaine Vinci in the Languedoc, and Olivier introduced Gérard to his US importer, Kermit Lynch.
As if this was not enough for Gérard, when Georges Siegenthaler was searching for a successor for Domaine de Vens-le-Haut, Gérard was keen to preserve these Seyssel-Haute-Savoie vineyards and took on 2ha, as well as helping to sell the 2015 stock. These 2ha, planted with Altesse and Molette, formed the beginnings of an organic estate for Gérard; elsewhere he has taken on some very old Altesse and Molette, some of which were family vineyards, as well as a little Gamay and Mondeuse. All Gérard’s vineyards should be certified organic by 2019, apart from some of what he buys for Royal Seyssel. And Gérard has become a big fan of biodynamic philosophy; although he has little time to work the vineyards, he has taken on employees who are experienced with organics, all the team effectively learning on the job. The main biodynamic preparations are purchased; some plant sprays they make themselves.
Gérard has a simple modern cellar, using CMC’s mobile service for bottling and disgorgement. He is now finding his own way in winemaking, trying to use more indigenous yeast, for example. He shuns malolactic fermentation for both still and sparkling wines and doesn’t like residual sugar. His approach, undoubtedly coupled with the good organic grapes, gave a very balanced first vintage from Vens-le-Haut – from 2016 the wines are sold as Domaine Gérard Lambert. Both the Molette and Altesse had excellent mouth-feel with tangy grapefruit on the former and a herbal nose on the latter. For the promising 2018 vintage Gérard is trialling old foudres for the Altesse. A good old-vine Seyssel is made, but I have not yet tasted his reds.
All the main Royal Seyssel cuvées are 70–75% Molette, 25–30% Altesse and have at least 36 months sur lattes, sometimes up to five years, varying in their original base wine selections and dosage. The main Royal Seyssel cuvée is always vintage dated; with around 6g/l dosage, it is crisp, with excellent mousse, and depending on the year it may have grapefruit or a sweeter fruit or even brioche character. It ages well and a 2010 vintage, disgorged in 2014, tasted intense and stony in early 2019; a 2008 tasted on the same day was elegant and long. This ageing ability is a tribute to Molette, Gérard believes. Other cuvées vary each year: there is usually a drier Cuvée R, but I’ve found it somewhat over-vegetal; and in 2012 there was a very good Extra Brut in which the blend was made with the local Savoie and Bugey sommelier association.
This bridge was built in 1840 to link Seyssel-Haute-Savoie with Seyssel-Ain.
In the US, as well as Royal Seyssel there is Petit Royal, a lower-priced non-AOC traditional method sparkling cuvée from Seyssel grapes, with two years sur lattes. About 15% is exported, which Gérard hopes to increase; 20% goes to supermarkets in the region, 30% to restaurants and independents, and the rest is sold in the tasting room. Unusually for tasting rooms in the region, its shop is full of gifts as well as the wines, most of which are available to taste. If you meet Gérard, be prepared to be regaled with the wonderful history of Royal Seyssel, Molette or even the wonders of biodynamics.
Domaine Gérard Lambert
30 Rue de Montauban, 74910 Seyssel
Tel: 04 50 56 21 59/06 99 52 50 52
Email: gerardlambert60@gmail.com
Map ref: B6
Vineyards: 5ha + purchased grapes
Certification: Ecocert (for part)
Visits: Tasting room/shop
Maison Mollex
Sébastien Mollex carries a lot of responsibility on his young shoulders. Following the sudden deaths of his grandfather René and his uncle Jean-Pierre in 2006, he returned urgently from Australia when he was only 22 years old to help his father Jean-Luc and his great-uncle Georges. Georges died in 2011, and then in December 2018 Jean-Luc died, aged 56. This story is viewed with great sadness in the local area, for this was a pioneering family company, waving the flag for Seyssel wines since its founding in 1931 by Ernest and Marguerite Mollex. Ernest Mollex sold some of their wine in bottle and fought to obtain the AOC Seyssel.
Sons Georges and René Mollex expanded the winery in the 1960s, with their sons joining later, and it became known as an important négociant, selling almost one million bottles a year up to the mid-1990s, sourced mainly from Seyssel, the wider Savoie area and Bugey. In that period, the two special cuvées of Mollex still Seyssel, La Tacconnière and Clos de la Péclette, were among the most reliable Altesse wines widely available in Savoie restaurants, although they had higher residual sugar levels than fine Altesse wines do today. These remain Maison Mollex’s best-known cuvées. La Tacconnière is a blend from different parcels, including some purchased Altesse; the potentially ageworthy Clos de la Péclette is from a single 6ha vineyard with a proportion of old vines.
The vineyards are all in Corbonod and were exclusively Altesse until 2016; since then, some Molette has been planted. The few grape purchases are exclusively from the Seyssel AOC area; from elsewhere in Savoie they buy some wines in bulk or in bottle. The total commercialized today is about 175,000 bottles per year, of which nearly 60% is traditional method sparkling wine, and just one-third of that is sparkling Seyssel AOC. With a historic old cellar in the centre of Corbonod, Maison Mollex has always been fully equipped for riddling and disgorgement. However, the equipment had not been updated for years when Sébastien joined, and sparkling wines were made in a very labour-intensive way. In 2017 he invested half a million euros in a fast and fully mechanized disgorgement line. Mollex now offers services to Le Vigneron Savoyard and also to local producers Clos d’Arvières and Domaine de la Brune.
After Sébastien Mollex joined the family company he updated the cellar to include a high-tech disgorgement line.
Having made much AOC Savoie sparkling wine previously labelled Pétillant, today, as well as some sold as Vin de France, Sébastien makes Crémant de Savoie, purchasing the base wine of 80% Jacquère with 10% each of Pinot Noir and Gamay from Le Vigneron Savoyard in Chautagne. The Seyssel sparkling wines include about 30% Molette. The Brut is decent enough with a dosage of 10g/l and the Extra Brut has just 3g/l dosage, allowing the flavours of apples and yeastiness to emerge better.
Mollex remains the largest producer of still AOC Seyssel and Sébastien is gradually lowering the residual sugar levels to create a better balance with acidity. La Tacconnière is fresher than it was, but Clos de la Péclette can be somewhat flat. Sébastien’s short period of wine studies before he was needed full-time at the winery were mainly on the commercial side at the University of Wine at Suze-la-Rousse and he has used CMC to advise on winemaking. His father managed the vineyards, but now Sébastien has to run all sides of the winery and the vineyards are obviously a challenge. Sébastien’s younger sisters Séverine and Cyrielle have joined the firm to help with administration and sales but have no wine training. Sébastien has invested hugely in the winery, equipment and a new tasting room; I wish this family and their historic estate well.
Maison Mollex
161 Place de l’Eglise, 01420 Corbonod
Tel: 04 50 56 12 20
Email: contact@maison-mollex.com
Web: maison-mollex.com
Contact: Sébastien Mollex
Map ref: B6
Vineyards: 20ha + purchased grapes
Visits: Tasting room
Chautagne
The balmy Chautagne area lies between the broad marshes of the Rhône river to the west and the Gros Foug mountain, part of the southern Jura, on the east. Motz and the gorge of the Val de Fier mark the northern boundary and Chindrieux and the Lac du Bourget mark the south. With the Gros Foug protecting the vineyards on the hillsides, along with the warming effect of both the river and the lake, this is the only area in Savoie where red grapes outnumber whites and has for years been known for its Gamay. While there is a limestone base, the northern part especially is more Alpine than Jurassic with some glacial deposits, and the soil adds to the warmth of the area due to the many outcrops of molasse and sandstone. Nearly all the vineyards are on slopes, some steep, with most lying between about 300m and 400m altitude. Frost is rare here, but hailstorms can be a problem.
There are approximately 135ha of vineyards in Chautagne, much less than in the 1990s. For many years most have been farmed by members of the Chautagne co-operative, now called Le Vigneron Savoyard, strategically placed in Ruffieux, between Serrières and Chindrieux, the densest area of vineyards. Apart from the co-operative, the largest estate is Domaine de Veronnet, owned by Alain Bosson, but its future is uncertain. There are a few other estates, notable among which are Yannick Thonet, who has a decent reputation locally, and the 7ha Domaine de Châtillon, below the eponymous château overlooking Lac du Bourget. Owned by Australian-based financier Ed Peter, who co-owns Yarra Yering in Victoria, Australia, Domaine de Châtillon wines are made by Le Vigneron Savoyard and exported to Australia, Singapore and the Far East, but I have had no chance to taste them. Some larger Savoie négociants also buy Chautagne grapes.
The Chautagne region viewed from the Cellier des Pauvres vineyard in Motz.
Domaine Curtet
Jacques Maillet, the renowned organic vigneron who retired in 2016, is a hard act to follow. But while he did the groundwork, it is the energetic Marie and Florian Curtet who are taking this now certified biodynamic estate to perhaps even greater heights. I don’t get the feeling that this couple are taking for granted their luck at finding such an estate to make their own, and they are both ambitious and hard-working.
Marie is from Brittany and tried several careers before she discovered vines and wines. She came to Annecy for environmental studies, worked in Lyon as an administrator and in restaurants in the Chartreuse… she spent some time in New Zealand, where she discovered biodynamics, through vegetable growing. Nothing really clicked with Marie until she ended up working in the Savoie vineyards in Chignin with Gilles Berlioz. In 2014 she met her future husband and partner, Florian, when she came with Gilles to help Jacques Maillet with harvest. Florian is from Annecy, always wanted to work outside and chose wine – having studied at Beaune, he later became enthusiastic about working with plants and organics. This led him in 2013 to work for Jacques Maillet, with a view to taking over his vineyards. Very soon after taking over the estate Marie and Florian gained Demeter certification for the 2017 vintage and already at least half their wines are exported.
The year 2016 was unforgettable for this couple: they made their first vintage from Jacques’ vineyards, using his cellar, and in December their daughter Lili was born. Vintage 2016 was the only one where the Curtets made a pure Pinot Noir and a Chautagne Gamay – all their wines are now labelled AOC Savoie rather than Chautagne. They have 3ha of reds and 2ha of whites, including small plantings in 2018 and 2019 of mass selection Gringet, Savagnin, Molette, Mondeuse Blanche and Jacquère – exciting for the future. Florian had a head start, being completely familiar with the two vineyard sites: Les Vignes du Seigneur (The vineyard of the Lord) in Serrières-en-Chautagne and Le Cellier des Pauvres (The cellar of the poor) in Motz. Les Vignes du Seigneur is planted with Gamay and Pinot Noir, and at Le Cellier des Pauvres there is Altesse, Jacquère and Mondeuse, including some very old vines of the latter, as well as the new plantings. Both vineyards are on molasse soils, but there is more topsoil in Les Vignes du Seigneur. Both are windy sites, which suits the Curtets, who make sure the vines are trained to take advantage; rather than disease, their biggest challenge is to retain humidity on such rocky soil. They keep the grass high and roll it over rather than cutting it. The Curtets have a part-time employee and a trainee to help mainly in the vineyards.
Florian and Marie Curtet against a slab of molasse rock above their vineyards.
In 2017, the Curtets used a cellar at a rented farm, installing some fibreglass tanks and concrete hexagonal tanks, with horizontal eggs inside. In 2018, they were able to find somewhere more permanent and dig an underground cellar, installing 10-hectolitre earthenware pots for part of their white wine vinifications – they use no oak at present. The couple have always been adamant that they should work in the cellar in the natural way, avoiding any additions, such as sugar for chaptalization, encouraging malolactic fermentation and keeping sulphur dioxide additions to a bare minimum pre-bottling.
The distinctive labels feature a dragonfly, which is the emblem of Chautagne; many different species are found in the marshes across the Rhône river. It seems to reflect the lightness and precision in their wines. The Autrement name, which came from Jacques, is retained for their Gamay-dominated red blend (usually 50–80% blended with Pinot Noir and Mondeuse) and in 2017 for a white blend, in 2016 for Jacquère. A single varietal Altesse and Mondeuse have completed the small range. These wines are lively, with texture and minerality revealing itself in both colours. The Curtets have a clear idea of what they are looking for – not for them the rusticity of Mondeuse, they want to show silk, they told me, and whereas I did not find that in 2016, the 2017 was simply superb. So far, for me, the reds have shown slightly better than the whites, but with these biodynamic wines, the timing and location of tasting is so important. From 2018, along with Autrement red and a Mondeuse, renamed Frisson des Cîmes, there will just be one blended white called Tonnerre de Grès (grès meaning earthenware).
Apart from exports, the wines are sold to restaurants and through organic wine shows, finding trade clients especially at the Pétavins tasting in Paris. Open-minded for the future, the early success of this couple is well deserved; I hope both Jacques Maillet and the Savoie region will be proud of them in years to come.
Domaine Curtet
Rue du Lavoir, Châteaufort, 73310 Motz
Tel: 07 82 29 85 53
Email: earlcurtet@gmail.com
Web: domainecurtet.fr
Contact: Marie or Florian Curtet
Map ref: B5
Vineyards: 5ha
Certification: Alpes Contrôles and Demeter
Visits: Preferably by appointment
Jacques Maillet
‘Seeing my wine in all the best restaurants was like a dream,’ Jacques Maillet smiled at me. His last vintage was 2015, but you may well still find the wines and they age extremely well – they are hugely sought after by followers of authentic or natural French wines. ‘Natural wine’ is not a term that this defiant vigneron has ever been at ease with. In 2011 Jacques explained to me how he introduced himself at tastings:
•My name is Jacques Maillet.
•I make wine.
•I make organic wine.
•I make biodynamic wine.
•I make wine with no added SO2.
•(None of the three points above matter).
•I make wine.
•I will not join the ‘church’ of natural wine.
It was also on that damp, grey November day, after we had visited the vineyards, admiring Jacques’ ancient Mondeuse vines of about 110 years old, that he gave me more insight about drinking his wines. They were not showing well that day and Jacques explained, not only was it the wrong day in the biodynamic calendar, but the weather was in a low-pressure system. ‘I would not want any sommelier offering my wine on a day like this, they should suggest someone else’s,’ said Jacques firmly.
Born near Annecy and a mountain lover, it was while working as a special-needs teacher in Montmélian that from 1976 Jacques entered the world of wine, working in the vineyards of Chignin. In 1983, a climbing friend took him to one of France’s oldest-established organic wine shows, in Rouffach, Alsace, which included some of the early, prominent biodynamic winemakers. Jacques bought their wines, tasted them blind against non-organic wines of the same AOC and realized something was different.
Hearing that there were opportunities in Chautagne to make red wines, which were much in demand in the ski resorts, in 1988 Jacques and his partner Christiane moved there. He rented some old vineyards and purchased and leased some former vineyard land to plant. He wanted to start right away in organics and biodynamics but was refused loans and had no choice but to farm conventionally and join the co-operative, especially with no means to build a winery. He chopped and sold wood to supplement his income, working all hours, and in 1992, the first year his new vineyards produced grapes, Jacques fractured his spine… And at the end of the 1990s he became very ill, unable to work in the vineyards for three years through allergic reactions to the chemical sprays.
When Jacques returned to work in 2001, he reduced his vineyard holdings by half, to 4ha, and converted them to organics, replanting all but the very old vines – local colleagues thought he was mad as his remaining vines were all on the steepest slopes. From 2004 the co-operative gave him one tank to make his own red blend of Gamay, Mondeuse and Pinot Noir, with low added sulphur – he called it Autrement or ‘another way’. This arrangement worked for three vintages, but in 2007 his relationship with the co-operative ruptured and Jacques had to find somewhere else to make wine. His friend Frédéric Giachino, with whom he had studied wine at Beaune as mature students, offered him space at his family’s cellars in Chapareillan.
Jacques and Christiane Maillet in the Vignes du Seigneur vineyard.
Through his many contacts, Jacques was invited to sell his wines at the important organic and natural wine fairs. Working with two vineyard sites (see Domaine Curtet), from 2009 the range expanded from the original Autrement blend to single varietal reds and whites (Autrement white being Jacquère). Approaching 60 years old, in 2014 he finally dug a cellar under a barn by the house and after three vintages Jacques negotiated with Florian Curtet, who was working for him in the vineyards, and his partner Marie to take over.
Jacques Maillet’s wines were almost all made with no added sulphur, no pumping and no oak… and when they were good, they were very good indeed. He made wines to drink on the right day with the right people. He did his best for Chautagne and Savoie, and he made his wine ‘Autrement’.
Le Vigneron Savoyard/Cave de Chautagne
The Chautagne wine co-operative was founded in 1952 and the tasting room retains the name Caveau de Chautagne. In 2016, the winery changed its name to Le Vigneron Savoyard following the merger with the original Vigneron Savoyard co-operative, based in Apremont. Le Vigneron Savoyard had about 45ha of vineyards, with mainly white grapes, to add to the 110ha of vineyards of the Chautagne co-operative, comprising over 60% red grapes. Whereas Le Vigneron Savoyard had always been relatively small, in its heyday the Cave de Chautagne had over 300 members and even in 2005 still controlled more than 150ha, which has gradually reduced, due to lowered returns and the increasing age of growers with no one in the family willing to take over the vines.
Of the ten members of the original Vigneron Savoyard co-operative, six live from their vineyards, with an average of about 7ha; in the Chautagne co-operative just seven of the 50 members live from their vineyards, one with 24ha and the others with 12–15ha. The wines from the Vigneron Savoyard are mainly Apremont and Abymes. The Cave de Chautagne has one member in Jongieux; the rest are in the Chautagne area. Its grape variety breakdown includes 40ha of whites, of which about 16ha is Jacquère, with the rest Altesse, Aligoté, Chardonnay and a little Velteliner Rouge Précoce/Pinot Gris (not always identified). The reds include approximately 50ha Gamay, 10ha Pinot Noir and 10ha Mondeuse, with a little Cabernet Sauvignon.
For a couple of decades up to 2010, Jean-Pierre Rosset was the widely respected director of Cave de Chautagne. In 2004 he enabled the members to improve their farming methods through joining Agri-Confiance, a sustainability label for agricultural co-operatives. He also encouraged them to reduce yields and rewarded them for better quality fruit. In 2006, Jean-Pierre upgraded the tasting room, adding a museum and wine educational centre with activities including ‘l’Eveil des Sens’, where you can use the five senses to learn about a wine. This remains well regarded as a local tourist attraction. In the early part of this century I found the wines to be very reliable, but although the sustainability initiatives have remained, the wine quality has gradually slipped, no doubt due to financial pressures.
For eight years the co-operative member president, Gilles Clerc, doubled as director, then Fabien Danjoy joined as director in 2018; he is keen to breathe new life into Le Vigneron Savoyard. In 2019 the 60 members, nearly all of whom are 50 years old or more, agreed that to ensure its future, they should launch an ambitious community crowdfunding project. This has a second purpose too, which is to help preserve traditional vineyard areas – Apremont vineyard land is in demand for housing and Chautagne suffers from vineyard land becoming barren. Named Les Vignes des Alpes, the initiative aims to attract 2,000 new shareholders and raise one million euros, which represents 50ha of (mainly) new vineyards. All the vineyards within the scheme will be organic. The idea is to attract youngsters to the area, who can earn a living through working with the co-operative. The scheme includes nearly 5ha of existing organic vineyards in Chautagne, some of which were taken over from Domaine de Vens-le-Haut and are already farmed by young growers.
Le Vigneron Savoyard retains its pressing facilities in Apremont and the juice is brought to Chautagne for vinification, where winemaking takes place through to bottling. The only wine style the co-operative is not equipped for is the disgorgement of Crémant de Savoie, handled by either Maison Mollex in Seyssel or CMC. Although there are still the large concrete tanks dating from the 1950s, the winery has been steadily brought up to date. Smaller stainless steel tanks have been brought from Le Vigneron Savoyard in Apremont, providing much more flexibility.
Sales from the Caveau de Chautagne tasting room and the occasional local event account for about 20%; another 20% goes to the négociants; the final 60% of Vigneron Savoyard-branded bottles is handled by Vacher Distribution (in which Le Vigneron Savoyard has a share) and which looks after exports too. There are different ranges for different markets, with a plan to increase the number of individual vineyard parcel selections, including organic selections. For all the years since I’ve known the wines of the Cave de Chautagne it has been the Gamay, or occasionally Pinot Noir, selections that have stood out, and Le Vigneron Savoyard has always produced a decent quality Apremont. This combined co-operative is an essential component of the fabric of Savoie wine region – let’s hope that its crowdfunding venture attracts the young blood it needs to survive and regain its quality reputation.
Le Vigneron Savoyard/Cave de Chautagne
47 Impasse de la Cave, 73310 Ruffieux
Tel: 04 79 54 27 12
Email: caveau@caveau-chautagne.com
Web: caveau-chautagne.com
Map ref: B4
Vineyards: 155ha
Visits: Tasting room
Around Aix-les-Bains
The old spa town of Aix-les Bains is known as the Riviera of the Alps and there were once many vineyards around the town – today the only ones remaining are at Brison-St-Innocent above Lac du Bourget. The 25ha of vineyards lie on the slopes above the village, below the forest of the L’Epine mountain, on classic limestone scree, with some clay, at altitudes rising to about 350m. These are the warmest vineyards in Savoie; only 15km south of the heart of the Chautagne vineyards, harvest is usually ten days earlier. North of Brison-St-Innocent are a few scattered vineyards, with grapes grown for private use. Above, the view from the restaurant Le Belvédère at St-Germain-la-Chambotte is spectacular.
This is the only area in Savoie where the Chardonnay grape is the most important; indeed the vignerons here battled for it to be included in the AOC regulations. The few vignerons in Brison-St-Innocent have no problems selling their wines locally – the largest is La Colombière, owned by Christophe Rossillon; below I profile the up-and-coming organic estate of Xavier Jacqueline.
Xavier Jacqueline
In 2017 Mathilde Jacqueline (Jacqueline is her family name) became the youngest ever Savoie vigneron to receive the award of Chevalier d’Ordre de Mérite Agricole, a French governmental recognition for agricultural work. The award was made for her work on the soils, including eliminating herbicide use and retaining the natural biodiversity in each of her parcels. In 2008, Mathilde’s father Xavier had tried to convert to organics, but rampant mildew forced him to give up the quest, although he rarely used herbicides. After Mathilde joined her father in 2016, the pair applied for official conversion to organics; following courses with Pierre Masson, Mathilde also began working with biodynamics, making her own herbal teas. Steeper slopes are managed with a treuil – a harrow on a winch – and sheep are used for weeding too.
Xavier, who remains an active partner, is the son of a doctor in Aix-les-Bains who was also somewhat of a gourmet. Xavier pursued studies in agriculture and geology and then went on to take an oenology degree in Bordeaux. In 1985 he returned to plant the vineyards on an abandoned clay-rich plot in Brison-St-Innocent, called La Combe aux Moines. Originally he planned to sell his grapes, but in 1988 he decided to make his own wine in the wine cellar built by his great-grandfather, which had not been used since the 19th century. Following business studies, Mathilde originally worked for Rémy-Cointreau, spending two years in Toronto, Canada; on her return she studied wine in Beaune.
Nearly half of the estate is planted with Chardonnay and there is also 1ha Altesse, 0.7ha Velteliner Rouge Précoce (named Malvoisie by them), some Muscat and for reds 1ha Mondeuse, plus a little Pinot Noir. Both Malvoisie and Muscat were said to have been grown traditionally in Brison-St-Innocent. There is a modern vinification cellar and the original cellar is used for barrels, in which several of their wines are aged – Chassin is a favourite cooper. There are three Chardonnays: La Perle du Lac is a simple, off-dry traditional method sparkling wine, spending 18 months sur lattes; a very drinkable ripe appley and floral Chardonnay is aged in tank on fine lees; and a cuvée named Le Jardin de Mathilde No. 1 was introduced in 2016 from the first vineyard planted by Xavier, which lies on almost solid rock. This is vinified in new oak, yet on the palate the spiciness is well balanced with the acidity and weight, reflecting the hard graft in the vineyard. Xavier and Mathilde like to say they tend them like a garden. Aged only in tank, Roussette de Savoie La Romantique is an excellent fresh Altesse, and the Malvoisie is aromatic and spicy, having been aged in oak. The reds are lightweight with fresh mountain acidity. It’s an eminently drinkable range.
Mathilde and her father Xavier Jacqueline.
Mathilde has a dream to plant a 0.5ha vineyard on land she has bought in Challière, just to the north. About 80% of their sales are to private customers, mainly at the tasting room in the Aix-les-Bains suburbs – the only one in Savoie that could be described as an urban wine cellar. The remainder is sold to local restaurants and wine shops, with no exports at present. Mathilde’s younger sister Justine has done sommelier studies and worked in wine shops as well as in the family vineyards – she is joining the family business with plans to develop the wine tourism side. With ambitious Mathilde taking on the leadership, helped by a steadying hand from Xavier, this estate deserves wider recognition.
Xavier Jacqueline
7 Chemin de St-Simond, 73100 Aix-les-Bains
Tel: 06 76 94 34 16
Email: xavierjacqueline@orange.fr
Web: xavierjacqueline.com
Contact: Mathilde Jacqueline
Map ref: C2
Vineyards: 6ha
Certification: Alpes Contrôles
Visits: Tasting room
Jongieux
From the Chambéry direction, the 2km Tunnel du Chat takes you into an entirely different world of Savoie wine – indeed, even if approaching from Bugey across the Rhône or from Chautagne to the north, once you are in the Jongieux vineyards, the landscape changes. The vineyards lie on very steep slopes below the rocky Mont de la Charvaz, an extension of the Mont du Chat. But this area of hills, with the Rhône river flowing below, seems far away from the snow-capped peaks of the Mont Blanc ranges. It is peaceful too, nowhere near Savoie’s main industrial valleys. The Jongieux area and to the south around Lac d’Aiguebelette and the town of St-Genix-sur-Guiers is also known as the Avant-Pays Savoyard, geologically the forelands of Savoie, and historically referred to as the Petit-Bugey Savoyard.
From the 19th century, wines from the Jongieux area were delivered to the restaurants and hotels in the thriving spa town of Aix-les-Bains or as far as Chambéry. And until the 1930s, the grandfathers or great-grandfathers of at least four of the producers profiled here would take wine in barrels on a cart pulled by a horse or oxen over the perilously steep and winding Col du Chat pass. Pilgrims continue to walk through this area on one of the Camino de Santiago routes. Known in French as the Chemin de St-Jacques de Compostelle, the pilgrims are commemorated at the St-Romain chapel, built in 1995 on the site of an older one on the instigation of a village association, led by Raymond Barlet (of La Cave du Prieuré); it is well worth going up there for an overview of the Jongieux vineyard area. The landscape of Marestel and Jongieux has been a French protected environmental site since 2010.
Today there are around 300ha of vineyards in this area, providing about 15% of Savoie’s wine production. More than half lie in the commune of Jongieux itself, but there are also vineyards eligible for the cru Jongieux – for Jacquère and also for reds – in the nearby villages of Lucey, Billième, St-Jean-de-Chevelu, and around the little town of Yenne. Many of the vineyards are in sight of the Rhône, with bridges in Yenne and Lucey over to Bugey, and they stretch from about 300m up to 450m. The Rhône moderates the temperatures here; there is also less rain than in other areas. In the 1970s much Jacquère and Gamay was planted, but some of the lesser quality slopes have been taken out of the AOC Savoie, so producers with these vineyards now have no choice but to label as IGP Vin des Allobroges. In recent years, Altesse has taken a more prominent role, along with Mondeuse.
Two of the four Roussette de Savoie crus are here: the small Monthoux cru in St-Jean-de-Chevelu and the larger, more famous Marestel cru with about 30ha above Jongieux. Pronounced without the ‘s’ in the middle, Marestel (named after the aristocratic Mareste family, owners at one time of both Château de Lucey and Château de la Mar) and the prolongation of the slope into Lucey is likely to have been where Altesse was first planted. A classic south-southwest-facing vineyard slope, with a mixture of clay-limestone and glacial moraine, its higher slopes had been abandoned after phylloxera. Prompted by a terrible storm on 11 July 1995, help was given to the vignerons of Jongieux to rework the slope to make it more stable and a programme of new plantings, higher up, reaching 400–450m, was carried out by several vignerons. Once these were established, a restaurateur was encouraged to restore an old vineyard house and in 2005 Les Morainières was born, the only restaurant in Savoie that is right in the middle of the vineyards; it now has two Michelin stars.
Jongieux vineyards below the Chapelle St-Romain.
Although there are about 25ha of vines in the village of St-Jean-de-Chevelu, in a typical year less than 6ha is Altesse for Roussette de Savoie Monthoux: about half is made by the négociant Jean Perrier et Fils and most of the rest by Vins Million Rousseau, profiled below. A new organic Monthoux vineyard of 0.6ha has been planted jointly by Matthieu Goury and Nicolas Ferrand, which should give a first vintage in 2019.
There has never been a wine co-operative in the Jongieux area, although one producer belongs to the Cave de Chautagne. The only remaining négociant here is Vins Perret; large négociants elsewhere in Savoie buy in grapes from Jongieux too. Family-owned estates here built up their areas from the 1990s and there are several today that are larger than average for Savoie, the most prominent in terms of sales outside the area and/or quality are profiled here.
To the south, it is worth visiting the pretty Lac d’Aiguebelette, which has several beach areas. Nearby, outside St-Genix-sur-Guiers, is Domaine Demeure-Pinet, with 9ha of hillside vineyards planted with local and international varieties for a range of simple, fruity wines sold under IGP Vin des Allobroges and exporting a little to the US.
Domaine Eugène Carrel et Fils
From 2007 these were some of the first Savoie wines to be regularly on sale in the US. Today, about 60,000 bottles wing their way over each year, more than half of it a predominantly Gamay rosé, with a touch of Mondeuse; Jacquère is in demand too. Exports (also to various European countries and China) account for 36% of the domaine’s sales, with 15% sold at the tasting room, 15% unlabelled to a négociant and the rest via wholesalers or direct. My first encounter with the wines of Eugène Carrel was in the 1990s when my favourite (sadly closed) local Alpine restaurant, La Ferme de Lormay, always served a small glass of Eugène Carrel’s Jongieux Blanc (Jacquère) as a welcome drink, together with slices of home-smoked saucisson – the pairing delighted everyone.
Although there were vineyards in the family earlier, it was Olivier Carrel’s grandfather, Célestin, who created the family farm after he returned from Germany where he was a prisoner of war. When his son Eugène joined him in the late 1960s the farm comprised pastures, crops, 20 cows and a few vines, notably one journeau (an old measure of the area of land able to be ploughed with oxen in a day) on Marestel. In the 1970s, encouraged by his wife Paulette, Eugène gave up cows to focus on the vineyards, converting a stable to make wine. Initially the wines were sold to local négociants, but by the 1980s, the Carrels were bottling their own wines. As a child, their son Olivier was fascinated with the tractors and other vineyard machinery and started work with his parents from a very young age. After studying wine at Beaune, in 1994 Olivier officially joined the domaine when there was 10ha of vineyards and he has gradually increased the area with plots in Jongieux, Billième, Lucey, and in Bugey. There are about 6ha of Altesse (including nearly 2ha on Marestel), 3ha of Mondeuse and the rest split mainly between Gamay and Jacquère, with some Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Olivier Carrel outside his tasting room.
With the large area of vineyards on steep slopes, working organically would be out of the question, thinks Olivier. For many years the vineyards have been grassed down, with herbicide used only below the vine rows and sprays used sustainably by paying close attention to the weather reports. About 20% is machine harvested (mainly Jacquère and the Gamay for rosé). Eugène built a new vinification cellar in the mid-1980s and today it is equipped mainly with stainless steel. Fermentations are with cultured yeast and – apart from riddling and disgorgement for sparkling wine (done by CMC) – everything is handled there. The estate has made traditional method sparkling wines for years and today produces about 40,000 bottles. Olivier’s Crémant is 60% Jacquère with 20% each of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, it is off-dry with good vinosity and length.
The Carrels took on a small Bugey vineyard from a grower named Marcel Perrin, a friend of Eugène who worked until he was 82 – from this they make an attractive, lightly creamy, but fresh Chardonnay. As well as the ever-reliable, floral and fresh Jongieux Blanc there is a range of Altesse and Marestel wines, which can be a little overblown, especially when young, despite Oliver doing less malolactic than his father did. The top Marestel cuvée, Eugène Marc, is a single-parcel selection from a clay-rich partly-terraced plot, which retains humidity. Part-fermented in new 500-litre barrels, it marries spicy oak with fresh acidity and ripe, exotic fruit. The old-vine Prestige Jongieux Gamay is a reliable choice, made with whole bunches using semi-carbonic maceration. Mondeuse is improving, although I prefer the simple version to the oaked Allégro. Olivier works with three employees, one being his sister Nathalie, whose son is currently working with them as an apprentice. The solid range of good-value wines made here explains its export success.
Domaine Eugène Carrel et Fils
Le Haut, 73170 Jongieux
Tel: 04 79 44 00 20
Email: carrel-eugene@orange.fr
Web: eugene-carrel.com
Contact: Olivier Carrel
Map ref: A2
Vineyards: 24ha (including 1.5ha Bugey Chardonnay)
Visits: Tasting room
Domaine François et Eric Carrel/Domaine de la Rosière
Eric Carrel comes to life when visiting the vineyards – and specifically the steep slopes of the cru Marestel. He’s a man of the land, following on from four previous generations of Carrels (no relation to Eugène Carrel et Fils), who were mixed farmers. His late father François made the leap to concentrating on vines in 1977 and started bottling wines in 1979. Eric remembers his grandfather Joseph, born in 1924, as a real wine lover too; he had planted 3ha of Altesse, Jacquère and Pinot Noir – a lot for that period.
When Eric joined the estate in 1993, apart from some small plantings on Marestel, it was almost all Jacquère and Gamay. There is only a little Jacquère now; Eric has retained the Gamay and planted more Altesse and Mondeuse. As well as nearly 2ha on the Marestel slope, Eric has 2ha of Altesse in Lucey. Part of Eric’s Marestel vineyards are among the highest and steepest, planted sur échalas, with a tepee arrangement to support each vine. There is little soil so no need to use herbicide; they simply burn off any weeds. Elsewhere the vineyards are grassed down with weed-killing below the vine rows. Eric works with systemic sprays at the start of the season, keen to avoid use of copper during flowering, and later moves to Bordeaux mixture. Harvest is by hand, and for the highest areas of Marestel Eric warns only the bravest to come on that day. He encourages selection at the vine and then uses a sorting table at the cellar.
Eric Carrel in his vineyards at the bottom of the Marestel vineyard slope.
Neither whites nor reds are destemmed, except Pinot Noir; stainless steel is used for all the main wines; there is one special cuvée of Marestel in oak and Eric uses 400l and 600l barrels for Mondeuse. For whites malolactic is prevented when possible. The cellar is equipped for bottling and filtration, with CMC handling sparkling wine disgorgement.
While the reds show typical characteristics of the Jongieux area, and there’s a pleasant sparkling wine made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, it is the Altesse wines that stand out. The Roussette de Savoie from the Lucey vineyard is properly dry and mineral; the main Marestel cuvée, named La Marété, combines ripeness with fresh acidity, and a touch of spice. The vines are deliberately stressed so that they don’t produce too much sugar, even when harvested late – the aim is for an average of 13% alcohol with 3.5g/l of residual sugar. I haven’t tasted the oak-fermented Cuvée Théa, but the 2015 L’Authentique, a late-harvest Marestel, was gorgeous. This is not always AOC, due to the high sugar levels, and comes from a lower part of the slope where noble rot forms most years, encouraged by the fog rolling in from the Rhône.
About 10% of production is exported to the US and Canada. A good half is sold in ski resorts and to regional restaurants and wine shops; there’s about 20% sold through wholesalers and the same amount at the tasting room, which is in one of the former cow barns. Eric’s daughter Théa is studying wine and loves working outdoors too, so it seems succession is assured.
Domaine François et Eric Carrel/Domaine de la Rosière
Le Haut, 73170 Jongieux
Tel: 04 79 33 18 48/06 63 79 23 78
Email: gaec-la-rosiere@wanadoo.fr
Web: vin-savoyard.net
Map ref: A2
Contact: Eric Carrel
Vineyards: 15ha
Visits: Tasting room
Domaine Chevallier Bernard
From a vine-growing family in Jongieux, Chantal Chevallier met Jean-Pierre Bernard from Beaujolais during their wine studies in Beaune. Chantal worked as a vineyard consultant in Beaujolais while Jean-Pierre managed a négociant there. Chantal’s parents Marcelle and Francis Chevallier had moved from mixed farming to specialize in vineyards in 1970 but sold all their wine in bulk to a négociant. By 1996, when Chantal and Jean-Pierre took over the estate, they had 8ha. The pair increased the vineyards to 12ha, but two years later the négociant stopped buying. They switched to selling their wine in bottle, with support from a different négociant, and gradually built up a customer base.
After their rocky start, this determined couple have step by step progressed every aspect of their estate. They built a modern vinification cellar in 2004, which was expanded in 2014. From 2004, they were certified for sustainable agriculture (with a now-defunct certification) and in 2016 they were the first Savoie estate to become HVE certified, though still use both conventional and organic sprays. Chantal does most of the work in the vineyards, while Jean-Pierre drives the tractor, does the wine deliveries and the office work. Roles are reversed during harvest, which is manual, with Jean-Pierre in the vineyards and Chantal in the cellar. She is fanatical about work in the vineyards, keeping very precise records, following weather forecasts, aerating the vines by leaf-plucking and carrying a magnifying glass in her pocket so she can examine the leaves for any sign of bugs, signalling the start of a problem. Chantal is adamant in her defence of sustainable, rather than organic, methods and says that the combination of such a rocky soil and the inclination of their vineyard slopes makes it too hard to stop herbicides entirely.
They have almost 2ha of Altesse, including 0.75ha on Marestel, with about 2.5ha of Mondeuse; the rest is split between Gamay and Jacquère with a little Pinot and Chardonnay, some grown in Billième, the rest near the Jongieux winery. This is equipped with a pneumatic press, sorting table, mainly stainless steel with some fibreglass tanks and a few barrels for special cuvées of Marestel, Mondeuse and Pinot. No malolactic fermentation is used for whites; Gamay is handled as whole bunch; Mondeuse is partially destemmed. Their easy-drinking white Jongieux is made from high-yielding Jacquère, but with minimum 35-year-old vines it gives a decent concentration. At the many wine shows they sell at they tend to offer two vintages of Marestel to show the variations: generally this wine is properly dry and refreshing with a sweet-sour character, melding spice and exotic fruits. Chantal declared that 2015 was the first vintage she made a good Mondeuse; the relatively young average age of the vines means that warm vintages make all the difference to bringing out the fruit.
Exports to the US began in 2018 and an increasing proportion of wine is sold in France direct to private individuals. A little is still sold to the négociant Maison Vacher. In 2016, son Antoine joined his parents after wine studies at Mâcon, allowing this hard-working couple a little time to breathe – I predict this winery will climb steadily upwards.
Domaine Chevallier Bernard
Le Haut, 73170 Jongieux
Tel: 04 79 44 00 33/06 63 63 16 11
Email: cjpbernard@orange.fr
Web: domainechevallierbernard.fr
Contact: Chantal Chevallier Bernard
Map ref: A2
Vineyards: 13ha
Visits: Preferably by appointment
Domaine Dupasquier
Forgive my self-indulgence, but while writing this section (in April 2019), I have been sipping on a 2010 Roussette de Savoie and a 2010 Savoie Mondeuse, both from Domaine Dupasquier. These wines of nearly nine years old sum up the philosophy and essence of this estate. Noël Dupasquier wanted to prove that his wines could and should age to be appreciated, and held back vintages to sell to restaurants especially. His father, Antoine, who worked with his brother Marie-Louis, sold wine mainly in barrel as far away as Annecy, but also bottled a little wine in springtime and always retained a few bottles; and the tradition continues with the current generation, David and Véronique, Noël’s son and daughter. Living in the delightfully-named hamlet of Aimavigne (‘love the vine’) below the Jongieux church, they can trace their family back to 1840. Eugène, Noël’s grandfather, born at the end of the 19th century, planted some of the Altesse vines that the family still farm today.
From the age of 14, Noël worked with his father in the vineyards; he studied wine at college in La Motte Servolex and in 1973, with 4ha of vineyards, he took on running the wine estate – he remembers seeing the oxen and mules working in the vineyards. He and Marie-Jeanne, his wife, built up the estate to about 13ha by the turn of this century, planting in Jongieux and Lucey. In the 1980s the fermentation was still in oak, and although that changed, Noël always kept the foudres for ageing and simply wasn’t interested in the trend in Savoie to make wines for quick sale and consumption. He tried and dismissed cultured yeasts as he felt they did not make wines to age, and avoided malolactic fermentation for whites.
Since 2008, David and Véronique have been at the helm, Véronique joining that year after an early career in banking. Noël and Marie-Jeanne are around to lend a hand, with Noël still striding up the very steep slopes to work the vineyards behind the winery. Today the family farm about 5ha of Altesse, of which 2ha is Marestel; 3.6ha of Jacquère and Chardonnay; 0.6ha Mondeuse Blanche, planted in 2007, and 5.8ha of reds, with slightly more Pinot Noir and Mondeuse than Gamay. They have always planted mass selections.
Marie-Jeanne and Noël often pour the wines at wine shows and in the tasting room; Véronique manages the communication and sales overall. Although it has not changed their work one bit, official HVE certification from 2018 assists Véronique, who is frequently asked to explain why the estate is not run organically, despite their wines being made in a very natural way. For them, vineyard work has always been their priority – Noël remembers that they used to employ 20 people to help hoe out the weeds in early May and again in mid-July, and they still like to work the soil once a year. To stabilize the soil, from 1985 onwards they allowed the grass to grow naturally, and they use herbicide below the vine rows. Aerating the vine canopy is a priority to limit treatments, which are mainly sulphur and copper, though in extremis they use a chemical spray. Harvest is by hand and usually much later than others in Jongieux, as they look for very ripe grapes and stems (only young Mondeuse is destemmed) – a regular group of pickers returns for harvest with this friendly family.
David, now the winemaker, studied at Beaune, but has been in no rush to change anything. He installed a few stainless steel tanks alongside the fibreglass and cement ones and insulated the cellar. And the family gradually invested in new foudres, replacing those old ones which were really giving too much aeration – all the wines except Jacquère spend a few months or more in them. The wines are bottled in late summer and most of the range is not released for at least another year.
David and Véronique Dupasquier with their father Noël and some of their more recent foudres.
For years I have appreciated the Altesse, which is simply Roussette de Savoie, rather than the flagship cru Marestel, because it is more angular and the minerality comes to the fore, rather than opulent fruit. The first vintage of Mondeuse Blanche was 2011 and it improves with each vintage, being possibly the finest example, balancing acidity (often lacking in this grape) with a herbal character. In reds, I’ve always preferred the dark fruit of the Pinot Noir to the Gamay; the Mondeuse is silky smooth, yet with the necessary edge, and both Pinot and Mondeuse age supremely well for at least 5–10 years. An addition to the range from 2012 was La Gourmandise, a varying blend of Pinot Noir, Mondeuse and Gamay, put in old small oak barrels after blending, and allying acidulated forest fruit and mineral characters with well-structured tannins.
The estate sells less than 10% on export markets; most sales are direct to private customers at the tasting room or wine shows, with some to local restaurants and wine shops further afield. The new generation of natural wine lovers across the wine world adore the Mondeuse especially, yet it is Marestel that is sought after by older French gourmets. For years the very top local restaurants, although listing few Savoie wines, featured several vintages of Domaine Dupasquier’s Marestel, going back 20 years or more. Noël told me once that he thought it was best at around eight years in bottle, so a decade old, and I fully agree with him. At this age it begins to develop a honey and spiced apple character, while still retaining that streak of acidity, reminiscent in some ways of Loire Chenin Blancs, but lighter in alcohol. It is a wonderful match with good Beaufort cheese. Yet, on the few occasions I’ve tasted much older bottles, this wine always amazes in its ability to stay alive and evolve, providing a nectar for lovers of old white wines. David and Véronique have a huge responsibility in perpetuating the venerable wines of this estate.
Domaine Dupasquier
Aimavigne, 73170 Jongieux
Tel: 04 79 44 02 23
Email: domainedupasquier@orange.fr
Web: domainedupasquier.over-blog.com
Contact: Véronique Dupasquier
Map ref: A3
Vineyards: 15ha
Visits: Tasting room
Domaine Edmond Jacquin & Fils
The first Roussette de Savoie Marestel wines I tasted were from this estate in the early 1990s and Marestel has always been my favourite from the Jacquin range, alongside an always juicy Gamay Vieilles Vignes. Back then, the patriarch and founder of the winery, the jolly Edmond Jacquin, who died in 2010, was still there to pour the wines in the tasting room, while son Patrice was busy bringing modernity into the cellars and Patrice’s brother Jean-Pierre was usually out in the vineyards.
Patrice was the mayor of Jongieux from 2001 to 2014, during which time he was most proud to see through the classification of the Jongieux and Marestel vineyard areas under the strict French environmental code. He was also president of the Savoie/Haute-Savoie chamber of agriculture from 2013 to 2019. Patrice has overseen his family estate becoming the largest in Savoie, apart from those belonging to the négociants, and now his two sons, Ludovic and Steven, have joined the winery.
Patrice studied wine in Beaune and joined his father in the early 1980s when there were less than 10ha of vineyards; Jean-Pierre followed suit ten years later, gradually taking over the vineyard work, now together with Steven. In all, they farm about 12ha of Altesse (nearly 3ha on Marestel), 5ha of Jacquère, plus some Chardonnay, Aligoté and mixed Pinot Gris and Velteliner Rouge Précoce (Malvoisie) for whites; 9ha of Gamay, 4ha each of Pinot Noir and Mondeuse for reds. There are several parcels in Jongieux and Billième; in Yenne they have a single 7ha plot on a sandy and limestone hillside taken over in 2010. And in 2007 they leased the 5.3ha of vineyards, planted in the 1970s, surrounding the impressive 14th-century Château Bergin above St-Jean-de-Chevelu, a site with particularly good exposition and microclimate from the warming effect of the two nearby lakes.
The vineyards are managed sustainably with Patrice monitoring disease pressure through the regular climate bulletins, and in 2019 they are applying for the highest HVE level. For diversity, he has planted 5ha of walnut trees, worked organically. He is adamantly against machine harvesting, especially for Altesse and red grapes. In the winery, Patrice has been evolving methods since he started and by the 1990s the winery was technologically advanced compared to most in Savoie. He prefers whites with minimum residual sugar, but with fruit and floral character, and up to 30% noble rot in the Altesse. Today malolactic fermentation is rarely more than 40% to retain elegance. Reds are all destemmed with no sulphur added in the early stages, using conventional maceration for short periods, searching for fruit without the exuberance of carbonic maceration. He tried foudres for reds, but now prefers to let the terroir express itself and shuns oak. Although the range has evolved over the years, especially with the addition of Château Bergin wines bottled separately, the stars for me have not changed. Jongieux (Jacquère) is always fresh and pleasant; Marestel remains a luscious choice, and while dry, has a sweet-sour character that makes it food-friendly; Malvoisie shows interesting spicy flavours. In reds, the Vieilles Vignes Gamay is a sure bet and the Mondeuse has improved.
Patrice Jacquin in the tasting room.
Patrice now has Ludovic to help on sales. He believes it’s important to extend sales within France, as an insurance against world issues; exports remain below 5%. In 2013 a new tasting room was built, where the large range of wines is displayed and groups can be welcomed – this accounts for a quarter of sales. Patrice is keen to start building library stocks from the best years for Marestel, Pinot Noir and Mondeuse. Patrice’s sons are inheriting a fine estate; it’s up to them to take it to the next level in quality.
Domaine Edmond Jacquin & Fils
Le Haut, 73170 Jongieux
Tel: 04 79 44 02 35
Email: jacquin4@wanadoo.fr
Web: edmondjacquin.com
Contact: Patrice Jacquin
Map ref: A2
Vineyards: 38ha
Visits: Tasting room
Château de Lucey
The wine estate of Château de Lucey achieves a rare combination of fairy-tale magic with down-to-earth common sense. The former comes from the history of this beautiful château and the latter from Christophe Martin, the man who, since 2010, has overseen bringing the vineyards and the wines to life. I have not met Christophe’s boss, the owner of the château, M. Antoine de Galbert-Defforey, an art collector, but I salute him for giving this intelligent man a relatively free hand. The estate is distinguished not only for being the sole remaining agricultural business in Lucey, but also the only organic wine estate in the Jongieux area.
The history of the château, situated in a strategic position in Lucey on a rocky outcrop high above the river, goes back to the Middle Ages. In the 16th century the estate came into the hands of the Mareste family – the King of Sardinia stayed there in 1775 and is said to have drunk the wine from the vineyard slope above the château, called Les Altesses. After the Revolution, it eventually became the property of General Benoît de Boigne, whose family restored and improved the castle. It was purchased in 1917 by M. Jean-Baptiste Morel, an industrialist and great-grandfather of the current owner. M. de Galbert’s mother, Nicole, now in her nineties, married M. Charles Defforey (whose family founded the Carrefour supermarket group) after the death of her first husband. They modernized the château and in 1992 planted 1.5ha of abandoned vineyard land in Lucey with Altesse; plantings of Mondeuse and Pinot Noir followed later.
For many years, the wine estate was managed by a vineyard owner who also belonged to the Cave de Chautagne. On a visit I made in 2003 the wines showed potential, but by the time the manager left in 2009, the estate had been neglected for a few years. A Savoyard himself, Christophe Martin originally trained and worked as an industrial designer but, in his words, he recycled himself, studying wine in Chambéry. He then worked for over five years for various Savoie wine producers, including two in Jongieux. Christophe heard rumours that Château de Lucey was going to give up their vineyards, so he applied to manage them. The owners wanted to do something different from other local vignerons and Christophe proposed converting the vineyards to organics. He had little experience with organics, but the idea of reducing agricultural inputs to a minimum appealed and the owners gave him the green light to update all the vineyard equipment. When Christophe took over, the vines were over-vigorous and suffered badly from oidium, but within a couple of years, the yields had reduced and the vines were balanced, plus the environment was better to work in.
There are more than a dozen vineyard parcels, all in Lucey, mostly on a slope that is a prolongation of Marestel, having the same south-southwest exposition, and a similar soil mixture of glacial moraine and limestone scree, with clay in parts. There is 0.9ha of Mondeuse and the remainder is Altesse. A parcel of 0.6ha Pinot Noir is closer to the river, with associated humidity and frost problems, so quantities are usually limited. Christophe does not like biodynamics because he thinks it requires too many inputs and doesn’t see proof that it works. Yet he is focused on every detail of how to manage the soil and the vine foliage in each plot. For example, he no longer ploughs in late autumn, but only in spring, since 2017 using a horse for three particularly difficult parcels. He keeps copper levels down to less than 1.5kg/ha by working hard to keep the vines aerated, controlling the foliage, and by taking care when spraying Bordeaux mixture to coat every leaf. Harvest is by hand with just ten people, taking it slowly over three weeks.
In the cellar, he is also non-interventionist, chaptalizing only the Mondeuse if needed and using modest levels of SO2. Indigenous yeast for Altesse means that the fermentation can be very slow indeed; levels of malolactic vary with each cuvée and vintage. There are four distinctly different Roussette de Savoie cuvées, which are released 2–3 years after harvest. L’Originel is from the more clay-rich, higher-yielding soils and represents 50% of production; aged only in stainless steel tank, it is exceedingly good value, dry, fine and stony. Pimpenan is aged half in barrels, including demi-muids, and Christophe is working to improve the balance, for example by reducing the lees stirring. The extraordinary, very steep 0.3ha vineyard of Les Altesses was planted in the year 2000 at a density of 10,000 vines per hectare, but until Christophe arrived it was 100% weed-killed, ‘like a moonscape,’ said Christophe. Today he lets the grass grow and in summer it is full of wild flowers – Christophe personally uses a strimmer to remove the weeds around the vines. The cuvée Les Altesses is unoaked and powerful, despite an early harvest, with exotic fruits predominating. And from 2015, Christophe launched the exuberant Chapitre 15, a concept of blending one or two parcels to express the most interesting from each vintage and then ageing in oak; Chapitre 16 is to be released in 2019 and was aged in a hexagonal concrete tank, with a horizontal egg inside, but Christophe is not convinced of the tank’s merits.
Christophe Martin in the steep Les Altesses vineyard above Lucey and the Rhône river.
For the reds, the Pinot Noir is partly whole bunch, whereas the Mondeuse is mostly destemmed, with both having a traditional maceration time of up to three weeks. Both reds show obvious purity of fruit, with the Mondeuse Sous le Sarrasin giving delicious spicy and deep fruit characters, aged half in oak for six months.
Christophe does everything: for the vineyards he only uses seasonal workers, and sometimes he has a part-time employee for sales at the tasting room and wine fairs. Direct sales account for 55%, a little is exported and the rest is sold to restaurants and shops. On Christophe’s minimalist back label for his small volume of exuberant Altesse sparkling wine is a quote from the French poet and film director Jean Cocteau: ‘Rien n’est plus sérieux que le plaisir’ or ‘Nothing is more serious than pleasure’. Long may this fairy tale continue.
Château de Lucey
Le Château, 73170 Lucey
Tel: 06 80 37 02 79
Email: scealucey@aol.com
Web: chateaudelucey.com
Contact: Christophe Martin
Map ref: A3
Vineyards: 6.75ha
Certification: Alpes Contrôles
Visits: Tasting room weekdays; weekends by appointment
Château de la Mar
Château de la Mar lies at the bottom of the Marestel slope with its vineyards stretching upwards from the château grounds. The existing castle dates back to the 17th century, although it had been a stronghold from the 13th, and one of its owners was the Duc de Mareste. The château went through many owners and fell into disrepair by the late 20th century. From northern France, Jean-Paul Richard had sold his successful window-fitting business and was looking for property to turn into luxurious bed and breakfast accommodation – in 2005 he found what he was looking for in Château de la Mar, even if it required extensive renovation. The vineyards all around the château had been farmed for many years by the Jeandet family and in the 1980s the wines had been sold under the château name; later the grapes were sold to négociants. In 2010 Jean-Paul took on the vineyards, along with Didier Jeandet to manage both them and the cellars. The winemaking is overseen from start to finish by Olivier Turlais of Oeno Conseil, and Jean-Paul started selling the wines in their new, smartly packaged bottles in 2013.
The vineyards have been extensively improved, grassed down and some replanted – most of the area is very steep and they are worked sustainably, with manual harvesting, generally earlier than other estates, to retain the freshness Jean-Paul is looking for. There is 5ha of Altesse within the Marestel cru, 0.9ha of Pinot Noir, 0.7ha of Mondeuse and a little area of Chardonnay, Jacquère and Altesse for Crémant. Some of the grapes are still sold to négociants. The cellars were re-equipped, adding smaller stainless steel tanks, refrigeration and oak barrels.
There are four Roussette de Savoie Marestel cuvées: three are single vineyard selections and Les Tourelles de la Mar is a less expensive blend of young vines with a touch of residual sugar. The single vineyard selections are made as dry as possible to be food-friendly, and they are now listed in many local Michelin-starred restaurants and exported too. Le Golliat is unoaked but spends a year on lees before bottling; Le Verney, from a parcel with older vines, has 30% vinified in oak with malolactic; and La Chapelle, the highest up the slope, is made 50% in oak and can show elegance and richness combined. My limited tasting of these wines has been mixed, consistently the best wine has been Le Verney. These Marestels are released late onto the market, which is no bad thing for Altesse, but I do wonder if the wine quality lives up to its price or the promise of the packaging – the sumptuous rooms may have taken up an unfair share of attention so far in this ambitious project.
Château de la Mar
Aimavigne, 73170 Jongieux
Tel: 06 26 56 99 33/06 38 51 80 26
Email: chateaudelamar@live.fr
Web: chateau-de-la-mar.fr
Contact: Jean-Paul Richard
Map ref: A3
Vineyards: 7ha
Visits: Tasting room, preferably by appointment
Vins Million Rousseau
Xavier and his father Michel like nothing better than to welcome visitors to their small tasting room, opened in 1999, from where they sell one-third of their wines, alongside home-made génépi, marc de Savoie and other local liqueurs. The Million Rousseau family is the only vigneron in the hamlet of Monthoux, and they have been waving the flag for this Roussette de Savoie cru for four generations. Xavier’s great-grandfather Charles, who made a little wine in what is referred to as the ‘old cellar’, saw the potential for supplying wine to the tourists visiting Aix-les-Bains and built a ‘new cellar’ in the early 1930s. After the Second World War, his son Marcel was a mixed farmer and then Michel, the third generation, stopped polyculture in the 1960s and started bottling wines.
Xavier studied wine in Beaune, did work experience in Beaujolais and with Domaine Delalex in Haute-Savoie, and joined his father in 1999. Gradually, father and son have built up the vineyard area and now have about 2ha each of Jacquère, Altesse (exclusively for Monthoux), Gamay and Mondeuse, alongside some Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Some of their vineyards are very steep, so they have also gradually been putting in tracks to make them easier to mechanize. Xavier does not believe it is feasible to go organic – he uses herbicide just below the vine rows. Harvest is always by hand.
Xavier Million Rousseau with his centenarian Mondeuse vines.
The new and old cellars were linked up some time ago and house a mixture of stainless steel and fibreglass tanks, able to handle small volumes. Each wine has its own recipe: indigenous yeasts are used for whites except Chardonnay and in reds only for Mondeuse; Jacquère has its touch of residual sugar; malolactic fermentation is avoided for whites except for two special cuvées, including an acacia-wood-aged Chardonnay. This estate made 10% traditional method sparkling wine before the Crémant de Savoie AOC appeared. As they had used mainly Chardonnay, they made the switch grudgingly and today toe the Crémant line with 40% each of Jacquère and Chardonnay, alongside 20% Altesse to make an easy-going wine with 8g/l dosage. Reds are part destemmed, with no oak ageing, and generally are better than the whites. This is a rare estate where you will find two rosés to compare: a Gamay pressed directly and a lovely copper-coloured dry Mondeuse, partially made saignée. While the red Gamay is pleasant, Mondeuse is the star, in particular a deep and structured old-vine selection, which is picked late and includes fruit from a few vines that exceed 110 years old.
There are two Roussette de Savoie Monthoux cuvées. I have only tasted one vintage of the Réserve Confidentielle, which comes from a small parcel, goes through malolactic and has an extra year on lees – a 2015 that was a little overblown. But the main Monthoux is consistently good, with minerality showing on the end. This lonely outpost in Monthoux remains an old-fashioned but competent little estate, where visitors can be sure of a lovely welcome.
Vins Million Rousseau
Monthoux, 73170 St-Jean-de-Chevelu
Tel: 04 79 36 83 93/06 86 95 34 26
Email: vinsmillionrousseau@orange.fr
Contact: Xavier Million Rousseau
Map ref: B2
Vineyards: 9.5ha
Visits: Tasting room
Vins Perret/Domaine Saint-Romain
Since 1990, when the third generation, Nicolas Perret and his wife Véronique, took over, Vins Perret has developed into one of Savoie’s largest négociants, buying from all the main Savoie crus and selling mainly to restaurants over the entire Rhône-Alpes region, with a few exports to the US. A more recent development, Perret’s estate wines are from vineyards held in partnership with the Perrets’ nephew, Pierre Roissard, and are sold under the name Domaine Saint-Romain. The wines are from nearly 80 parcels in the Jongieux area, with separate vinification cellars in Jongieux-le-Haut.
Nicolas’ grandfather, also Nicolas, started the company in 1927, selling wine in barrel. His son Guy Perret planted vineyards in the 1950s, but these were later sold to Edmond Jacquin and Guy focused on the négociant side, being one of the earliest in the area to bottle wine. Nicolas studied at Beaune and in 1984 joined the family business and worked with his parents buying wine in bulk; he and Véronique dreamed of having their own vineyard. Beginning in 2008, through various opportunities, they built up their vineyard estate to its current size and developed a range of estate wines from the best grapes, with lesser grapes going into the négociant range. One of the best sites they have is the Coteau de Miribel in Billième, which is ideal for Altesse.
Domaine Saint-Romain has nearly 8ha of Altesse including just over 2ha on the cru Marestel, nearly 8ha each of Jacquère and Gamay, some of which is now IGP Vin des Allobroges, 3.3ha of Mondeuse and some Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Since taking over the vineyards, which are looked after by one of the former owners, Sylvain Chevallier, they have gradually made the farming more environmentally friendly, for a few years working the soil to encourage the roots to go down further, then grassing down, enabling them to use less herbicide than before; they now also use more organic-approved sprays. Having previously machine-harvested, from 2014 they returned to manual harvesting. Harvest is relatively late as they look for concentration in the grapes. For winemaking, although Pierre Roissard is in charge of the Jongieux cellar, they work very closely with CMC, especially over the harvest/fermentation period, to ensure they produce a range that is easy to sell within the Perret portfolio.
My main experience of tasting the négociant wines is in local mountain restaurants, where they generally show the typicity of their appellations; in the Domaine Saint-Romain range the whites are much better than the reds, but their initial up-front fruit declines rather quickly. Perhaps the best, although I have only tasted one vintage, is Le Coteau de Miribel Roussette de Savoie.
A handful of good Savoie vignerons sell part of their stock to Vins Perret in bottle to sell under the domaine names and you can find these, along with the main Perret ranges and wines from other French wine regions, in their shop outside Yenne.
Vins Perret/Domaine Saint-Romain
D1504, Chemin de la Tuilière, 73170 Yenne
Tel: 04 79 36 93 27
Email: info@vins-perret.fr
Web: vins-perret.fr
Contact: Nicolas Perret
Map ref: A2
Vineyards: 30ha + purchased grapes
Visits: Tasting room/shop
La Cave du Prieuré
This winery seems to straddle tradition and modernity, and its wines have long been one of the more reliable buys in the ski resorts. About one-third is sold through wine wholesalers or direct to local restaurants and shops; at least a third is sold in the tasting room or at wine shows; about 20% goes to supermarkets; and a little is exported. The tasting room is situated in a 15th-century building that has been in this farming family for many generations and belonged to the Bishop of Belley; the family house and more ‘modern’ cellars adjoining were begun in the 18th century.
Today’s estate was founded by the late Raymond Barlet, who changed from being a mixed farmer to solely having vineyards in 1973. His son Noël, who studied wine at Beaune, joined him in 1979 when the family had 8ha – Raymond managed the vineyards and passed the winemaking on to Noël when he was just 22 years old. Younger brother Pascal arrived in 1986 after commercial studies, work elsewhere and wine studies as a mature student in Beaune. From this time, they increased the vineyard area, reduced sales to négociants, and turned to selling in bottle, developing a local following at the tasting room and in ski resorts. Julien, Noël’s son, joined them in 2005 and works on all sides. Noël officially retired at the end of 2018 – although in reality this changes nothing – and Pascal’s son Simon will join in 2019, following a vintage at Cloudy Bay in New Zealand. He studied first at Mâcon and then in Changins, Switzerland, where he did a thesis on methods of eliminating herbicide in a large wine estate – tests on their own estate will start in 2019, though Pascal cannot envisage a conversion to organics yet.
The vineyards have been grassed down since 1995 and include 2ha in Lucey, 5ha in Billième and the rest in Jongieux. There is about 8ha of Altesse (including 4ha on Marestel), 4ha each of Jacquère and Mondeuse, 11ha of Gamay and a little Pinot and Chardonnay. Harvest is all by hand. The vinification cellar has been gradually updated and includes a large cooling system; barrels for special cuvées are purchased second-hand from Domaine Guigal in the northern Rhône.
As well as a Roussette de Savoie, there are three Marestel wines: as harvest approaches, they check the Marestel grapes as conditions change very fast and they look for, ideally, about 10% noble rot to give richness and concentration, but not too much alcohol. The main cuvée remains in stainless steel with no malolactic fermentation and is bottled in spring, although they urge customers to wait a while before drinking; La Favresse, from 50-year-old vines grown on a prime site in the middle of the hillside below the restaurant Les Morainières, ferments in stainless steel and then has a year in oak – two years after bottling, it can be excellent. But it’s the reds I have always preferred: a juicy Gamay (whole bunch), fresh Pinot Noir (destemmed), and attractive Mondeuse (part destemmed), the stars are their special oaked cuvées, a tribute partly to the oak quality, perhaps. La Chapelle is a really Alpine-style old-vine Pinot/Gamay blend with a twist of spice from a year in four-year-old oak, which is used the previous year for the brooding and initially tannic La Compostelle, from 50-year-old Mondeuse. The handover to the next generation, cousins Julien and Simon, is under way under the watchful eyes of Pascal and Noël. With such a loyal local customer base, I doubt much will change very quickly.
La Cave du Prieuré
Le Haut, 73170 Jongieux
Tel: 04 79 44 02 22
Email: contact@caveduprieure.fr
Web: caveduprieure.fr
Contact: Pascal or Julien Barlet
Map ref: A2
Vineyards: 29ha
Visits: Tasting room
Pascal Barlet of La Cave du Prieuré with the Altesse harvest in Jongieux.