COTEAUX DE L’AIN
The IGP Coteaux de l’Ain covers many areas within the Ain department, including the Bugey vineyards. Bugey vignerons make wines under this designation when they use grape varieties not included in the AOC rules. The most planted area outside the Bugey AOC is the Pays de Gex, which is allowed to add its own designation to form IGP Coteaux de l’Ain Pays de Gex. This area lies close to the Rhône river just to the west of Geneva and the Swiss border. The vineyards often straddle the border and there is an agreement between the two countries on use of the grapes, since the most concentrated area of vineyards in the Geneva canton of Switzerland is also in this area. In the past the French-owned vineyards supplied grapes to the Swiss co-operative wine cellar in Satigny (now La Cave de Genève), but today a few producers here make their own wines. There is one lone, noble, full-time vigneron, profiled here.
Domaine de Mucelle
With a gentle smile, Frédéric Péricard likes to describe his vineyards as the Premières Côtes du Rhône, because they are the first vineyards near the Rhône river after it crosses the Swiss border. In the village of Challex, the vineyards, though not particularly steep, are deceptively high, at around 500m, and lie on glacial deposits with mainly clay-sandy soil.
Domaine de Mucelle’s organic vineyards are in sight of Lac Léman and the city of Geneva.
The vineyards came from Frédéric’s wife’s family, who also farmed 40ha of corn and wheat (converted to organic growing methods in 2000). After the Satigny co-operative went into liquidation, in 1993 the family started vinifying some of their grapes and Frédéric joined forces with his father-in-law, Jean-Claude Dallemagne. Frédéric took over the farm and the wine estate in 2005 and converted the vineyards to organic growing, with full certification since 2012. Chasselas and Pinot Noir, the most typical local varieties, still dominate but there is some Pinot Gris and a little Altesse, the latter used for sparkling wine. For reds he grows Gamay and Gamaret; Mondeuse does not ripen successfully here.
Frédéric manages the estate on his own with seasonal workers – his wife works in Geneva. He studied at the University of Wine at Suze-la-Rousse and practises organics out of conviction, limiting the use of copper by working with essential oils and Bach flowers. He harvests late and has a simple, very clean cellar with an old chain press and metal tanks, fitted with an inert gas system to protect the wine. Since being certified organic, whenever possible he has used indigenous yeasts and adds SO2 sparingly, or not at all.
Frédéric makes a sulphur-free Chasselas alongside the regular one. For this, he picks the grapes a little earlier, ensuring he has only super-healthy bunches, and uses CO2 from the red wine fermentation vats to sterilize the press and the vats. The wine has a well-deserved following, though, for me, the regular Chasselas shows better length, minerality and brightness of fruit. The main Jura sparkling wine service makes his sparkling wine from a Chasselas and Altesse base with three years resting on lees. It currently represents 10% of his 40,000-bottle production and each year he has more demand. From Pinot Gris he makes a late-harvest, oak-matured sweet wine, with fresh acidity that keeps it delicate.
Frédéric Péricard was one of the earliest converts to organics in the Ain department and has developed a loyal customer following.
Just as in Geneva’s vineyards, Gamaret has become important here to give colour, alcohol and fruit. Frédéric makes his pure Gamaret aged in oak, uses part oak for Cuvée Galexis, a blend of half Gamaret with Pinot and Gamay, and tank only for varietal Pinot Noir and for the Gamay, which is sometimes made with zero sulphur addition. The tank-aged reds are full of attractive mountain acidity and fruit, and the Galexis shows well after a year in bottle.
Like their maker, these wines are a mixture of honesty and fun. They find ready markets with private sales locally on both sides of the border, as well as further afield in the Rhône-Alpes region and Paris, mainly to organic wine shops. Recently Frédéric has developed some export sales in Japan and the US.
Domaine de Mucelle
480 Route de Mucelle, 01630 Challex
Tel: 06 77 19 41 50
Email: info@domainedemucelle.fr
Web: domainedemucelle.fr
Contact: Frédéric Péricard
Vineyards: 8.5ha
Certification: Ecocert
Visits: Tasting room, preferably by appointment