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2021 Savoie Arbin Mondeuse “Terres Brunes”
André & Michel QuenardMostly known and beloved for its white wines, Savoie is also home to a noteworthy red grape called Mondeuse, which thrives along the impossibly steep and scree-laden slopes of the pre-Alps, just down the road from France’s renowned ski mountains. For half a century, the Quenards’ vines for this cuvée have clung to this stony rubble, yielding reds unlike those from any other region in France. Lithe, brambly, and floral, it’s as well suited to fondue and tartiflette as it is to slow-braised oxtail or your favorite stew.
—Tom Wolf
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2021 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Mondeuse |
Appellation: | Savoie |
Country: | France |
Region: | Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes |
Producer: | André & Michel Quenard |
Winemaker: | André & Michel Quenard |
Vineyard: | 40 to 50 years, 1 ha |
Soil: | Clay, Limestone |
Aging: | Aged for 11 months, 50% in stainless steel tank, 50% in foudre |
Farming: | Lutte Raisonnée |
Alcohol: | 12.5% |
More from this Producer or Region
2020 Savoie Chignin-Bergeron “Côteau des Ducs”
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Lychee and ripe citrus wrapped in beeswax. You might think there are a bunch of busy benevolent bees whiling away inside your glass.
2023 Savoie Les Abymes
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Les Abymes is the epitome of an Alpine white—an invigorating mineral lick of Jacquère, crackling with freshness and crystalline purity.
2021 Savoie Chignin Mondeuse “Vieilles Vignes”
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It has often been likened to a cross between Pinot Noir and Syrah: bright, elegant, and floral, with suggestions of wild fruit, blood, and minerals.
2021 Savoie Chignin Mondeuse “Voie Royale”
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The 2021 Voie Royale was aged entirely in foudre, and the result is an utterly distinctive, perfumed, and stony rouge evoking freshly pressed grapes, tart fruit, and violets.
2023 Chignin Blanc
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This Jacquère grown on Savoie’s limestone mountainsides may be the crispest beverage to ever grace your palate.
2021 Savoie Chignin-Bergeron “Le Grand Rebossan”
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Travel no further than Chignin, where the Quenard family bottles a Roussanne (dubbed Bergeron in these parts) that will exceed your wildest expectations.
2022 Savoie Chignin-Bergeron “Les Roches Blanches”
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This medium-bodied white evokes peaches, honey, and pine resin. Perfect for winter nights and dishes like hearty, Savoie-inspired fish chowder.
2021 Chignin-Bergeron “Les Terrasses”
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Grown on near-vertical limestone scree slopes, Bergeron reaches incredible heights here, yielding a blanc full of character and flavors of peach, tangerine, and pine resin.
2023 Roussette de Savoie “Les Craies”
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The wine is bone-dry but offers a wonderful nose of bergamot and honeysuckle, along with a zippy freshness supported by all the Alpine minerality you would expect from fruit grown in stony soils in the Alps.
Crémant de Savoie Brut Nature
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A wonderfully dry, fresh, sparkling wine from one of the most beautiful regions of France.
About The Producer
André & Michel Quenard
The Savoie is a picture of fairy-tale perfection: snow-capped peaks, rolling hills, and sparkling mountain streams. This idyllic region is where Michel Quenard farms twenty-two hectares of vineyards along the steep slopes around Chignin. His grandfather started the domaine in the 1930s. Though he slowly increased his vineyard holdings, he mostly sold off his wine. It wasn’t until 1960 that Michel’s father, André, began bottling under their own label. Michel joined the domaine in 1976. Today, he is joined by his sons, Guillaume and Romain. Their cuvées go beyond the simple “eclectic” that categorizes wines from Savoie; they are unique revelations that reflect the complexity of their terroir and the artistry of this master.
About The Region
Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes
Fifteen or twenty years ago, there was little buzz about the wines of Savoie, the Alpine region hugging the Swiss and Italian borders. In fact, most wines from Savoie were some combination of overcropped, thin, searingly acidic, and painfully rustic; even the best examples rarely made it out of the local mountain resorts, where they were served as an après-ski to wash down many a melty croque-monsieur.
But all that has changed, and today Savoie produces a number of top-quality wines in all styles, from simple thirst-quenchers to wines of substantial gravity. Kermit sought out some of these wines early in his career, having imported the spritzy, mineral whites of Apremont and Chignin in the late 1970s.
With vineyards at the foot of the Alps that occasionally climb to higher elevations, Savoie is defined by its mountain-influenced climate and extremely rocky terrain, with abundant limestone. Thanks to a diversity of indigenous grape varieties, quality-oriented growers with the choicest parcels—steep and well-exposed—can craft anything from crisp, low-alcohol whites from Jacquère to deep, gamey reds from Mondeuse. More serious whites are made from Altesse as well as Bergeron, the local name for Roussanne, which the Romans planted on the slopes of Chignin around the same time as they introduced it to the Rhône Valley.
Savoie’s diversity of styles and distinct sub-regions, from Arbin to Seyssel to the Bugey (technically not a part of Savoie, but included here for convenience) makes it a fascinating region for the thirsty explorer. There is no better place to look for brisk mountain refreshment.
More from Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes or France
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Kermit once said...
Kermit once said...
Living wines have ups and downs just as people do, periods of glory and dog days, too. If wine did not remind me of real life, I would not care about it so much.