Vin de Savoie Ayze "La Bergerie" Domaine du Gringet 2022

Description

The Domaine du Gringet team are setting out with one aim: to promote the rare Gringet grape, and ensure its position on the world stage. Just 22 hectares exist of this distinctive white Alpine grape. Domaine du Gringet owns most of these, having inherited them from Domaine Belluard, run by the pioneering Dominique Belluard, who sadly died in 2021.

After Dominique’s death, his estate was taken over and renamed by four partners: Raphaël Bennour and Miguel Sarzier, who had worked with Dominique for decades, alongside Rhône winemaker Franck Balthazar and his former cellar master, Vincent Ruiz. They took over with the singular aim of continuing their friend’s work in championing the unique, aromatic Gringet to the world.

Historically Gringet was used to make sparkling wine that was predominantly consumed locally but the new team are now entirely focused on producing world class still wines with a sense of place from single vineyards like Le Feu and La Paille. These are true terroir wines of extraordinary depth and personality, and the vineyard expressions showcase the full spectrum of the character of this variety including citrus fruit, floral notes like absinthe and hyssop, gentian root and liquorice spice coupled with freshness and crystalline minerality.

The new owners have done a lot of work in the vineyards converting the estate to organic viticulture and working only with copper sulphate and herbal preparations to treat the vines.

Winemaking is the same for all wines with grapes direct pressed before the juice is settled in contact with the air. Fermentation takes place in concrete eggs and all wines go through malolactic fermentation before the wine is aged on its lees for 11 months. All wines are bottled without sulphur, filtration or fining and then

La Bergerie is a village blend of vineyard plots on the lower slopes on different soils including yellow marl, white marl and limestone scree. Vines planted between 1947 and the 1980s

The palate is so interesting. Flavours of fine, sharp lemons combine with a touch of bay leaf. The texture is crisp, but the depth of the palate goes on and on in such a delicate yet confident way. There are so many layers here, and the wine has a beautiful structure. All ends on a note of Asian pear, rounded out by slightly tart nectarine on the incredibly long finish. This could be a glorious match with sushi; it is different yet utterly delicious.