Style: White Wine

Producer: Domaine Marc Portaz

Grape: 100% Jacquere

Where: Vin de Savoie, Savoy

Country: France

Taste: Honeysuckle, crushed stones, white pepper. Complex and tangy; flavors of lime, pear, fresh herbs. 

.

About the grape: The native home of the Jacquère grape is the raw nature and awesome beauty of Savoie, France’s most mountainous region. Here vines gaze at the Alps to the east from their own high-altitude, limestone cliffs. The Portaz family for some 30 years have cared for Jacquère vines in Savoie’s most famous vineyard, ‘Apremont,’ created by a massive avalanche more than 750 years ago. With aromas that remind of flinty Sancerre and flavors as complex as dry Mosel Riesling, Jacquère is an exhilarating wine that invites glass after glass—especially as it’s naturally low-alcohol.

About the Wine: Hand-harvested. Pressed full cluster; fermented on indigenous yeasts in temperature-controlled, stainless steel tanks. Aged on fine lees in tank. The ‘Apremont’ vineyard is Savoie’s most renowned plot, at 1,050 feet above sea level, planted on the site of an ancient avalanche. Soils mix limestone rubble and glacial debris, with clay sub-soils.

About the Producer: On November 24, 1248, in the middle of the night while residents slept, an enormous avalanche started from the slopes of Mount Granier and swept down to the valley below, burying small towns entirely with limestone rubble and changing the face of Savoie forever.

Centuries later, these fields at the foot of the mountain were turned into vineyards, as locals planted Jacquère vines, Savoie’s native white grape variety. It is these stony fields that represent Savoie’s finest terroirs, producing refreshing, high-altitude white wines with tangy flavors and lively aromas.

The Portaz family since the early 1980s have cared for Jacquère vines in their native Chapareillan, just south of Chambery, the capital of the ancient Duchy of Savoy and not far from the Italian border. (The regional flag/symbol of Savoie, a white cross on a red field, can be found on the family’s wine label. This crest was used by the House of Savoy, one of the oldest royal families in the world, who ruled these lands from 1416 to 1860.)

The family’s “tête de cuvée” or top selection is ‘Apremont.’ Translated from French as “rough mountain,” this wine is a tribute to the raw power of nature that dominates this breathtakingly beautiful corner of France. The combination of cheese fondue and white wine from Jacquère grapes is a Savoyard specialty.