- I Am As Excited About This Producer As I Can Be
- Gringet - Expressive, Ageworthy, Complex - Only Planted in This Part of Savoie
2018 Domaine Montessuit Gringet Vieilles Vignes "Cuvee Jonquille"
- 70-115 Year Old Vines, Average Age of 93 Years
- Nose: White Flowers and the Smell of a Field after Fresh Rain - Alpine Perfection
- Palate - Juicy, Mineral
- Outrageous Inner Mouth Aromatics
- Finish Is Citrus
- Mountain Meursault
- 100% Gringet
- Amazing Change of Pace Wine - Quality of 1er Cru Burgundy
- But Very Different Flavor Profile
- This Has the Depth and Complexity You Expect from 93 Year Old Vines; It Is a Remarkable Value ($28.99) for a Unique Wine
I Love Champagne
- And There Is Terrific Variety within Champagne
- But Other Regions Have Mastered the Champagne Method
- And There Is As Much Spakrling Wine Variety Outside of Champagne As There Is Within It
- And Today, We Have Perhaps The Greatest Producer in One of My Favorite Sparkling Wine Regions Outside of Champagne
2014 Ayze Prestige Brut
- Aged for 48 Months Before Bottling
- Nose: Super Complex, Intense, Insane Mountain, Flowers, Mineral Complexity
- Palate: An Incredible Depth to the Complexity
- Sappy, Pure and Super Structured
- Would be $80+ in Champagne
For a while now I've been wanting to expand the Savoie portfolio. I never got around to it until the last trip. I've only really stayed in Annecy and visited Chignin. Did a few drives years back but never really explored the area. There are actually many areas. Savoie, Haut-Savoie and Isere are the three major ones, and we now have producers in all three. Today's producer I am mega thrilled to introduce to a US audience as they are from an area in Savoie many of you have heard of, Ayse (Ayze, locally), but from a producer who has not ever been exported. It's a relatively new winery (2011 first vintage) and I am proud to introduce the brilliantly, fresh, energetic and dynamic wines of Domaine Montessuit in Ayze. Many of you are familiar with the remarkable wines of Domaine Belluard who make terrific natural wines in Ayze and have been, up until today, the only Ayze winery exported to the USA.
The Magical Gringet
I am so excited to bring in someone else not only explores this wonderful mountain terroir but also someone who also exclusively focuses on the brilliant ancestral grape of Ayze, the magical Gringet. Since Gringet entered my life through Belluard I have been obsessed with it ever since. In the 1980s 80 hectares were planted in Ayze. Gringet is only planted in Ayze and nowhere else. Then 20 years
The wines are brilliant and this tasting was just exhilarating and it was almost impossible to decide what to offer first. I love those impossible decisions though. Obviously today's offer will be about Gringet. It's hard to find the ancestry of Gringet but some have said Savagnin and others Altesse, I'd like to think it lies somewhere between the two and like those grapes it has, in the right hands, the power to be extraordinary. With the father of the region, Domaine Belluard, taking over his estate in 1988 he made Ayze sparkling wine a phenomenon and lifted it from being local innocuous sparkling wine sold to tourists. Now we are finally seeing a generation that is influenced by Belluard. Actually generation may be stretching it as Montessuit is only other producer of Ayze that I know. At Montessuit they have immense admiration and respect for Belluard.
Up first is the middle dry Gringet and I chose this because it is a stunning wine and also because it is raised in 100% stainless steel. It is also made from very very old vines and is just a ridiculous wine and should be 3-5 times the price. Today I have the 2018 Domaine Montessuit Gringet Vieilles Vignee "Cuvee Jonquile" for $28.99 a bottle on a 4-Pack. This is a limited cuvee as are the top two still Gringet cuvees. Vines are 70-115 years old with the average age being 93 years old. This is a stupid great wine and a stunning value. I can see this wine being $40 in a few years, a la the Berlioz cuvees.
The nose is stunning and very complex. Pungently mineral but in a distinct alpine mountain way that just screams of the great terroir of Ayze. White flowers and the aroma of a field after fresh rain. Alpine fresh air on the nose. Wild flowers. Super airy and clean. There are faint hints of pear that become more prominent with air.
The palate is to die for. It's super juicy and mineral. So pure and so so clean. The minerality is remarkable. It's got depth and strength to it that indicates it will age. They opened vintages going back to 2012 of this cuvee and they were right. This has 10/15 years ahead of it. Juicy and elegant with so much finesse and dazzling purity. Really a finesse-driven wine with amazing acidity. The inner mouth aromas are so outrageous and distinctive. Super mountain minerality is so unreal and so persistent. Such a complex finish with terrific structure. Palate is wonderfully elegant and super expressive with major acidity and freshness. This needs air. Structure is dominant the first 15 minutes then it gets more expressive on the palate. Lovely tension on the finish. There is citrus peel on the finish that plays but loses out the incredible mineral depth. The citrus peel is perfectly judged as this is a wine about minerals, structure and depth. It's deep, powerful and concentrated and will age for 5-10 years.
Alt Champagne
Without a doubt, the greatest and most recognized sparkling wines in the world are made in Champagne. Yet while the Champagne method was developed in this region, there is no inherent reason why it should have a monopoly on great sparkling wine. And while I love great Champagne, I'm always on the lookout for new wines, new experiences. I also love a great value. And while I've sold some terrific spakling wines from the Rhone, most great sparkling wine is made from colder regions where the grapes get less ripe and the acidity is prominent. Which brings us to the today's story.
Sparkling Ayze and Belluard
One of the most epiphanic and profound wine experiences I ever had was with the 2008 Domaine Belluard Mont Blanc from Ayze in Savoie. This was 100% Gringet and was an insane wine for me. You've got the nervous tensile 2008 vintage, you've got a region that is so small that barely anybody, including me had heard of it and you've got a grape where only 5-8 hectares were planted at that time. Needless to say it had the structure and complexity of great Champagne but the unique flavors of the Savoie and the Gringet grape. It was revelatory. And geeky nichey. The profundity was obvious and I felt like I was in a special club. No one knew about this wine and I did and it was awesome and I hoped it would stay that way. Well you know what happens next. Of course it did not stay that way. Belluard became allocated and that wine became the most allocated. It also went up significantly in price. I'd always dreamed since long after I drank my three bottles of the 2008 Mont Blanc that I could sell a wine like that.
The top cuvee from the Domaine de Montessuit is the 2014 Ayze Prestige Brut for $39.99 a bottle on a 4-pack is that wine. The wine is brilliant and easily in the same level and perhaps better than the "alt champagnes" we have sold to date. This is aged for 48 months before bottling.
The nose is really the star as soon as you stick your nose in the glass or even near the glass. It's super complex, so intense with insane mountain, flowers, and mineral complexity. Gorgeous, herbal, mineral, yeasty, floral aromas leap from the glass. It's just so airy and so mountain like.
The palate is unreal. So complex and dense. Almost an oily texture along with the classic crispness. Very clean and super crisp. So pure. Fruit is mild citrus but this is more about that mountain structure and minerality. So elegant and with a wonderful and focused mousse. Precise and elegant with some roundness and a wonderful mouthfeel. Sappy and dense. This really has it all. There is an incredible depth to the complexity that reminds me of Huet Pettilant and super high end single vineyard Muscadet. Sappy, pure and super structured with top notch refinement. It's hauntingly elegant and the complexity is just insane. Fine fine bubbles and so so vinous. The length is just off the charts. Brilliant. Stunning and super genius wine. Would be $80+ in Champagne.
The Winery
Winemaking has been going on in Ayze since 1200 and Montessuit has been around since 2011, so a relatively young winery in a very old region. Fabrice and Nicolas Montessuit are the brothers currently in charge of the estate. They are working mostly organic and won't be certified for 3-4 more years. I am so happy to have an estate in Ayze in the form of the brilliant Domaine de Montessuit whose whole inspiration comes from Belluard but the wines are every different. Belluard is in a natural vein while Montessuit is not as much. They are organic and biodynamic are somewhat "natural" but this is more in the vein of someone like Girard or Brisset in Burgundy. That is neither here nor there as today's wine is ultra special and ultra brilliant.
2018 Familie Montessuit Cuvee Jonquille Vieilles Vignes Ayze (Gringet) - $30.99 ($115.96 4-pack) (*Including tariff of *2.87)
2014 Familie Montessuit Ayze Cuvee Prestige Brut - $41.99
($159.96 4-pack)
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