A medium-bodied white with notes of candied citrus peel, lychee, and slightly overripe pineapple, and a medium acidity. Drink on its own or with leafy, grilled white meat dishes.
A nice aromatic wine, with notes of dried citrus peel, ginger, and tropical fruit. Acidic and light on alcohol, this wine is exceptionally fresh. Excellent pairing for creamy soups.
Clive Coates notes that Mondeuse sometimes has difficulties fully ripening in the cool alpine climates of Savoie and eastern France, which can lead to some examples being very acidic, tart, and lacking fruit. Such as it is, Gamay finds its soulmate.
Dreamy alpine Jacquère grown a days hike from Switzerland. Fruit mixes with esters, spices and rustic accents: flint, chives, breadcrumbs, caramel, narcissus, peach pit and lemon balm. Empyreumatic aromas (burnt, cooked or smoked qualities) with subtle oxidation and a slight fermentation note.
"Mountain wine regions are complex for a reason: their topographical challenges have meant, through most of history, that they were a series of little kingdoms and fiefdoms, clinging on to specialities and traditions which reflect, with some fidelity, precise and highly contrastive local conditions."
Texier's medium-bodied White from his St-Julien-en-St-Alban vineyard. Fresh apple, apricot, wild herbs, and hay are all brought out from the unheralded Clairette grape.
Texier makes this wine, from a vineyard on granite across the Rhone river, in the same method as his Brézème cuvee: whole cluster fermentation, age in concrete tanks, and a light extraction from the skins.
Francois de Nicolay's negociant project selects grapes from excellent organic and biodynamic vineyards in France and vinifies naturally with no sulfur addition. This Bourgogne Aligote is a great representation of Burgundy's other great White grape with fresh acidity.
