At first, I couldn’t believe it: This layered, nuanced Pinot Noir was from the Savoie, not Burgundy? Then I thought about it some more: Why not the Savoie? There was a time in the past when this Alpine growing zone was considered too “marginal” to ripen red grapes properly, but as we all know, that time has passed. When you combine a cool climate with steep-sloping, limestone-rich vineyard sites, you’ve got a recipe for Pinot Noir success.
My first taste of Domaine de Chevillard’s 2018 prompted an exaggerated double-take, and as I continued to revisit the bottle over the course of two days, my admiration for it kept growing. Chevillard’s proprietor/winemaker, Matthieu Goury, has scaled the heights of the Savoie and triumphantly planted a flag for Pinot Noir; it’s hardly a “new” grape here but this wine is one of several Savoie Pinots I’ve tried recently that show how much the game has changed. The tension, complexity, and mineral depth of this wine reaches a Premier Cru Burgundy level for me, and has us all wondering what else the Savoie has in store for us. Is this another Pinot Noir hot-spot (speaking figuratively, of course) we need to be tracking? It sure looks like it to me!
Perhaps most impressive of all is that 2018 is only Goury’s fourth commercial vintage. He’s a born-and-bred Savoyard who grew up in a family of winegrowers, but had spent time as a cook in high-end restaurants before turning to wine. The discipline and respect for ingredients learned in professional kitchens have served him well in his wine endeavors: he farms his 10 hectares of vineyards organically and is committed to minimal-intervention techniques in the cellar, adding no sulfur until bottling and only trace amounts then. Wines are pressed using an antique basket press he purchased in Champagne, and he strives to avoid using pumps at all in the winery, moving everything by gravity.
The Domaine de Chevillard is headquartered in the village of Saint-Pierre-d’Albigny, one of the wine towns strewn along the Combe de Savoie, the deep valley east of Chambéry that represents the heartland of Savoie wine production. The vineyards are planted on steep, south-facing slopes in the shadow of the Massif des Bauges, on a scrabbly layer of scree accumulated over centuries as tiny pebbles came tumbling down from the ski-able slopes above. The soils below are dark Jurassic limestone and black marl, great for Pinot Noir but also the ascendant local red, Mondeuse (the cru village of Saint-Jean-de-la-Porte, famous for its Mondeuse, is right next door).
Today’s 2018 was fermented on native yeasts in concrete tanks, using 100% de-stemmed fruit. It was aged in neutral French oak barriques (225L) for 11 months before bottling, with only a minuscule amount of sulfur added; you’ll notice a slight prickle when this wine is first opened (because of trapped CO2), so decant it at least 30 minutes before serving to allow that to blow off. Once it does, the wine blossoms into something truly special—it is silky and refined, but also underpinned by a deep, dark-toned mineral component. In the glass, it’s a medium ruby moving to a pink/magenta rim, with high-toned aromas of black cherry, wild strawberry, pomegranate seed, black tea, rose petals, leather, crushed rock, and damp underbrush. There’s plenty of ripeness but also tanginess and tension, finishing on a floral note. Tempting as it is to whip up some fondue or some other Alpine delicacy, I’d rather showcase this wine with a good old-fashioned Pinot Noir go-to like roast chicken or, perhaps, Thanksgiving turkey. Serve it blind to your Burgundy-loving friends and blow their minds—or hoard it all for yourself. Whatever works for you!
