Winemaking

The typical Savoie white wine is made using a single, unassuming cellar trick. After fermentation, it's left resting on its fine lees, the sediment of dead yeast cells, instead of being racked off right away. This aging, called "sur lie," protects the wine from oxidation and gives it a slightly creamy texture. Above all, it preserves a residue of natural carbon dioxide, precisely the gentle fizz that makes Jacquère and Chasselas so recognizable.

With Mondeuse, everything moves more slowly. The dark, thick-skinned berries stay on the skins for two to three weeks, so that color and tannin migrate from the skin into the juice. Part of the harvest then continues to age in large or small wooden barrels. How strongly the wood shows depends more on barrel size than on time spent in it. A large, old barrel imparts hardly any flavor, while a small barrique gives noticeably more.

The region's sparkling wines, Crémant de Savoie, Seyssel mousseux, and Ayze, are all made using the méthode traditionnelle, meaning a second fermentation directly in the bottle, just as in Champagne. For Crémant de Savoie, the specifications require a minimum aging period of twelve months in bottle. The grapes are hand-picked and transported in perforated crates so that no berry gets crushed before reaching the press.

Seyssel is a special case here: the appellation received its official recognition back in 1942, a good three decades before the general Vin de Savoie designation. For its sparkling wine, the specifications require at least seventy-five percent Molette, plus at least ten percent Altesse. Molette alone tends to taste rather grassy and plain. It's only with Altesse that the sparkling wine gains its backbone.

The Vin de Savoie appellation relies everywhere on the same basic rule. Anyone wanting to put a village name like Chignin or Arbin on the label must adhere to set yield limits and may only plant the variety approved for that site. It sounds like bureaucracy. But it ensures that a Chignin-Bergeron will still be, ten years from now, exactly what it promises to be today.