I have to confess that, before my visit, I thought that the wines from Savoie would be nothing more than pleasant curiosities. I envisaged diligent winemakers proudly producing wines from local varieties, such as Mondeuse, Altesse and Jacquere, but which had remained 'local' for good reasons.  What I didn't expect were some seriously ambitious producers and some of the steepest and most challenging vineyards anywhere on the planet. Situated in the foothills of the Alps, with the summit of Mont Blanc visible in the distance, the vineyards planted along the south-east-facing Massif des Bauges would provide winter skiers with some formidable black runs. 

I met Brice Ormont, the highly-talented winemaker at Domaine des Ardoisieres, on a glorious summer's day just before the harvest and was struck by the broad scope of his ideas. This wasn't some backwater operator making wine for consumption in sleepy provincial restaurants, this was a chap with serious and worldly intentions and his wines reflect his ambitions. He farms biodynamically, but says that he hasn't applied for a certificate, because "a piece of paper isn't going to make my wines taste any better". All the vines are harvested by hand, both for qualitative and practical reasons (you can't get machinery anywhere near these vertiginous slopes!) and his yields are incredibly low, in some cases as little as 20hl/ha, which is a reflection of his forensic attention to detail in the vineyards. He sources his grapes from two distinct plots, one in Cevins, a stunning outcrop composed of a patchwork of nearly 100 separate parcels, and the other in St Pierre de Soucy, where the soil is deep schist and clay.

The ‘Silice Blanc’ is his entry wine, as sharp as a paper cut and as pure as edelweiss petals floating on an alpine stream. A crisp and bone dry Jacquere from organically farmed 60 year-old vines grown on limestone soils fermented and aged in neutral vessels for 9 months. Perfect with oysters or a raclette. 10.5% alc. 100% Jacquère. Drink now-2029.