Domaine des Ardoisières - Améthyste 2018

Bettane & Desseauve

About the domain :

Launched in 1998 under the impetus of Michel Grisard, this estate has brought two hillsides back into production. The crazy project involved 450 parcels and 250 families. All were organic and produced under the IGP vin-des-Allobroges label, failing to gain the support of the Savoie appellation. Today, the 18 hectares managed by Brice Omont, who has just taken over a further six hectares in Saint-Jean-de-la-Porte and Apremont, constitute a benchmark estate for the region. The wines are among the most expensive.

RVF - La Revue du Vin de France / Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France

About the wine:

On the Cevins hillside, Améthyste is a deeper red, but above all a more civilized one, polished by barrel ageing, with aromas of great finesse, as are the tannins that structure this material, which extends to liquorice flavors.

About the domain :

The domaine was born of Michel Grisard's 1998 replanting of the Cevins hillside, 6 hectares of terraced micaschist between Albertville and Moutiers. Brice Omont, an agricultural engineer from the Champagne region, arrived in 2003 to assist Michel Grisard, and since 2008 has been at the helm of the 16-hectare estate. Biodynamic viticulture is heroic here (slopes can reach 70%), yields are very low, and the wines are mainly made from grape varieties that have been combined and blended. The results are often admirable: the wines show great finesse and originality, and become even more distinctive with age. It's important to be aware that ageing sometimes has a major impact on the expression of young wines when they are first opened, as aeration frees up their expression. Améthyste complements Persian with Mondeuse; the Argile cuvées (from the Saint-Pierre-de-Soucy hillside) combine Jacquère, Chardonnay and Mondeuse blanche in the white, and Gamay, Mondeuse and Persian in the red; Schiste is composed of Jacquère, Mondeuse blanche, Roussanne and Pinot Gris. Only Quartz is a single varietal, made from altesse. If ever there was a domain emblematic of Savoy's qualitative revival and its ambition, this is it.