Last night we tried a bottle of Savoie wine that Wink Lorch and Brett Jones of Wine Travel Guides brought last week when they came to le tasting room for lunch. Wink is a specialist in Jura & Savoie (spending half her time in this beautiful mountainous region and half in London) so it came well recommended.
Mondeuse is not a grape variety that many are familiar with (us included). It's an old and distinctive grape variety that produces wines relatively high in acidity with great colour. Originally it was thought to be the same as the Refosco of Northern Italy but this has been shown not to be the case in recent years.
It's always difficult to assess a wine when you have no point of reference. The last time I tried a Mondeuse was about 4 years ago while walking in the Alps during the summer.
On the nose we amusingly likened it first to Gamay, then found Pinot Noir notes and finally a big whiff of pepper came through. My reaction was ' a masculine version of Gruner Veltliner'. On the palate, the acidity is marked, it's juicy and has good fruit and quite a bit of tannin but not austerely so. It's a spicey wine and it went well with the chargrilled belly pork that we were having for dinner. A super change.
Mondeuse is not a grape variety that many are familiar with (us included). It's an old and distinctive grape variety that produces wines relatively high in acidity with great colour. Originally it was thought to be the same as the Refosco of Northern Italy but this has been shown not to be the case in recent years.
It's always difficult to assess a wine when you have no point of reference. The last time I tried a Mondeuse was about 4 years ago while walking in the Alps during the summer.
On the nose we amusingly likened it first to Gamay, then found Pinot Noir notes and finally a big whiff of pepper came through. My reaction was ' a masculine version of Gruner Veltliner'. On the palate, the acidity is marked, it's juicy and has good fruit and quite a bit of tannin but not austerely so. It's a spicey wine and it went well with the chargrilled belly pork that we were having for dinner. A super change. 
Only just seen this and glad you enjoyed the Mondeuse enough to write it up here!
ReplyDeleteJust recently it's been proven that Mondeuse is a relative of Syrah, either a grandchild or a grandparent, they can't work that one out, so that explains a few things, though the big difference is that Mondeuse never ripens enough to give more than about 11% natural alcohol so 12% after chaptalisation.
The other point I should mention to Savoie wine fiends is that this Domaine Grisard is JP and JF Grisard, as opposed to the slightly better-known biodynamic producer Michel Grisard (who is the brother of J-P and J-F!) and whose wines are under the name of Domaine Prieuré St-Christophe.