L’interview du mois : Spécial Savoie

The most common grape variety in the vineyards of Savoie is Jacquère.

Did you know ?

Let's take a look at the numbers

2,100 hectares

400 producers

129,000 hectolitres of wine produced in 2018

2021 : an exceptional year in terms of quality and quantity

20 grape varieties : 70 % white wine, 20 % red wine, 5 % rosé and 5 % sparkling wine

16 millions bottles produced per year

5 % international sales, which is increasing

Let's focus on a particular domaine...

Do you know Domaine de l'Idylle ? We went to meet them. Here is their story.

WHY IS THE DOMAINE CALLED "IDYLLE"?

“It's the family estate, it has been in the Tiollier family since 1840 and the property is called
Idylle because it was our ancestor who founded the estate. He built the large
house in order to have many children but unfortunately he never had any so he bequeathed it to
his nephew who had six children. And we kept the name.”

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CULTIVATING ON A SLOPE?

“In the Southeast it’s good, we have the rising sun which dries the vines quite early in the
morning. It is well exposed so we have a lot of red too, especially the mondeuse which grows
well on our hillsides. In Savoie, it is important to cultivate on a slope because otherwise we
quickly have too much water. On the plain, the water table is high and it
gives us good exposure. After, the disadvantage is the
difficulty working the soil, for mechanical weeding in particular. We are in the process of
obtaining our organic certification so when we till the ground to remove the grass it creates
erosion. It’s more complicated on a slope, yes.”

WHAT EXCITES YOU THE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB?

“It's the idea of creating a product from A to Z, being able to put your name on it. We start
from bare soil, then we plant or recover a vine. We still have a lot of leeway, even if the goal
is to have a typicity. You can still leave your mark on the wine and that's really lucky.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE VINTAGE?

"It's the Roussette. It's a white that has freshness, which has good acidity and at the same
time roundness, an aromatic power."

IF YOU WERE A BOTTLE OF WINE, WHICH WOULD YOU BE?

“I would be a Jacquière, which is not very striking at first glance but that has a lot to offer,
that is interesting after looking into it but that does not impress at first glance. The
Jacquière has become quite fashionable again.”

IF YOU WERE A VINTAGE?

“2020. It was well balanced. For us, 2018 was the best because we had the volume and the
quality. It was great. This year we had no volume, so we thought back to 2018 with nostalgia
and sadness. These are the risks.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SKI RESORT?

“Arèche Beaufort because it is quite wild. There is a wide variety of skiing. You can go cross
country skiing as well.”

Thanks again to Sylvain Tiollier for giving us his time.

LET’S HAVE A LOOK AT THE WINES WE HAVE AT LVG FROM THE DOMAINE