2019 Domaine Celine Jacquet "La Surprise de Marc" Jacquère, Savoie, France
ABOUT THIS WINE
La surprise de Marc is named after the story around the plot used for this cuvee. In 2019, little before the harvest starts, the owner of the plot “Marc”, handed over the parcelle to Céline. A great surprise for the domaine.
The efruit is hand harvested from 70 years old vines. The parcel is located on the north, high altitude, overlooking the Chignin vineyard, located in small circus with south-west exposure at 700 meters elevation. The fruit sees a light direct press with slow debourbage. Wine doesn’t go through malolactic fermentation
ABOUT THIS PRODUCER
Céline Jacquet is a young woman winemaker who established her domain in the village of Arbin, in Savoie. She created her domain in 2011 after studying and learning winemaking in Beaujolais. The domain is small, approximately 5 ha, and she wants to keep it small. Céline’s approach is very authentic.
She cultivates the traditional grape varietals of the Combe de Savoie: Mondeuse, Roussette, Altesse and Bergeron (also known as Roussane in the Rhone valley). She has vineyards in different places in the Combe de Savoie: Arbin, St-Jean de la Porte, Cruet, and Chignin. Many of her parcels, such as the one going into Mes Aieux or Les Echalats, are at the top of the vineyard, planted on very steep slopes who benefit from perfect south, south-east exposure looking at the alps and the sun. The work in the vineyard is very authentic and natural, manual farming as for most of it, the slopes won’t allow anything else, using no chemicals or industrial techniques, and caring for biodiversity. Of course, harvest are done by hand.
The winemaking is also very classic. Fermentation and maceration with the full cluster, preference for indigenous yeast as well as minimum addition of sulfites. Some of the wines, such as Les Echalats, don’t even use sulfite as bottling. Still, you can tell that Celine’s vision and wines are into classicism and authenticity, favoring balance, cleanliness, and precision to anything. Her wines show that Savoie wines can be much more than the simple wines to glouglou with Raclette! Her mondeuses, especially Mes Aieux, shows that good winemaking and fruit can lead to wines that combine very strong character yet being very soft and not heavy or high in alcohol.