Côtillon des Dames 2024 - Jean-Yves Péron

By the time Jean-Yves returned to Savoie to make wine in 2004, he was already a well-travelled student of wine. Growing up between Paris and his mother's home in Annecy, his formative years were spent in the Haute-Savoie, not far from where he keeps his cellar today. After completing studies in biochemistry he went to Bordeaux to study oenology, then on to Oregon as a budding apprentice. Returning to France, he took a job with the legendary Rhône winemaker Thierry Allemand, whose work on the abandoned terraces of Cornas is reflected in Jean-Yves' approach today. He also spent time with Jean-Louis Grippat, a foundational figure in modern Rhône winemaking, in Saint-Joseph and Hermitage. Both men farmed the steep slopes of the northern Rhône, and the influence of the two can still be felt in Jean-Yves' work. During his time there he met Hirotake Ooka of la Grande Colline, through whom he came to know Bruno Schueller in Alsace, ending up as his apprentice. He set out on his own in January 2004, picking up old plantings on steep sites his neighbours had deemed too difficult to work. Those first fermentations did not finish until August 2005, a bold debut from a nascent estate.

Jean-Yves' vines grow in Conflans, a walled medieval quarter above Albertville where the Arly meets the Isère. Over a century ago the hillside carried 80 hectares of vines, but phylloxera devastated the region and the industrial expansion of Albertville drew the working population away from viticulture. The pervasive availability of cheap wine from the Midi did not help, and the wines of Savoie came to be considered vins de laboureur. By the time Jean-Yves returned, the terraces were home to mature oaks and in places had been reclaimed by the forest. Where most saw worthless land, Jean-Yves saw Savoie's own Reynard, the great lieu-dit of Cornas from which Thierry Allemand had reclaimed some of his most cherished parcels. Like his mentor, he could see the diamond in the rough and an opportunity to resurrect these old sites. Today he has restored or replanted 2.5 hectares, and with further holdings in Fréterive he farms 4.5 hectares himself. He embarked on the project solo, but the thankless work on these steep hillsides, all of it by hand, made help necessary, and today Briton Camilla Murray works full time with Jean-Yves in the vines and the cellar.

Grapes: Altesse, Jacquère, Roussanne

Region: Conflans, Albertville, Savoie, France

ABV: 10%