These clean, precise and expressive take on wines is exactly what we love. When it comes to French wine, perhaps only Loire can challenge these beautifully made expressions from the Eastern part of France. In this instance, turning our attention to the wonderful Savoie, and its native treasures.
Charlotte Sonjon graduated as an agricultural engineer, but the lure of winemaking was too hard to resist as she returned home in 2013. After completing studies in Montpellier, she worked as an assistant at various wineries in the Savoie, including Domaine de Chevillard, before being fortunate enough to find a plot on the eastern shore of Lake Bourget, just at the foot of Bauges massif mountain range.
And so in 2019, Charlotte moved to the village of Brison-Saint-Innocent and has since been working the modest 1.5 hectares of vines planted on this steep hillside. She was soon able to purchase an additional half an hectare of old Jacquère vines (approximately 80 years old) on the heights of the commune of Ruffieux, in the Chautagne AOC.
Inspired by biodynamic growers, she adopts a minimal intervention approach in the vineyard and cellar. She harvests everything by hand, before the . For the whites, where the focus is Jacquère and Altesse (get in!) she uses a mixture of old barrel and cuve, which adds depth to the mouthfeel. While the reds are made using whole clusters (with the exception of Mondeuse) in stainless steel to preserve freshness. There are no inputs throughout the vinification process, except for one gram of SO2 at bottling.
In fairness, we were drawn in by the bottle labels and branding, which provide a small glimpse of the pristine, pretty style which Charlotte's wines are all about. We look forward to welcoming the 2023 wines to our portfolio later this year, which represents just her fourth vintage.
