Grand Cru Pink Lemonade - Domaine des Ardoisieres Rose "Rhodonite"

This is a super-lean, slightly natural rose with a wealth of subtle interest, a real sense of place, and it comes from my favorite wine region I’ve ever visited - the Savoie in the French Alps.  With its steep scrabbly hillsides, tiny pockets of warmly lit villages and dense, low clouds, it left me with a magical feeling of wine grown above the clouds.  Known best for its cut-glass, low-alcohol whites and the adult soda known as Bugey Cerdon, the Savoie has a small but growing recognition for its red wines from Mondeuse, Gamay and Persan.  Turns out they make a pretty interesting rose as well.

Domaine des Ardoisieres is located in Allobroges, an area cultivated on and off with vines since the Romans called it Allobrogia, and it is a fascinating project with historical, cultural and philosophical ideas underpinning their work.  One important part of the backstory is Michel Grisard.  You have to be a complete obsessive to have ever heard of Michel Grisard, but essentially, he is the Jayer, the Reynaud, the Allemand of the Savoie.  The person who so perfectly understood the place and its taste.  The good news is he found the right person to take the baton.

Grisard is now retired but not before he initiated the reclamation of insanely steep vineyard sites, some as steep as 60% gradients (Mosel-esque threat levels). It was his meeting of winemaker Brice Ormont in 2003 that set up Ardoisieres for the long run, with Grisard mentoring and assisting until 2005.

The growing conditions here are pretty much near the limit of viability so it’s one of those places I’m attracted to, where people care more about somehow making it work, where they care about realizing the dream, more than they care about the easy buck. 

Even with the environmental challenges, they farm biodynamically and utilize no sulfur during fermentation.  I’m not always a stickler for this sort of stuff, but in the case of a wine like this, where they’re charting (or re-charting) little known territory, I really appreciate a hands-off approach that emphasizes the place more than the winemaking.

And with all of that, this is a delicious wine with a feel that I can only describe as unique - as if I combined the great roses from Clos Cibonne with a skeletal Jonas Dostert Elbling. 

It’s a meager 10.5% alcohol and bone dry, but it gives up no depth of flavor.  Smelling like Santa Rosa plum skins with their addictive dark fruit and sour snap, it follows with saline and citrus pith aromas.  On the palate, it’s like pink lemonade from a parallel universe where pink lemonade is an artform.  It has zesty, intense acids, flavors of ruby red grapefruit, rose, chalk, apricot and a light feel of skin contact that really integrates the rose flavors with the barest of flor notes.  It seems like a wine handed down from the heavens to accompany fish crudo/ sashimi. 

Imported in the United States by Martine’s Wines