Domaine des Ardoisières Cuvée Silice Blanc 2023

The Land

In November of 1248, the north face of Mont Granier collapsed. One of the largest rockslides in recorded European history buried villages beneath the Chartreuse massif and left a vast field of limestone debris spilling across the valley floor. Vines went in later, and the crus that grew up on that rubble are still named for it — Abymes, meaning the abyss, and Apremont, the harsh mountain. This is where the Jacquère for Silice grows: roughly four hectares of organically farmed vines, fifty to sixty years old, rooted in limestone scree and clay-limestone soils at the foot of the mountain that made them. It is an alpine climate, cold nights and short shadows, and the grape that has always suited it best is the one nobody outside Savoie could name until recently.

The Wine

Jacquère and nothing else. Fruit is brought in whole and uncrushed to protect aromatics, fermented on indigenous yeasts, and raised entirely in fibreglass vats for the better part of a year — no oak at any stage, deliberately, so that nothing sits between the grape and the glass. Sulfur is kept to a minimum at bottling, and the alcohol lands notably low, which is part of the point rather than a compromise. In 2023 Savoie growers contended with late frost, hail and a summer heat spell before September rain arrived to rehydrate the vines just ahead of picking; growers in the region described it as a vintage rescued at the last moment. The wine is fresh and precise: white flowers and lemon on the nose, a touch of texture on the attack, then a stony, saline run to a finish carrying hints of lime and quinine bitterness that give it real persistence.

The People

Domaine des Ardoisières began in 1998 as a rescue mission. A local association in the Tarentaise valley wanted someone to replant the abandoned terraces above the village of Cevins, and Michel Grisard took it on — renting some four hundred plots from villagers, rebuilding stone walls and vineyard cabins with the local slate, ardoise, that gives the estate its name and once roofed the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse. Around two hundred and fifty villagers turned out to clear the land. Brice Omont arrived in 2003 and has run the place since 2010, farming certified organic with Ecocert and working biodynamically across roughly 17.5 hectares, some of it on 60 percent slopes. Silice is the cuvée from Maison des Ardoisières, Brice's négoce arm: he supervises the farming and buys the fruit from a small group of organic growers, applying the same standards he applies at home.

Food Pairing

Fondue savoyarde, because a wine this high in acid and this low in alcohol is the only thing that resets the palate between bites of molten Beaufort. Raclette with cornichons and boiled potatoes, same mechanism, less commitment. Pan-fried lake fish — perch or trout, meunière — where the wine's salinity and lemon do the work a squeezed wedge would otherwise do. And a plate of cold shellfish, since the stony bitterness on the finish reads as an extension of the brine rather than a contrast to it. This is the white for the dinners you cook after a day outside.