2004 Vin de Savoie Mondeuse Tradition

Boasting a significantly healthier, ruddier color than any of Grisard’s 2003s or 2002s, his 2004 Mondeuse Tradition is intriguingly scented with sour cherry, rose hip, leather, and black tea, all of which reprise on a firm but admirably sappy palate, with tea-like smokiness, piquancy of cherry pit, and maritime salinity lending invigoration in a persistently juicy if very slightly lip-numbing finish. Undertones of beef marrow and crushed stone add further complexity. Despite this wine’s youthful demeanor vis-a-vis Grisard’s 2003s and 2002s, I would still personally opt for enjoying it over the next couple of years while the aggregate of secondary evolution and primary juiciness is likely at a high point. “After tasting 2003, it’s common for people to put-down 2004 as too acidic,” says Grisard, but that was certainly the last thing on my mind. “The problem with 2004,” he observes, “was the tendency toward too-high yields, but if you limited your yields correctly, you could produce extraordinary wines.” Incidentally, this harbors a mere 12% alcohol, which is pretty typical for a Grisard Mondeuse. “And this is the first vintage in which I didn’t chaptalize any batches of my Mondeuse,” he adds, a surprising claim when one considers the conditions prevalent in 2003. This vintage is also characterized by the inclusion of a significant portion of whole berries and stems in the fermentor, an approach he ahs since expanded, though in 2005 with somewhat overtly stemmy and hence much less satisfying results. Veteran Michel Grisard and his Prieure Saint-Christophe in Freterive (with vineyards also in Cruet, four miles south and neighboring Arbin) have long represented for many if not most observers of the Savoie scene that region’s foremost red wine address. Thanks to his generosity during a 2002 visit and again last November, I have tasted his reds almost without gap, spanning more than two decades, and their singular features are intriguing complexity and – in the most successful instances – significant aging potential. In recent years, this long-time practitioner of biodynamie has endured some years of extremely reduced yields and in 2008 a difficult vintage from which he elected not to bottle any wine at all. “I was too occupied at the time with the Domaine des Ardoisieres,” he reports of a remarkable and ambitious project (also covered in this report) that he founded but has since handed over totally to his young former collaborator there, Brice Omont. Not only are the wines of the Prieure Saint-Christophe generally bottled late, they are also generally sold only after enjoying significant bottle age, so it is by no means only young wines that are arriving in the U.S. market this year. Prior to vintage 2005, bottlings labeled “Prestige” represented a selection from parcels behind his winery that benefit from iron- and fossil-rich rock eroded from the mountain above. But I’ve frequently found that his Tradition has held up better than his Prestige, and from 2005-2007 Grisard blended to achieve a single wine labeled “Tradition.” (Even a Grisard Mondeuse not intended for cellaring at all can age well. I tasted on this occasion a 1981 that, while fading, still had some lovely features; and this was a wine made by Grisard with his two brothers two years before he founded the Domaine Saint-Christophe, and more to the point – as he emphasized – two years before the notion even occurred to him of attempting to render a Mondeuse for other than early drinking.) Importer:Tanaro River Imports, Irvine, CA; tel. (949) 870-6549

Boasting a significantly healthier, ruddier color than any of Grisard’s 2003s or 2002s, his 2004 Mondeuse Tradition is intriguingly scented with sour cherry, rose hip, leather, and black tea, all of which reprise on a firm but admirably sappy palate, with tea-like smokiness, piquancy of cherry pit, and maritime salinity lending invigoration in a persistently juicy if very slightly lip-numbing finish. Undertones of beef marrow and crushed stone add further complexity. Despite this wine’s youthful demeanor vis-a-vis Grisard’s 2003s and 2002s, I would still personally opt for enjoying it over the next couple of years while the aggregate of secondary evolution and primary juiciness is likely at a high point. “After tasting 2003, it’s common for people to put-down 2004 as too acidic,” says Grisard, but that was certainly the last thing on my mind. “The problem with 2004,” he observes, “was the tendency toward too-high yields, but if you limited your yields correctly, you could produce extraordinary wines.” Incidentally, this harbors a mere 12% alcohol, which is pretty typical for a Grisard Mondeuse. “And this is the first vintage in which I didn’t chaptalize any batches of my Mondeuse,” he adds, a surprising claim when one considers the conditions prevalent in 2003. This vintage is also characterized by the inclusion of a significant portion of whole berries and stems in the fermentor, an approach he ahs since expanded, though in 2005 with somewhat overtly stemmy and hence much less satisfying results. Apr 2012, www.robertparker.com