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Jean-Yves Peron

Jean-Yves Péron in the Vineyard
Country of Origin: France
Location: Chignin
People: Jean-Yves Peron, Owner & Winemaker


Jean-Yves Péron is a young artisan patiently reviving ancient, almost forgotten vineyards in the French Alps. From his first vintage in 2004, his delicious, radically natural wines have redefined the Savoie’s potential.

His cellar, containing about 18 barrels, is in the basement of his family farmhouse, near Lake Annecy, where he lives with his wife and daughter. Thirty minutes south, behind the medieval city of Conflans (Albertville), his vines perch above a glacial valley at nearly 1400 feet.

He works with multiple steeply terraced micro-parcels (2 hectares total) of 115-30 year old Jacqueres and Mondeuse vines, planted to friable mica-schist soils; his oldest parcels were planted in 1893, and have not seen phylloxera. Starting in 2005, he has worked with new plantings of Persan (a vanishing red varietal once considered the finest of the region in the 19th century) and white Altesse (or Roussette, often identified as the Hungarian Furmint). The vines are high-density (10,000/hectare), single-staked gobelet, very low to the ground and very low-yielding; their uniform southern exposure gives them the sun’s full benefit.  
Items
Jean-Yves Peron 2011 'Cotillon des Dames' Jacquère, Vin de Savoie AOC Net Price — —
Jean-Yves Peron 2009 'Champ Levat' Mondeuse, Vin de Pays d'Allobrogie Net Price Reviews —
Jean-Yves Peron 2010 'Champ Levat' Mondeuse, Vin de Pays d'Allobrogie Net Price — —
Jean-Yves Peron 2009 'Cote Pelee' Monduese, Vin de Pays d'Allobrogie Net Price — —
Jean-Yves Peron 2010 'Cote Pelee' Monduese, Vin de Pays d'Allobrogie Net Price — —
Jean-Yves Peron (1.5 L) 2010 'Champ Levat' Mondeuse Net Price — —
Jean-Yves Peron 2012 'Cidre des Cimes' Vin de Savoie AOC Net Price — —
Reviews
Jean-Yves Peron 2009 'Champ Levat' Mondeuse, Vin de Pays d'Allobrogie
Rating: 89

Peron’s 2009 Champ Levat represents a relatively lightweight (merely 11.5% alcohol) and remarkably polished, downright refreshing Mondeuse. Piquant nuttiness and a light sense of spritz point to low-sulfur, gentle vinification and bottling – which will not be everyone’s preference. But classic varietal aromas of mulberry, black pepper, and violets lead into a correspondingly berry-intense, inner-mouth perfumed, piquant, almost white wine-like performance in which the typical tannins of Mondeuse have been utterly tamed. I would plan on drinking this over the coming year. Growers in the Savoie could do a lot worse than achieving such a distinctive and infectiously drinkable style of Mondeuse ... and, unfortunately, most do! (There is an allegedly more serious Mondeuse bottling from Peron called “Cote Pelee” but by the time I learned of its existence, those bottles of the 2009 that had come to the U.S. had already been snapped up by fans.)

Since 2004, Jean-Yves Peron has cultivated five rocky acres of ancient vineyards nearly as high-up and as close to Albertville as Savoyard viticulture extends. I learned about him too late to visit his domaine last November but was able to sample recently stateside two current releases which demonstrate that this proponent of low-tech, low-sulfur vinification is achieving distinctively delicious results. (Peron’s wines are labeled with neither an appellation controlee nor the name of their cepages.)

- The Wine Advocate (4/30/2012)