Savoie Vintage Reports

Domaine des 13 Lunes (Apremont), Sylvain Liotard

The 2020 vintage was a vintage of confirmation for us in these beginning years as our understanding and savoir faire evolve. Things were done with more serenity and technical certainty for our 4th vintage (5th but the first, 2016, was not really ours).

As in every year, there were climatic events to remind us that we are but small things (hail on the Mondeuses, half of the Roussette and Abymes) but a very honorable crop in the end. We had a joyous harvest with an extraordinary team who put a smile into all our wines, thank you to them.

We bought an old 12hl foudre for the Mondeuse to try to avoid reduction. New stainless steel vats for the whites to extend the aging on lees a little longer without tiring the wine.

We have created a new cuvée, the 13 Bulles, it is a method ancestral, non-disgorged, of Jacquère, a “natural” wine offering, a little cloudy and almost dry, unaltered. It is to offer the customer the wine as if it were coming straight from vat.

Domaine des 13 Lunes (Apremont), Sylvain Liotard

The 2019 vintage was the vintage of confirmation for me (my third year), in spite of being a growing season of all possible climatic accidents.

We had frost, hail, violent winds and 3 months of drought. I was anxious to protect the grapes.In the end, the losses were not too bad, (15 to 20%).

The acidities are for the monent high, a real mountain wine.

The maturities were very good but heterogeneous, resulting in quite a bit of millérandage (mixed sized berries and partial crop failure).

The fermentations are quite variable, according to different parcels. Those that got hail are taking more time.

I really like these wines to come, I think that they will have great personality.

I just finished (end October) putting the wines in tank or in barrel to finish fermentations and for maturing.

Autumn work begins, earthing-up the vines, treating of the soils, replacing certain vines and a bit of commerce.

Domaine des 13 Lunes (Apremont), Sylvain Liotard

The 2018 growing season went well, but narrowly so. Spring was very wet, with incessant rains, which is very hard on the vines. However, at flowering, around the 15th of June, beautiful and dry weather arrived, and continued for 4 months. The grapes ripened early (mid September). Harvests took place in very warm weather. We harvested in the morning only (by hand). The grapes are beautiful and very healthy. It is a “sunny” vintage with acidities that are a bit lower than usual. The musts are quite charged with solids and racking is difficult. Overall the fermentations went well, the malolactics too. The 2018 vintage will be ready to drink before the 2017 for the “vins de garde” (mondeuse, rousette). It is charming vintage that is easy to drink.