Almost unrecognised in global wine terms, 75% to 80% of Savoie’s wine production is consumed locally, according to the local tourist office. Compared to other better-known wine regions, such as Bordeaux – where diminished national consumption has shrunk domestic sales and driven exports – that’s quite a feat. Plus, in another contrast with much of the rest of the country, demand is currently outstripping supply. None of that, however, should lead one to think the locals are all sloshed. Instead, the interlinked elements of the current wine shortage are simply a booming tourist trade and a producer-wide trend toward cutting yields and boosting quality.
Skiing destination
Known for its Alpine scenery and Swiss-like atmosphere – Savoie and Switzerland have the same white cross on red background flag, and it often appears on bottles – millions of visitors descend on the region every year for skiing or summer sojourns. Both types of traveller are keen to guzzle Savoie’s wines and feast on its cheeses.
One of the surprising results of having such a strong local market is the area’s central wine bureau does not, as yet, have any sales figures. “Our market is heavily impacted by tourism and traditionally our wines almost sold themselves, so we never really kept sales records,” said Franck Berkulès, communications manager for the Savoie Wine Producers Committee (Comité Interprofessionnel des Vins de Savoie).
To demonstrate the current balance between demand and supply, one producer, Michel Quenard, of the three-generations- strong independent family winemakers, André et Michel Quenard, said sales of his wines in 2013 reached 116,000 hL, while production was only 108,000 hL. “So you see, we are a niche market but we can definitely develop.”
Quenard’s family is one of the biggest independent winemakers in the region. Like many, he mainly produces whites, notably a Chignin-Bergeron and a Roussette Savoie that uses the Altesse grape. Reds include a Chignin Gamay and a Mondeuse, both of which are aged and some of which is aged in oak barrels.
In total, the Savoie region produces 125,000 hL a year from 2,200 ha of vines, only a tiny fraction of France’s total of 48m hL a year, but, as Berkulès and Quenard point out, if demand outstrips supply, such figures can be irrelevant. Nothing lasts forever though, and the creeping pinch of competition has finally been felt, leading to the recent commissioning of a market study.
“Over the last 10 to 15 years we saw, little by little, competition from other areas, such as Bordeaux, Burgundy and Languedoc growing and we noticed it was affecting our sales,” Berkulès said. Hence the need to focus on firstly measuring consumption and secondly protecting and supporting it.
As well as drinking ‘sur place’ the tourist industry has also driven a relatively robust level of export demand, considering the region’s small size and current zero promotions strategy, notably in markets such as the US and the UK, as well as other areas of France – which in the current context could almost fall into the export category.
“Tourism is our shop window. Our clients are more and more demanding and more and more international. There is a lot of gastro-tourism and ski tourism,” said Quenard. “This helps raise demand both locally and internationally, because when people go home, to Paris or to America, they want to buy our wines.”
For Quenard, exports currently represent only about 10% of his sales, and the main markets are the US, the UK and Belgium. Of the rest, about 60% is sold domestically to French restaurants and wine shops and about 30% is direct sales from the property, or shipments to private clients.
Tight supply
Asked if the pressure on wine supply – which has been exacerbated in the last few years by poor weather conditions in 2012 and 2013 and comes on top of the generally higher costs of growing on the steep Savoie slopes that disqualify the use of machines – might push prices higher, Quenard said no. “We want our wines to be accessible to everyone and to be good value for money,” he said. As if to ease the current supply burden, the 2014 harvest has been one that has “astounded” producers with its high quality and better volumes. “That was thanks to the very good, sunny weather in September,” he said.
Additionally, Quenard said his prime objective is raising quality. “We spend a great deal of time in our vineyards. We respect the terroir. All our decisions and all our work is governed by one priority – maintaining the highest possible quality. That and our respect for the environment and the terroir.”
The quality sentiment is echoed around the region and at the area’s biggest co-operative, which has just spent €6m ($6.87m) upgrading facilities. “Our main focus over the last 12 years has been raising our quality levels by lowering our volumes, increasing our selection process and investing in our winemaking, vineyard and storage processes,” said Cruet Co-op president, Patrick Descotes. Ten years ago Cruet was producing 80 hL per hectare. Now it is more like 50 hL per ha and Descotes said he aims to keep production at that level. Asked about the issue of demand outstripping supply and pricing, Descotes also said he has no stock, for all the same reasons of growing demand, poor weather and reduced volumes. But he said planting more vines is not an option. He does, however, see prices rising, if only slowly. “We have enough vines. We are not considering any further planting. Prices for our wines will rise, yes, but slowly and reasonably.”
All of which suggests that those currently buying Savoie wines are onto a good thing. Wine merchants agree, with one saying that although the market for Vins de Savoie is still very small, they see demand rising in the US because these are still one of the “undiscovered gems in France and prices are very competitive for such high quality.”
In the UK the view is similar. At Yapp Brothers Wine Merchants, which stocks three Savoie whites and a red, wine consultant Jackie Dyer said in an email that although few drinkers would be familiar with Savoie wines unless they’d visited the area, the wines offer a relatively low alcohol content, a good price/quality ratio – Yapp’s Savoie range retails at €12.00 to €19.00 - and the guarantee of something a bit different. Dyer also said the new Crémant de Savoie appellation, of which the first vintage will be 2014, should give greater depth to the region’s offering when the first bottles are released in the winter of 2015.
While Berkulès obviously supports the Savoie-wide trend toward reduced volumes and higher-quality production, he says it’s not without a downside, namely that the region will lose its reputation as a winegrowing area. ”Twenty years ago everyone knew we made wine. There were lots of winemakers. Seven years ago we had 600 members. Now we have 480.”
He said that although the vineyard area has not changed significantly in this time, the wine sector is consolidating, with bigger producers buying up the smaller ones. “That’s another problem. Plus the fact that vineyard area is under threat from all kinds of things: ski station growth, commercial property growth. Land for a house in the right place is worth a million Euros. Bottles of wine, by contrast, sell at €6.00 or €7.00 and it's not an easy life.”
New prominence
But even as numbers shrink, nationally and internationally prominent winemaking names are emerging. Michel Grisard of Domaine Grisard, who believes the low alcohol nature of Savoie’s wines, its unusual grape varieties and the rising quality of its wines are all part of its growing prominence, is one. “People are looking beyond Chardonnay, Merlot and Pinot Noir,” he said. “In the coming years, this diversity will be very much sought after. We have really extraordinary grape varieties. We also have a great diversity of soils.”
Grisard, whose wines are all biodynamic and retail at between €25.00 and €90.00, is widely respected for his Mondeuse, the grape which he believes is “pulling the region forward”. Next up, he predicts, will be another red variety, Persan. Grisard, who is described by admirers as a “grand vigneron Savoyard” likes to tell a story that demonstrates the traditionally lowly image of Savoie wines.
“In 1991 I knocked on every restaurant door in Paris, the year before the Winter Olympic Games were held there, to get them to try my wines,” he recalls. “The Crillon was my first big sale. The sommelier at the Crillon, Monsieur Maître loved the wine. He often told the story of how he once suggested two guests try it. They refused at first, but he said he would change the wine if they didn’t like it. But they did like it and it turned out to be two gentlemen from the Michelin guide.” Grisard’s Mondeuse was listed on the Crillon's list for many years, until a change of ownership.
Among other wines, Grisard also makes a white Jacquère, which for all its vin de ski connotations; he calls a ‘grand cepage’, and which the Giachino brothers at Domaine Giachino, for example, are also “really doing great things with”.
Indeed, the quality and typicity of the Savoie grapes is such that the Producers Committee is also carrying out a soil study, said Berkulès, partly to study the soil itself and partly to see if the region’s range of specialised grape varieties are planted in the most suitable spots. An effort which of itself seems to put quality efforts at a new level.
The region’s tourist office, Savoie Mont Blanc Tourism, is also working closely with producers to support cross-border wine tourism activities. Initiatives include the opening of a Maison du Vins de Savoie for tastings and wine discovery courses, as well as exhibitions at the Museum of Wine and Vine and the opening of the co-operative Cave de Chautagne to visitors, said the Tourist Office’s Corinne Raih, who deals with international markets. The office is also looking at working with vineyards in neighbouring Italy to identify other oneotourism opportunities.
Asked what he would do if he were given a magic wand and one wish, Berkulès said simply he would “change the image of us as producers of 'vin de ski' and 'vin de raclette'. “We produce some really great wines. I would like us to be known for that.”
