Les Rocailles
As August rolls on and the outline of the Green Mountains is clean and beautiful, the mountain trails lush with vegetation, and the rivers and lakes still cool and refreshing, we are reminded that the mountains for which this glorious state was named are weathered by 480 million years of history. In the spirit of those ancient mountains, we are presenting some delicious Alpine wines this week.
Les Rocailles is a producer nestled in the Savoie region of France—bordered to the north by Switzerland, to the East by Italy, and truly one of the most beautiful places in Europe. The winery (in the shadow of Mont Granier) was begun by Pierre Boniface but with his retirement in 2006, it was taken over by childhood friends and native Savoyards Guillaume Durand and Alban Thouroude.
The first wine, ‘Apremont’ (for ‘after the mountain’) is made with 100% Jacquère, a little white grape little known outside this region. It is clean, bright, crisp, dry, low alcohol, very chuggable, and exactly what we want to drink after a climb up Camel’s Hump or ride in the Kingdom.
The second is their rosé made from Gamay (of Beaujolais fame) and Pinot Noir (of, well, everywhere fame, but closest to Burgundy here!). And this wine is exactly what we want from mountain rosé, it has beautiful brambly red fruit, but isn’t too juicy or jammy. It is dry without being austere. Basically I can drink a whole bottle by myself very happily. Good after that paddle or swim, or just to bring to the shore. Any shore, really.