Exclusive: 2019 Domaine Chevillard, St Jean De La Porte Mondeuse

October 18, 2023

St Jean de la Porte is one of the most beautiful places in the world. A tiny village tucked into the French Alps whose breathtaking scenery is out of a dream. It’s surrounded by tiny vineyards dotting towering, all-encompassing snow-capped peaks. Treacherously steep inclines and poor soils make these sites extremely hard to farm, and the reason the village has been bestowed Cru status. One of only two Crus in the entire region of Savoie.

If wine’s true magic lies in its ability to transmit a singular place, today’s wine does it as well as any wine I have ever tasted. Made from Savoie’s indigenous variety Mondeuse, whose dark fruits, minty pine essence and streak of peppery spice place it nowhere else on earth. This wine's ethereal, lifted aromas coupled by a hearty, deeply concentrated palate captures the beautiful, rugged, awesome French Alps vivdly and remarkably.

It’s a wine crafted by not only one of the finest winemakers in the appellation, but after a recent visit, I’m convinced Chevillard’s Matthieu Goury is one of the most talented vignerons in France. Every wine tasted at this domaine was stunning.

Today, I’m proud to offer the only bottles of 2019 Domaine de Chevillard, St Jean de la Porte Mondeuse in South Carolina. As well as a small selection of the rare, tiny production 2016 'La Mort'.

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100% Mondeuse grown organically on limestone and ferrous clay soils. The hand harvested grapes are de-stemmed and fermented using indigenous yeast in concrete. Fermentation is long, slow and gentle so as to not over-extract this naturally dark skinned variety. Aged for 11 months in used French oak prior to bottling without filtration.

The opaque color is reflected in the aroma: blackberry, boysenberry, violet, pepper and a touch of eucalyptus. The palate is at once dense and lithe, awash in more sappy, dark berry fruit with slight herbal undetones that lead to a long, concentrated finish accented by a touch of cacao nib. A stunningly beautiful wine.

Matthieu Goury’s family have lived and farmed in the Combe de Savoie valley for generations. He named his domaine after the tiny village where his grandparents live, and where he purchased a stone farmhouse built in 1703. He lives with his wife and children upstairs, while making wine in the extremely compact (read: cramped) stone cellars downstairs.

His wines show an exceptionally deft touch for a young winemaker. Despite his minimalist approach in the cellar, the wines are clean, bright, and supremely refined. At their best, these wines display a truly chiseled brilliance that cuts to the very heart of what the Savoie does so well.