2006 Domaine Belluard Gringet Vin de Savoie Le Feu

JancisRobinson.com

• By Jancis Robinson, MW
  5/8/2009, (See more on JancisRobinson.com...)

  (Patrick et Dominique Belluard, Le Feu Gringet Savoie White) Subscribe to see review text.

RJonWine.com

• By Richard Jennings
  7/19/2009, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 92 points

  (Domaine Belluard Gringet Vin de Savoie Le Feu) Medium canary yellow color; mineral, delicately herbal, oregano, thyme and sage nose; tasty tart citrus, mineral, stony, tart peach, pear and ripe grapefruit palate; medium-plus finish 92+ pts.

• By Richard Jennings
  7/6/2009, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 92 points

  (Domaine Belluard Gringet Vin de Savoie Le Feu) Light medium golden yellow color; pear, citrus and chalk nose; tart pear, chalk, mineral, citrus and lime palate with good acidity and focus; medium finish

Garagiste

• By Jon Rimmerman
  9/15/2008, (See more on Garagiste...)

  (LE FEU Belluard Savoie) Feu Dear Friends, Looking for one of the finest white wines in the world? Here you go. I opened this wine over the weekend for a few of my most critical wine friends (who can annoy me to tears with their banter about ph and technical data - bless their hearts) with a bottle of Lafon Charmes and the Le Feu was the first bottle to be finished (the Lafon was pretty spectacular BTW, so this is a bit of a stretch, but the Belluard seemed to intrigue more on this night). This is the super cuvee of the Les Alpes bottling that we offered last year and it is a sublime gem of a wine. As a reminder, Belluard is the Savoie winery that farms high up in the foothills of the French Alps with a direct view of Mount Blanc. They vinify the wine at high elevation and have found that the reduced oxygen and pressure have a dramatic affect on the way the wines ages - it is fresher, more subtle and more complex without sacrificing detail, ripeness and depth. In Europe, this wine is revered as the equivalent of Grand Cru Chablis (the mineral content of Les Clos comes to mind) but the alpine wild flower and herbal character is unique to this wine - take a deep breath with an Olbas inhaler stick while swishing a mouthful of top Chablis and you will be close. Like crushing a Ricola and dipping it in a lemon-tinged piece of stone that lasts and lasts on the palate, Belluard's Le Feu bottling is as precise a reflection of site place as you will find. From the obscure and indigenous Gringet grape (a relation to Savignin) the Le Feu is delicate and forceful - an oxymoron that works in this complex, cerebral and cleansing bottle. Dry as a bone and almost impossible to obtain in France, you have to venture outside the borders to find a few bottles of this delicious white (I've found a few bottles in Belgium and Germany and occasionally it will pop up in the UK but that's it). As is often the case, there was a relationship with this winery for years before an allocation of Le Feu was received and, like so many things in life, it took time to ease into the mutual understanding necessary for coexistence. With many of our top selections, you don't just run into the cellar and say "I'll take 50" - you slow dance back and forth, maybe over a period of years until one day there is enough trust or respect that the phone call comes - often it's within a separate conversation "How was your daughter's graduation", "Oh super, we shared roast pig with 100 town's folk - how about some Le Feu this year?"...and so it goes... Priced like a mid-level Chablis 1er, whatever you don't secure of this top beverage, I'll keep for myself - it's the type of wine I can't have enough of in my personal cellar. The Le Feu will be admired by fans of Sancerre, Huet sec and even stony vintages of Meursault as well as the above mentioned Chablis. An outstanding wine and worth a search to acquaint your palate with a stunning example that is still sensibly priced (this is the very best wine in the region and it's still under $30?) VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as one of the purest expressions of the first light of day on the snow-covered flank of the Alps. EXTREMELY LIMITED 2006 Belluard Vin de Savoie "Le Feu" Thank you, Jon Rimmerman Garagiste Seattle, WA SOFR8780