Franck Peillot (Bugey)

Franck Peillot on his steep Altesse vineyard (Montagnieu in the far) Montagnieu, Bugey (Savoie)
This is not an obvious reality for most of us who are not familiar with the topography of the Bugey and Savoie vineyards, but Franck Peillot, while standing on his steep Altesse vineyards with the village of Montagnieu in the background, can contemplate the Rhone river further down in the valley. We are here 67 km from Lyons by road (in fact much less in direct distance) and as upstream from Lyons, the Rhone flows from the east, this Bugey wine region finds itself with south-east exposition right along the famed river. The wine region is today a fraction of what it used to be one or two centuries ago, when it produced wines not only for the villages around, but for the Lyon area. There were 7000 hectares here in the 19th century while the whole surface of Bugey is today about 500 hectares. The three terroirs of Bugey are Montagnieu, Cerdon and Manicle (which grows Pinot Noir and Chardonnay).
There are about 15 vignerons working on the terroir of Montagnieu, Franck Peillot himself is the 5th generation to take the reins of this small family property. At the beginning, he and his father had only Altesse (also known as the Roussette de Savoie) and Mondeuse on their 1,5 hectares of vineyards. These two varieties, the first being white, the latter red, are emblematic of the region, and are hardly found anywhere else. When Franck Peillot began to work in the family vineyards, he began to plant additional varieties, first Chardonnay then Pinot Noir. Today, the vineyard surface of his estate is 6 hectares, with roughly 2 hectares of Altesse, 2 hectares of Mondeuse, 1 hectare of Chardonnay and 1 hectare of Pinot Noir. The winery sits just outside of the charming village of Montagnieu, at a very short distance from these scenic slopes planted with Altesse.

The Altesse vineyard with the Rhone in the far Franck Peillot replanted some Chardonnay because, in the Appellation, the natural sparklings with Altesse were replaced with méthode-Champenoise sparklings. Until 1981, they used to make natural sparklings which has deposits in the bottle, this wine was sparkling because of the spontaneous re-fermentation of Altesse wines. This is a feature of Altesse : it is known for never completing its fermentation, especially when you don't add yeasts. this wine used to re-ferment after winter when the temperature went up again. That's the kind of unvoluntary sparkling that became a tradition and that the people of Lyons learnt to like along the centuries. In the 19th century, casks of Bugey wines were transported to Lyons, along with stones from the famed Villebois quarry, which were used for construction there. Once in the cellars of the bouchons Lyonnais (the restaurants in lyons), the wine would begin to ferment again and become sparkling, and the people of Lyons liked it this way.
Back in 1981 : this deposit or turbidity in the natural sparkling was a bit of a problem at that time : people were not that open as they can be today when it comes to turbidity and sediments, so the vignerons tried another sparkling method. In 1982, Franck Peillot himself tried to make a first méthode Champenoise try with Altesse, to circumvent this turbidity problem, but the results were mixed, with a bitter type of sparkling typical when you champanize grapes which are too rich. the natural bond to tie the Altesse foliage The méthode Champenoise was a good way to avoid turbidity, but the Altesse didn't yield the best results in terms of mouth feel and so he planted Chardonnay, a variety which was already used with success by some of his colleagues. Recently, he also added along the Chardonnay some Mondeuse pressed directly, either having them fermented together, or blending them right after the alcoholic fermentation if they were not syncron.
But Frank Peillot also makes a still-wine Altesse. He and his father (who is pictured on right) never added Chardonnay in it even if it was allowed in the Appellation rules. This was not as easy compared when you add the exuberant Chardonnay, which can adapt and satisfy the average consumer on whatever terroir it grows, but they considered that a 100 % Altesse would give a better expression of this terroir, so they kept it as such, and they even increased its planted surface. Let's remind that the Cru Montagnieu has a very small surface, it's about 30 hectares in total, and the Altesse gives its best on these steep slopes which get hot during the summer days. There are limestone cliffs above on the hill which store lots of heat too. The terroir of Montagnieu is the last outpost of Jura which overlooks the Rhone, it's 600 meters high but the vineyards don't go that high of course. On the two extremities of this terroir, there are thick marls laying on a rock table, whi ch give good result on white wines.
The Altesse vines go quite high, like more than 2 meters at adult age, each plant being tied to its pole, on échalas, like in Chateau Chalon or in Côte Rôtie. The goal is to ventilate correctly the foliage and the grapes. To tie the foliage, Franck Peillot uses a natural fiber (picture above). The vatroom On the very steep vineyards, he avoids to disturb the upper soil in a way that could make the earth flow dow, he uses weedkillers once a year, either at spring or at autumn. He otherwise manages the vineyard with conventional sprayings but a minimal way with the goal to refrain from spraying very early long before the harvest. He wants to let the vineyard free of sprayings (including copper and sulphur) from, say, august 4th, so that nothing from the treatments makes its way to the harvest time.
The work in the vineyard is particularly difficult on the steep slopes, Franck says that in summer, if he compares the time needed to plow a machine-friendly flat plot with the time needed to till one of these very steep slopes like on the pictures above, there's a difference between 1 to 5, and though, he doesn't sell his wines 5 times more than the ones made from the flatland : his sparkling is sold at the estate (public price) 7,1 € and his Altesse (still white wine) only 8,3 €. I didn't take notes during my tasting here in the cellar (there are times you just want to enjoy...) but this Altesse really stood up, it was a beautiful silky mouth with at the same time a deep range aromas and a solid minerality.
The other interesting wine for me was his Mondeuse 2009, this local Bugey grape variety has similarities with Syrah, he says. The nose was of a beautiful Gamay type, with lots of fruit. In the mouth, it's was still tannic, but with tight grains. I'd love to have one of these bottles in, say, a year from now.
To finish with the rates here, the Pinot Noir (we didn't taste, alas) and the Chardonnay cost 6,1 €, then as said above, the sparkling Montagnieu cost 7,1 €, then the Mondeuse cost 7,5 €. there's also the sparkling Reserve Chardonnay which costs 8,1 €.
You often taste bottles from other vignerons when you visit open-minded vintners, and here, after tasting his own sparklings, we were treated with some Sélosse and a very nice bottle of Crozes-Hermitage 2007 by Alain Graillot, a Syrah with inky aromas and incense. I think these bottles may have been brought by two cavistes from Lyons who were visiting him right when we dropped. These guys seem to know wines like crazy, be sure to visit their wine shop in Lyons : La Cave D'Alienor. The old press, cement vat on the right Franck shows us an old press with its cement base which they used until 2000. There's also a wooden sledge that Franck holds on the pic, and which as I understood, allowed to bring down or up the grapes during the harvest. Now, for the press, they use a pneumatic press which can work very smoothly, like at a pressure of 1,8 bar for example.
For the vinification, he tries to use as much as possible the indigenous yeasts, which is the case on 90 % of the cases. On the red wines, he works differently, he makes a pied de cuve, that is he and his aides go in the vineyard to pick, say, 6 hundred-liter containers of grapes that they will stomp with the feet. He will have this pied de cuve start to ferment with the adding of lab yeasts so that when the real harvest begins two days later he can have his vats ferment without delay. It helps him avoid the use of SO2 at the arrival of the grapes. The rapid start of the fermentation helps avoid the aromas deviations or the volatile bursts, and also at the same time the use of SO2. The only SO2 he'll add for the reds will be at the end for bottling, and it'll be about 25 mg total, which will make some 15 free.
For the whites, he adds some SO2 at the press, like 5 grams, and he waits that the fermentation starts by itself Virgile, that is a dog ! This picture shows (in addition to his lovely dog Virgile) the tool used to move bottled sparklings together and settle the lees at the top of the bottles in order to them remove the deposits and replace them with a dosage or with the same wine. Franck Peillot stopped making natural sparklings in 1982, and changed for the méthode Champenoise which avoided the turbidity issue. The white grapes (Chardonnay, Altesse) are pressed and put to ferment, including the Mondeuse which makes a small part of his sparkling blend. The resulting juice is put to ferment like a still wine, in vats. He tries to have the Mondeuse ferment with the other white juices because he discovers that it yields better aromatic results. In december or more generally january to march, depends, he will take this wine, will add some sugar plus yeasts and will have it ferment again in bottles closed with crown caps. The bottles will stay lying on lattes, and the fermentation will last about 2 to 3 weeks in there, but he'll leave these Montagnieu sparkling bottles lying in that position for about a year. The long exchange with the lees bring something important to the wine. there after, after this long laying down, he will process to the degorgeage and replace the lees (which are the size of the crown cap and only about one-centimeter thick) with dosage or same wine. There'll be a bit of sulphur at this stage with the dosage or the wine complement. He does this last operation in the winery with a machine that he bought on the CUMA system with 4 other vignerons near there. This machine doesn't freeze the top of the bottle, but reproduces the manual movement of the degorgeage without loosing much wine.

Franck Peillot sells most of his wine at the estate or to local restaurants (75 %) and 10 % is exported to the United States (Dressner Selections) and 5 % to other countries (Canada - British Columbia - Racine Wine Imports; Holland - Vijnvriend, Belgium - Mostade Hennebert and Germany).
About 2010, Franck says that it will be a very nice vintage. 2009 was very round and very pleasant while the wines of 2010 will be very aromatic and will give plerasure during a longer time as they will age better probably, thanks to a very nice complexity and its particular acidity. Domaine Franck Peillot01470 Montagnieuphone +33 4 74 36 71 56franckpeillot [at] aol [dot] com View on vineyards between Montagnieu and Crept

Comments

[Riccardo]

Montagnieu of Frank Peillot is a very good sparkling wine!

[Bruno]

With some friends I had the experience of meeting Frank and his wine few months ago, we had great time, Frank is an open mind person and very kind with us to show the beauty of his wineyards and the process in winery, the two wines we tasted Altesse and the sparkling Montagnieu gives a reasons to to a 2.000 km trip to visit him

[Bobby Frank]

Just had (September, 2011) a bottle of 2006 Bugey Mondeuse (red grape) and found it just delightful. Still youthful, bursting w/ aromas of fraises des bois. On the palate, the wild strawberry character was even more pronounced, with crunchy acidity and a clean and persistent finish. Makes me want to visit the area.