Guillaume Quenard 2021 Mondeuse Noire "La Voie Royal", Savoie

Kermit Lynch Imports' Tom Wolf: 

"Guillaume Quenard represents the third generation of his family to helm A. & M. Quenard, the domaine named for his grandfather and father, André and Michel. But, like a member of a band who yearns to pursue their own solo experiments on the side, Guillaume has also recently begun to bottle wines under his own name. Voie Royale is one of three such cuvées, each of which pays homage to a period of Savoie’s illustrious history. Named for the road that runs by the vineyard—consecrated as a “royal road” by Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel II in the 19th century—Voie Royale is the only rouge in Guillaume’s trilogy, originating from organically farmed Mondeuse vines planted in 1956 on near-vertical slopes of limestone scree.
     While the vinification of the family domaine’s old-vine Mondeuse remains fairly constant year after year, for his own bottling Guillaume is testing a range of aging vessels—foudre and concrete egg alike—as well as maceration times, depending on the vintage. For the 2021 rendition, he aged this Voie Royale entirely in foudre, and the result is an utterly distinctive, perfumed, and stony rouge evoking freshly pressed grapes, tart fruit, and violets."