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."

"The Quenard family’s long history in the Savoie doesn’t begin with André, but his arrival at the domaine in 1944 marks a turning point in the family’s legacy. When André took over their polyculture farm in the village of Chignin, the wines were still sold only by the barrel to café owners. Around 1960, with a deep-seated belief in the quality of his terroir—before Chignin’s AOC designation in 1976—he began bottling his own wines, championing the steep scree slopes of Torméry, and helping to establish the reputation of an entire winegrowing region along the way. By 1976, his son Michel arrived, and as a duo they were unstoppable, finessing their vineyard work, expanding their holdings, and fine-tuning every detail to produce perfumed and textured whites, robust and nuanced reds. Thirty years later, Michel’s son Guillaume joined the adventure, and for fifteen years the three men worked side-by-side, in whichever ways their various skills permitted. In March of this year, André passed away at the age of ninety-eight. Looking at photos of him harvesting his beloved Bergeron vines well into his silver years, it’s easy to see joy radiating from behind his kind gaze and to glean a sense of fulfillment due, at least in part, to a métier he was so passionate about."--Jane Augustine, Kermit Lynch Imports