2019 Les Vignes de Paradis Un p’tit coin de Paradis Chasselas

WINEMAKER: Dominique Lucas
VARIETAL: Chasselas
REGION: Savoie, FR
VITICULTURE: Certified Biodynamic

P’tit Coin de Paradis comes from a small parcel of 25-year-old Chasselas vines planted lower on the slope closer to Dominique’s house. The wine is vinified using only native yeasts and is raised in a combination of concrete eggs and neutral demi-muid barrels that are giving slight oxidative notes.

Dominique Lucas has chosen what many would seem an idealistic pursuit, to make Chasselas in the Savoie that stands with the best white wines of France. Despite the grapes low reputation Dominique has been planting the on serious terroirs overlooking Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) and farming them biodynamically since day one. Lucas is a 5th generation winemaker who migrated from his native Burgundy, frustrated with the region’s reliance on chemicals. He landed at a small local winery at Ballaison, on the shore of Lake Geneva. Here, he founded Les Vignes de Paradis, where he trains vines in a chaotic, unpruned method reminiscent of Burgundy’s Lalou Bize-Leroy.