This week’s Tasting Highlights spotlights several French regions and wines, including one of France’s most fascinating yet lesser-known regions, Savoie, a high, mountainous area tucked in the Alps near the border with Switzerland. Vintners work with a range of unique, mostly white grapes, many of which are specific to this part of Eastern France, and the wines express the fresh, herbal and minty notes of their alpine origins. Those wines and more are featured below, with bottles priced as low as $16.
Wine drinkers looking for a delicious introduction to the Savoie region should seek out the wines of Didier & Denis Berthollier, brothers working on the farm their great-grandfather founded in 1850. Their Chignin Bergeron Exception, a salty and fresh white with loads of concentrated ripe fruit, is crafted from Roussanne (known locally as Bergeron). Their Coup de Théatre cuvée—a blend of Bergeron and Jacquère, an Alpine grape native to Savoie—shows similar complexity with racy energy and salty minerals supporting plump, generous fruit.
This lineup also features a pair of values from Jean Perrier & Fils in Savoie, Sauvignon Blanc, Alsace Riesling and blends from Southern France. Read on to get our scores and expert tasting notes for all eight of these fantastic French white wines.
Tasting Highlights’ wine reviews are fresh out of the tasting room, offering a sneak peek of our editors’ most recent ratings—including scores and full tasting notes—to WineSpectator.com members.
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