Last Chance

Génépi Spirits

Liqueurs Granier
Génépi is "the" Savoyard liqueur; it doesn't get more regional than this. It's entirely organic and artisanal, made by the Granier brothers in the Annecy region and sourced locally.

The Plant
The name "génépi" refers to a family of small alpine wormwoods of the genus Artemisia that are harvested between 2,500 and 3,500 meters above sea level. These highly aromatic and medicinal plants (fighting colds, viral illnesses and digestive disorders) are the main ingredient of the most emblematic liqueur of Haute-Savoie.

Production
Génépi is harvested in the Alps and dried before infusion in 96% organic wheat alcohol, before blending with an organic sugar syrup made by a landowner harvesting in the Palatine Forest. The water comes from the Boubioz spring, near Lake Annecy. No additives are added during production. The liqueur, aged in rum barrels, includes coriander seeds and lemon zest. Unlimited aging potential.

Tasting
Floral, aromatic and of great purity, this liqueur flies the flag of Alpine génépi high. The balsamic note of génépi initially manifests itself with great amplitude and persists in the mouth, supported by light spices (coriander and lemon). A success, to be associated with raw fish or smoked fish of all kinds and of course smoked salmon. The best pairing will be with a raclette.

Learn more about Granier liqueurs
The Granier liqueur factory — two brothers, Vincent and Stéphane Granier — produces artisanal liqueurs from the Haute-Savoie region. Flavor, sweetness, and balance are their great qualities, resulting from a meticulous and measured infusion technique to minimize extraction.

Wild or organically grown
Plants grown organically, or picked in the mountains surrounding Annecy, are obtained through short supply chains and for this reason reflect the flora of the steep meadows or gardens of Haute-Savoie. Everything is organic and without additives, from the initial infusion to bottling.

Intact flavors
During the tasting, we were amazed by the Granier liqueurs, one after the other. Never have such fresh plant flavors been restored to us by liqueurs. We have the sensation of tasting the plant itself, infused in all its singularity, supported by just the right amount of sugar (that is to say, little) organically produced in the Palatine Forest and just the right amount of alcohol. An organic beer alcohol that allows the plant to convey its message without interference. Not only is it delicious, but it's also an excellent digestif. Verbena, genepi, gentian, mint, or meadowsweet—we guarantee you'll have a great time.

Rosso 2012

Le Coste
This generous Italian red is made from a blend composed primarily of Grechetto (a local variety related to Sangiovese), with the secondary grape varieties being Cannaiolo, Colorino, Ciliegiolo, and Vaiano, indigenous varieties planted in the vineyards on the volcanic soils of the Le Coste estate. Fermentation lasts about a month in French oak and chestnut vats. Rosso is then aged in Slovenian oak barrels. At first glance, a beautiful ruby ​​color, a crisp and juicy palate, with notes of red and black fruits.
Natural wine with no added sulfites.

My Sweet Navine White 2015

Les Vignes de Babass Dervieux

A small bottle but a great wine! A sweet white made from 100% Chenin, My Sweet Navine is produced from late harvests on the schist plot where the estate's other Chenins are also grown. A delicate amber color, with notes of citrus and candied fruit on the nose. On the palate, there is a surprising freshness despite the residual sugar: this is explained by the lack of sorting, as the grapes are at varying stages of ripeness. We thus benefit from green berries, ripe berries, and varying degrees of noble rot. and a light sparkle which gives way to a beautiful length, always with notes of candied fruit.
Natural wine without added sulfites.

Ambre Dissolved Red 2023

La Tribu Alonso
Ambre Dissolved is an organic and natural red wine without added sulfites, made in Beaujolais by Cyril Alonso. It is a 100% Gamay grape made from several varieties of this grape and classified as a Vin de France. Its name alludes to the soft clocks painted by Salvador Dalí in his painting Persistence of Memory. According to Dalí, purple is the most harmonious of colors: it is also the color of Ambre Dissolved. A discreet allusion to the surrealist painter appears on the label.

Vinification
The Gamays from which Ambre Dissolve is made, grown organically, grow on a 3-are plot on granite soil with wild grass, in agroforestry and without plowing. Pruned in goblet form, they are four varieties of Gamay teinturiers (i.e., Gamays with black skin and red juice, giving a great density of color to the wine): Gamay de Bouze, Gamay de Troye, Gamay de Fréaux and Gamay de Chaudenay. Harvested by hand, the grapes undergo a five-day semicarbonic maceration, without a starter culture, and ferment with indigenous yeasts. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentations follow one another in fiberglass vats. No additives are added, no sulfites at bottling.

Tasting
Despite a short vatting period, Ambre Dissolved is a very sanguine, mineral, ferrous, slightly earthy and very rustic wine. The color is intense, the nose is spicy, the palate offers a beautiful texture. A very pure, balanced wine, offering a beautiful balance between fruit and minerality. To be paired imperatively with red meats: roasted, grilled, pan-fried, braised or cured. It is a beef wine. It will also appreciate Lyonnaise charcuterie and all regional dishes.

Learn more about the Alonso Tribe
This tribal name refers to Cyril Alonso, winemaker, his wife, naturopath, and their family. They take care, using organic farming methods, of a conservatory of traditional grape varieties from the Rhône-Alpes region located in Marchampt (Rhône), in the heart of the Beaujolais Vert region. This two-and-a-half-hectare ampel library, which has existed since 1952, contained forty grape varieties. It currently contains one hundred and forty. This unique location gives the Tribu Alonso wines their particular style. Instead of being single-varietal microcuvées, they are quite the opposite: wines by grape variety family, either a Chardonnay containing all the Chardonnays of the house or a multi-Gamay Gamay.

A biotope classified in 2008
The estate enjoys a unique ecological location: the house and the vineyard are surrounded by untouched forests, on the steep terrain of northern Beaujolais. Three rivers cross it, and the vines, close to the bedrock, capture all the minerality of the soil. Organic farming is practiced and the work, both in the vineyard and in the cellar, is entirely manual, without the use of any chemical additives or sulfites in the winemaking process.

The wines
Cuvées of co-plantation (and for good reason), the wines of the Tribu Alonso embrace all the complexity of their grape varieties and the viticultural history of Beaujolais. These are carefully crafted wines, made with great care, fermented and aged to the sound of Tibetan bowls, whose alpha waves are beneficial to the liquids. The vatting periods are short, to preserve the freshness and fruit, as well as the signature of the soil and grape varieties.

Foresta Blanc 2021

La Vinicola di Antonio Gismondi
From the outset, the palette is admired: a beautiful, intense amber color, and notes of bitter orange marmalade, spices, and fresh sage on both the nose and palate. Foresta is a powerful and robust wine, yet nuanced and sensitive. Marked by maceration, this orange wine offers a veritable explosion of tropical notes and warm spices on the nose, followed by a vibrant, mineral finish and a strong, dense body. Notes of orange peel, dried apricot, and ripeness are evident: this is more of an autumnal wine than a springtime one. Within the Azienda Gismondi repertoire, it represents the robust and structured side of the winery, while exhibiting the purity and freshness that characterize the estate. It comes from a site a little away from the azienda, at a lower altitude, where the Trebbiano Rosa grape variety grows on heavily clayey soils. This terroir, slightly heavier than that of the estate itself, gives the wine a denser, more intensely flavorful nuance that distinguishes it from wines produced at higher altitudes. Trebbiano Rosa makes up 50% of the blend, with Malvasia di Candia making up the remaining half. The manually harvested grapes macerate on the skins for two weeks in open-topped fiberglass vats, then, after pressing, the wine is transferred to stainless steel vats for aging for six to eight months. Bottled without filtration, sulfite, or additives.

Find out more

Antonio and Anabel Gismondi's azienda is located in Cerreto Sanita, in the Benevento region of Campania. A microclimate gives this area an almost continental feel: humid winds from the Tyrrhenian Sea collide with the first ramparts of the Apennine chain, causing condensation in the air and lowering temperatures, which are significantly cooler and more humid than on the coast. If we add a thermal inversion phenomenon between day and night, common in the Apennine climate, the freshness of the wines from the Antonio Gismondi estate is nothing mysterious in this southern Italy, which is nevertheless known for its very hot climate. The estate is family-run: for generations, the Gismondi family has cultivated vines and made wine using the most traditional and natural methods, to which are added biodynamic techniques. For a long time, of the fifteen tons of grapes produced each year, one ton was reserved for vinification on site for family consumption, the rest going to the local wine cooperative. It was the meeting with Massimo Marchiori and Antonella of Partida Creus [link] that led Antonio and his wife Anabel to decide to start producing their own natural wines from the entire harvest. The two-hectare vineyard is located between 350 and 380 meters above sea level, on clay, loam, and stony soils, with two-thirds facing south, planted with vines around six years old. The rest faces southwest and corresponds to the Pietre and Cerreto cuvées, with vines thirty years old. The grape varieties are Merlot, Freisa, and Sangiovese for the reds, and Falanghina and Malvasia di Candia for the whites.

Cerreto Blanc 2021

La Vinicola di Antonio Gismondi
The nose is marked by citrus (lemon zest), as is the palate: the citrus lingers, the minerality asserts itself. Cerreto, named in homage to the town where it was born, will be a good companion to seafood, shellfish, and raw fish. It is a lively and fresh white wine with a pale yellow color and an acidic, lemony nose with notes of white flowers: gardenia, jasmine, and orange blossom. Cerreto is made entirely from Malvasia di Candia vines, a grape variety also known as Uva di Cerreto. It is a very old local grape variety, even said to be indigenous, a clone of Malvasia di Candia. The vines grow on clay-limestone plots facing southwest. The harvest, carried out manually, undergoes a skin maceration of four or five days in stainless steel vats, followed by pressing and aging for six to ten months, also in stainless steel vats to preserve the purity of the fruit. No sulfites are added, no filtration.

Find out more

Antonio and Anabel Gismondi's azienda is located in Cerreto Sanita, in the Benevento region of Campania. A microclimate gives this area an almost continental feel: humid winds from the Tyrrhenian Sea collide with the first ramparts of the Apennine mountain range, causing condensation in the air and lowering temperatures, which are significantly cooler and more humid than on the coast. If we add a phenomenon of thermal inversion between day and night, common in the Apennine climate, the freshness of the wines from the Antonio Gismondi estate is nothing mysterious in this southern Italy, which is nevertheless known for its very hot climate. The estate is family-run: for generations, the Gismondi family has cultivated vines and made wine using the most traditional and natural methods, to which biodynamic techniques are added. For a long time, of the fifteen tons of grapes produced each year, one ton was reserved for on-site vinification for family consumption, the rest going to the local wine cooperative. It was the meeting with Massimo Marchiori and Antonella de Partida Creus [link] that decided Antonio and his wife Anabel to start producing natural wines at home from the entire harvest. The two-hectare vineyard is located between 350 and 380 meters above sea level, on clay, loam, and stony soils, with two-thirds facing south, planted with vines around six years old. The rest faces southwest and corresponds to the Pietre and Cerreto cuvées, with vines thirty years old. The grape varieties are Merlot, Freisa and Sangiovese for the reds, and Falanghina and Malvasia di Candia for the whites.

Eternel Retour Blanc 2019,

La Sorga
Antony Tortul loves old vineyards: he devotes his life to finding and vinifying them. Just as there are landless shepherds, he can be defined as a landless winegrower, in other words, a wine merchant whose area of ​​activity extends throughout Languedoc and, eastward, as far as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in search of the best terroirs. Born in Foix, with six years of experience as a viticultural technician and oenologist in various vineyards in the south of France, he founded La Sorga in 2008. His enthusiasm leads him on a path filled with favorites, and each of these favorites is a vineyard. The result is a stunning mosaic of natural, lively, and spirited wines, reinvented each year with around thirty cuvées per vintage. Few winemakers can include such a variety of grape varieties on their menu: the whole of southern France is included, with muscats, grenaches, picpoul, mauzac, carignan, cinsault, marsanne, alicante, braucol, duras, viognier, len-de-l’el, and all the rest.
Frédéric Nietzsche, on the label, savors a glass of wine, and we wish him all the best. Does this mean that we are tempted to keep returning to this macerated white? Only tasting will tell you... The grape variety is unique, a yellow mauzac harvested on pudding soil in Castelreng, in the upper Limoux valley. The harvest is done in two selections and the vinification is done in soaking (maceration of berries or whole bunches in must obtained by direct pressing) for forty-five days. The aging, on lees, continues for eight months in vats. This is a wine that will not leave you indifferent with its nose of baked apple confirmed by a sensation of tarte Tatin in the mouth! Also on the nose, sweet spices, saffron, roast juice, we already taste the complexity. On the palate too, complexity, florality, salted butter, and yet freshness. This wine will literally go with everything.
Natural wine with no added sulfites.

Sorga Blanc 2019,

La Sorga
Antony Tortul loves old vineyards: he devotes his life to finding and vinifying them. Just as there are landless shepherds, he can be defined as a landless winegrower, in other words, a wine merchant whose area of ​​activity extends throughout Languedoc and, eastward, as far as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in search of the best terroirs. Born in Foix, with six years of experience as a viticultural technician and oenologist in various vineyards in the south of France, he founded La Sorga in 2008. His enthusiasm leads him on a path filled with love at first sight, and each of these loves is a vineyard. The result is a dizzying mosaic of natural, lively, and spirited wines, reinvented each year with around thirty cuvées per vintage. Few winemakers can include such a variety of grape varieties: the entire south of France is included, with muscats, grenaches, picpoul, mauzac, carignan, cinsault, marsanne, alicante, braucol, duras, viognier, len-de-l'el, and all the rest.
Simply called "white," because it's white. Is that all? The reality is much more complex. This wine comes from a terroir of puddings located in Castelreng, in the Limoux valley. It is composed entirely of yellow mauzac (thirty-year-old vines). The harvest is carried out in two selections, then goes through direct pressing without settling. The aging, on lees, continues for eight months in vats. Pudding is agglomerated pebbles, a soil of fluvial origin: this pebbles is beautifully reflected in the nose of this wine, all white flowers, with notes of lemon and green apple. The palate is extremely refreshing and remarkably mineral (still the pebbles), with a complex and floral finish on white fruits. This white is wonderfully pure, it's rock water, it can accompany a declaration of love if you want to illustrate the purity of your feelings. In other circumstances, serve it with anything fish. It can be kept for about ten years.
Natural wine with no added sulfites.

Rancio - Deuxième Mise White 2009

La Sorga

Natural wine with no added sulfites.

Bruce Blanc 2017, Domaine La Sorga
This white is a blend of 70% Grenache Blanc and Marsanne with 30% Muscat of Alexandria, all organic. The vines grow on Villafranchian limestone in Aspiran (Hérault Valley) and on schist in Vailhan. The Grenache is pressed directly without settling, the Marsanne undergoes a brief maceration while this is seventy days for the Muscat. Everything is aged in vats for eleven months. Lovely aromas of white peach and apricot make this an aperitif wine that will also pair well with Parmesan, enjoyed on its own or cooked, and lightly spiced dishes.
Natural wine with no added sulfites.

Pairs with: Italian cuisine, Middle Eastern cuisine, Hard cheeses

Pierre-Joseph Blanc 2017, La Sorga
This négociant wine, a blend of Grenache Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc, comes from vines grown on Villafranchian limestone soils in Pézenas, in the Hérault Valley. The Grenache Blanc is pressed directly, and the whole bunches of Sauvignon Blanc are left to macerate in the must for forty days. Aging in vats lasts eleven months, giving it notes of pear, boxwood, and yellow peach. Its aging potential is ten years.