i Vicini Barbera Red 2019

i Vicini Barbera Rouge 2019,

Jean-Yves Peron

He began by studying biochemistry, but Jean-Yves quickly became drawn to the vineyard and trained as an oenologist in Bordeaux. He learned his trade as a winemaker with Thierry Allemand in Cornas, then with Bruno Schueller in Alsace, before spending some time in New Zealand and the United States. His trading activity, which he began in 2011, allows him to buy the harvest from organic winegrowers near his home, but also in Northern Italy: for him, it gives a new dimension to his work as a winemaker, allowing him to multiply the terroirs and to deepen his experiences in winemaking and aging.
Near Lake Annecy, Jean-Yves Péron skillfully combines committed viticulture and merchant winemaking, both under the sign of nature. His Mondeuse reds are magnificent, his whites from old local grape varieties – Jacquère, Altesse, Bergeron, Persan – are no less so. He lives in Chevaline, but his current vineyard, three hectares biodynamic since the beginning, is divided between Conflans, near Albertville, and Fréterive, a little downstream in the Isère Valley.
Jean-Yves Péron's winemaking follows the principles of minimal intervention. On narrow and steep surfaces, his mountain vines receive no synthetic products, Jean-Yves preferring horsetail and nettle manure. The surrounding vegetation is very rich: it protects the vines and helps to strengthen them. The soils are grassed, mown and reworked with a pickaxe and winch. The harvest is entirely manual. Once vatted in whole bunches, the grapes, both red and white, undergo a semi-carbonic maceration which allows the extraction of fresh fruit aromas. This maceration time varies between five days and nine weeks depending on the vintage. The day before or two days before pressing, Jean-Yves performs foot-treading directly in the vat. After this fermentation, the musts are sent to barrels for aging on lees for twelve months in five hundred liter barrels of two or three wines (to limit the woody sensation), followed by blending and resting in vats. No sulfites are added, or as little as possible, and the wines are not fined or filtered. Savoyard wine has long suffered from a somewhat flimsy image, not taken seriously enough. Yet, what treasures its varied soils and numerous ancient grape varieties produce! Jean-Yves Péron embodies the rebirth of this beautiful vineyard. In 2017, Jean-Yves Péron decided to expand his range by harvesting organic grapes in the heart of the Italian Piedmont. This resulted in several vintages, including this 100% Barbera red. The second most widely used red grape variety in Italy after Sangiovese, Barbera produces full-bodied, colorful wines with notes of red fruits. This is the case with this one, fresh and fruity, a little lighter than the average Barbera with a delicious carbonic acidity. Its style is closer to that of Champ Levat. Long, generous, a great wine to savor.