Jean-Yves Peron is a young winemaker patiently reviving 100-year-old high-altitude vines in the French Alps region of Savoie.

Peron was born and raised in Savoie. After studying oenology in Bordeaux in the late 1990s, he trained with natural winemakers Thierry Allemand and Jean-Louis Grippat in the Rhône Valley and Bruno Schueller in Alsace—both of whom he considers mentors.

In 2004, he returned to his homeland to begin his own domain in the commune of Chevaline, where he acquired an estate of forgotten 115–130 year old pre-phylloxera Jacquere and Mondeuse vines that rise to between 350-500 metres in elevation.

The total 3.5 hectares of vines is a patchwork of several micro-parcels of Mondeuse and Jacquere, as well as Altesse and Roussanne varietals, rooted in rocky schist soil. The vines have been densely planted at 10,000/ha and are very low yielding.

In reverence to this ancient terroir, Peron farms following organic and biodynamic practices, but doesn’t see the need for certification. He approaches winemaking with a non-interventionist mindset, with no filtering and fining, using little to no sulphur, and only indigenous yeasts. – Suppliers notes