CHÂTEAU-CHALON > MICHEL TISSOT

Grape Varieties

100% Savagnin, the only vine variety authorized for this wine. Savagnin is a typical Jura variety, flourishing on its grey marl and ripening slowly. This demanding, patient vine variety is the best type for oxidative "film" maturation.

Tasting notes

A subtle wine. Its highly developed, enchanting nose gives off walnut, wild mushroom and spicy aromas.
Its complex, elegant structure is very present in the mouth. A remarkable range of aromas then open up on the palate: well-developed walnut, dried fruit, curry, saffron, and roasted hints.
The finish is long and very persistent.

Food and wine paring

This dry, powerful wine ages wonderfully well. It can also be enjoyed at any moment, from the appetizers to the dessert: Comté cheese, gougères (baked savoury choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese), mushrooms on toast, poultry, white meat or fish with cream sauce and vin jaune, snails, crayfish, risotto, exotic, spicy dishes, Local cheese platters, and walnut cakes. It is also wonderful for making cream sauces.

Serving suggestions

Open bottles one hour before drinking. Serving temperature: 14–16°C (57-60°F).

Ageing potential

This remarkable wine is ready to drink as soon as it is bottled, but can also be kept in a cellar for several generations.

Opened bottles keep for several weeks.

Appellation

Since time immemorial, vines have covered most of the hillsides around the region of Voiteur in the Jura first foothills. Their high quality wines were so appreciated by the Romans (from Pliny the Younger and Martial) that an edict from the Emperor Probus in the year 280, declared that many more vines should be planted on the favourable hillsides of Sequanie (the ancient name for Franche Comte).

The history of the vineyards and the wine of Chateau-Chalon, also known as “vin de gelée” (ice wine) or “vin de garde” (literally, wine to keep) is indivisible from that of the Abbey. The oldest Act found concerning the abbey is a certificate from King Lothaire in the year 869. The abbesses had to prove noble birth for four generations to be admitted to the abbey, and this would explain the dispersal of the Chateau-Chalon wine amongst the noble families from all over Europe. This wine, so precious to the abbesses, was also very much appreciated by kings and emperors. Henri IV drank two bottles when signing his treaty with the Duke of Mayenne!

The "vin de garde" of Chateau-Chalon took pride of place on certain special days, for example the enthronement of Tsar Nicholas II, and on the occasion of her coronation, Queen Juliana of Holland enjoyed a glass!

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