Damien Carney, the Director of Sales for Direct Markets at Martine’s Wines, shares the story on the newest offering from Domaine des Ardoisieres–the 2015 Cuvée Silice.
Two years ago, I became obsessed with tasting a wine that had never been made. The wine didn’t even exist, the growing season not yet begun, when the idea of it was first presented to me. It was a notion, a pipe dream, a hope. Now, what was once a long-shot request is a reality; a taut yet ripe—and insanely quaffable—bottled reality: 2015 Cuvée Silice from Domaine des Ardoisières.
Brice Omont is making some of the most exciting wines coming from the Savoie. I am not alone in holding this opinion—it has already been documented (Google him or the domaine) and I have no doubt that Domaine des Ardoisières will continue to be recognized as a star in the wine world for years to come. They have already reached cult status in France and are en route to the same fate here in the U.S. We consider ourselves very lucky to have worked with the domaine since the 2012 vintage as the exclusive U.S national importer. And yet, while Brice has been generous enough to give us more wine every year since our first vintage with the domaine, still we asked for more.
We started discussing with Brice the possibility of him making a new cuvée: a hitherto non-existent white wine made entirely of Jacquére and selling at a price even lower than the flagship white wine, the Argile Blanc. It seemed unlikely and too good to be true, but indeed it happened. Brice made good on his promise and sourced fruit from a vineyard just 15 minutes away from his Argile vineyard site. After first discussing it earlier in that year, the first vintage of Silice was produced in 2015 and is now finally bottled, shipped across the ocean and safely resting at 55 degrees in our warehouse.
Now that this speculative wine is here, I can gladly say that it is everything I hoped it would be—fresh and lively mountain wine with that unique high-altitude blend of bright mineral acidity and ripe, sun-kissed stone fruit. I drink it on its own. I drink it with food; with Asian cuisine, with charcuterie. It goes with everything. It’s magic wine.
