I really enjoy whites from the Savoie region and so I picked up this 2011 Jean Perrier Chignin-Bergeron at the downtown Co-op the other day without realizing the difference between it and the mostly-Apremonts Savoies I've had in the past. For the uninitiated, Chignin is a specific village and 'Bergeron' is their name for the grape Roussanne which they alone in that region grow and bottle, like this wine, unblended. To my knowledge I've never had a cool climate Roussanne before. Perrier is a producer whose been around since the mid-1800's. (Does anyone else, like me, sip these days with a glass in one hand and an iPad in the other to look all this stuff up?)
Where other Savoies I've had have been fairly close to colorless, this wine is pale straw gold and has an oily shimmer you can see in the glass. The nose is big and rich with apple and chamomile in a way that's slightly reminiscent some Fino sherries I've had, which is not to say it's oxidative, it's definitely not. On the palate there's more apple, some dried herbs and baked winter squash that slides into a long, balanced finish. Overall, it's dry and mildly savory without the floral quality I associate with roussanne, and unexpectedly serious. Excellent; a very autumnal style of white wine.