2022 Saint-Péray Ongrie

Domaine Alain Voge owns 12 hectares of vineyards, of which eight are in Cornas and four in Saint-Péray. Managing director and partner Lionel Fraisse welcomed me to this small-scale winery. “Back in 2004, the now-late Alain Voge transformed his winery into a small business by appointing a managing partner, Albéric Mazoyer, at its helm, who used to be the technical director at Chapoutier. Since 2018, the year I became managing director, I have had complete management autonomy, and we really stick to this very artisanal and family-operated scheme,” Fraisse points out. While Eliane Voge, wife of the late Alain, still lives on the premises (I was asked to make sure not to block her car with mine in the narrow driveway), their daughter Nathalie, a Lyon-based professor, gets involved in important decisions concerning the estate. “Our last major project was the conversion to organic grape-growing for all the vineyards,” Fraisse continues. “For the whites, we have been certified since the 2009 vintage, and the last reds joined in 2016. Even our sparkling wines are certified organic in the meantime. So, today, everything is certified organic, and we also use biodynamic practices, but without certification.” A transition like this doesn’t come without added costs. According to Fraisse, they have risen by roughly 30%, mainly due to an increased need for manpower. “Today, on our 12 hectares, we have ten people in the entire team. So, it's almost one person per hectare. And of the ten, there are about six people who are solely in the vineyard. It's really the vineyard that requires the most work.”

In addition to those 12 hectares, Fraisse also buys grapes from three hectares in Saint-Joseph (owned by Albéric Mazoyer) and Saint-Péray. One interesting feature of the white wines produced at Alain Voge is that they always undergo malolactic fermentation. “In my philosophy for Saint-Péray-grown Marsanne, even though we don’t have much natural acidity, it is not the acidity that defines freshness. In my view, the freshness of Marsanne is expressed more by its phenolics. And if we block the malolactic fermentation, we would need to add more sulfites, which I don’t want.” Diving further into some of their winemaking practices, most grapes are destemmed, except for very old vines, where they occasionally use small amounts of whole clusters during fermentation. Regarding the percentage of new oak, Fraisse states that it’s up to 20% for both reds and whites, depending on the vintage. Concerning the latest vintages, Fraisse admits, “Two thousand twenty-one was a complicated vintage. There was a lot of rain, so it was essential to control disease pressure. And then, adapting to the vintage meant not harvesting too early because the ripening process was very slow. When I returned from my summer vacation on August 16th, nothing had changed. So, at the same time, we had to wait, wait, wait. Finally, we started harvesting on September 13th, very late compared to other recent vintages. I soon decided that I would chaptalize half a percentage, harvesting at 12% for my regular plots and at 12.5% for my old vines, and then chaptalize a little. The last grapes were harvested on October 3rd for the Cornas Chapelle Saint-Pierre.” Tasting the various wines of 2021 shows a mixed picture. While the Côtes-du-Rhône Les Peyrouses and the Saint-Joseph Les Côtes are rather thin and herbaceous, the Saint-Péray Fleur de Crussol, Cornas Chapelle Saint-Pierre and Cornas Les Vieilles Vignes show plenty of substance and freshness. Moving on to the 2022s, Fraisse reported that the drought-like conditions resulted in fairly low overall juice yields. Luckily, there was no blockage of phenolic ripeness during the entire growing season, with harvest commencing at the end of August. All the 2022 wines show more ripeness, substance and energy than the 2021s, always maintaining elegance. Apart from the delicious, barrel-fermented Saint-Péray Ongrie, readers can expect promising results from the three different Cornas bottlings: Les Chailles, Les Vieilles Vignes and most importantly, Les Vieilles Fontaines. Although the savory 2012 Cornas Les Vieilles Fontaines clearly came from a more concentrated and opulent era, it provided a fine ending to this visit.