BRASSERIE DES VOIRONS
Bière Vivante D’Aligoté 2022
Savoie, France
A blonde fermented and aged on the lees of a maceration of Aligoté from vigneron Yann Durieux for six months in old Burgundian barriques. A richer, more powerful style, the structure is tempered with the kind of acidity and drive we’d expect from the best examples of the grape.
Aligoté Lees, Hops
The Brasserie des Voirons is run by Barbara and Christophe Grellier in the Haute-Savoie village of Lucinges, which sits some seven hundred metres above sea level in the shadow of Mont Blanc.
Christophe worked as a chef in haute cuisine temples such as Tour d’Argent and Marco Pierre White. Barbara was born in the Loire and her father was a caviste who introduced her to the great wines of France at a young age. For years she travelled Europe as a dancer, before an injury cut her career short and she returned home to dive deep into her love of wine, getting to know many of the country’s most talented vignerons in the process.
The two settled in Lucinges in 2003, opening a small auberge serving food from the region alongside their favourite wines. They ran it for a decade before closing their doors in 2013 to take over the village’s tiny brewery.
The beers are brewed with the pristine alpine water of Voirons, which draws from the same source as Evian. The quality of the water lends the beers a luminous, nourishing character which provides the perfect foundation for the creativity that ensues. All other ingredients are of the best quality and are sourced with the utmost respect for nature, and the brasserie has been certified as organic by Nature et Progrès.
All beers are wild fermented and might be aged on the lees of the wines of some of France’s most decorated vignerons, often in the same barrels in which the wine was raised, or infused with citrus, berries, wildflowers and foraged herbs in vats, casks, concrete eggs, or terracotta amphorae. Bottled unpasteurised and unfiltered, they evolve beautifully over time.
Pure, vibrant and invigorating, they are amongst the most delicious and compelling beers we have tried.