{"title":"Les Vignes de Paradis","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt’s an unlikely story — a man falls in love with an obscure grape, and moves his life and his work to turn it into some of the most soulful wines we’ve tasted in some time. The grape is Chasselas, the place is the Savoie, and the man is Stéphane Lucas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eStéphane could have set up shop in Pommard, as the 5th generation farmer\/winemaker at his family’s estate there. Finding the AOC’s rules and regulations too restrictive, though, he decamped to the mountains of the Savoie. Here, a stone’s throw from Lake Geneva, he produces Chasselas that is elegant, vibrant and insanely minerally. The estate is called ‘Les Vignes de Paradis’, and it clearly is Stéphane’s version of the Garden of Eden, with an abundance of grape varieties he can fashion into whatever kind of wine he pleases.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYou can take the man out of Burgundy, but you can’t really take the Burgundy out of the man, and his upbringing there absolutely influences the way he makes his wines. Manual harvest, with many passes to make sure each grape is perfectly ripe, followed by long elevage and aging in a remarkable array of vessels, from neutral barrels to pyramid-shaped tanks hewed from stone. Just when we think you’ve seen it all, a passionate young vigneron proves there is no limit to innovation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe wines are silky, mineral-driven and quietly powerful, with notes of orchard fruit, chamomile, citrus and salt. The New York Times’ Eric Asimov recently wrote a column about the beauty of Savoie whites. He writes, “It produces…mostly whites that are as cool, crystalline and refreshing as a mountain stream.” We couldn’t say it better.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor many young winemakers, Burgundy is the apogee, the aspiration, the dream. For Stéphane, freedom ranked first in his list of needs, far above prestige or tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"url":"https:\/\/sf.flatiron-wines.com\/collections\/les-vignes-de-paradis.oembed","provider":"Flatiron SF","version":"1.0","type":"link"}