WTN: Labbé Vin de Savoie Abymes

[Robin Garr]

A fairly obscure grape from a fairly obscure European region at a reasonably affordable price. Yep, that's a wine for me!

Domaine Labbé 2020 Vin de Savoie Abymes ($14.99)

Made with 100% indigenous Jacquère grapes sustainably grown on vines more than 35 years old, Domaine Labbé Vin de Savoie Abymes offers a fresh taste of the white wines of Savoie. It shows a distinct greenish brassy color in the glass and offers pleasant, complex aromas of mixed citrus, apples and pears. Bright and fresh on the palate, with just a touch of prickly petillance, its flavors follow the nose, white fruit balanced by fresh acidity with chalky minerality in the background. Relatively light in alcohol at 11%. U.S. importer: Skurnik Wines, NYC. (July 2, 2022)

FOOD MATCH: Wine-Searcher.com suggests pairing it with shellfish, crab and lobster, and that's good advice: Its crisp, dry minerality should make an excellent match with seafood. It's good with cheeses, too, and should go well with a charcuterie board. We enjoyed it with an offbeat dish, a meatless version of ganach lupia (Armenian braised green beans) from Serious Eats.

WHEN TO DRINK: I suggest drinking it up within three or four years after the vintage at most, to fully enjoy its bright, fresh flavors.

VALUE:
It's an excellent buy in the lower to middle teens. Wine-Searcher.com lists a $15 average U.S. retail.

WEB LINK:
Importer Skurnik Wines offers this short fact sheet on the Labbé Abymes Savoie. For more information about Domaine Labbé, visit this Skurnik page.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Domaine Labbé Vin de Savoie Abymes on Wine-Searcher.com.

Follow this Wine-Searcher link to reac more about Savoie Abymes and find listings for dozens of other wines of the region.

Yup, Robin... that's a wine I absolutely love. Not a profound wine, but very bright/minerally/alive. It has a ton of Alpine white flowers/floral character.
And an added benefit... if you put your ear down to the glass, you can hear off on yonder peak Julie Andrews singing "and the hills are alive"!! Didn't know that wine appeals to the sense of hearing did you, Robin!!
Tom

Skurnik does a lot of natural wines & you can find some absolute dogs in his portfolio. But there are some real gems, like this one, lurking in there!
Tom

[Robin Garr]

Skurnik does a lot of natural wines & you can find some absolute dogs in his portfolio. But there are some real gems, like this one, lurking in there!
Tom

I'm enough of a fan of Skurnik that I'm very glad to have some of his portfolio available locally. Fortunately, most of the dogs (and probably most of the smaller production natural stuff) never get this far.

[Robin Garr]

Didn't know that wine appeals to the sense of hearing did you, Robin!!
Tom