Situated in Ayze, roughly halfway between Geneva and the ski resorts on the lower shoulders of Mont Blanc, the Montessuit family domaine is focused on the vanishingly rare Gringet varietal, a vine that was once a familiar face in Savoie but has now been reduced to fewer than 20 hectares under cultivation. Domaine Montessuit is relatively new, producing their first vintage in 2011, but brothers Fabrice and Nicolas Montessuit are the fourth generation in their family to grow grapes here. All vineyard work is organic and necessarily unmechanized, as most of their vineyards are on slopes with severe 40 percent grades. The vines range in age from 70 to 115 years of age.
