WINE ADVOCATE - 90+ POINTS The 2021 Humagne Reserve opens with a floral bouquet of dried flowers and plums intermingled with spicy and some toasty notes. Aged in tonneaux, this is a round and elegant, juicy and silky-textured Humagne with severe tannins. This is a wild alpine red wine with a medium to supple body and good intensity and structure. It is not the epitome of finesse, and it has a strict character and a saline finish. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in November 2023.
With their latest vintages, enologist Gilles Besse and Jean-Rene Germanier once again underline the exceptional position of the Vetroz domaine, which proves like no other that great wines can be produced from many hectares of vines. The most famous is Cayas, a powerful, intense and long-lasting yet elegant and fresh Syrah from the slate slopes of Balavaud, Vétroz, Chamoson and Fully on the right bank of the Rhône. It is aged for over two years in small barrels. Gilles had brought three vintages to the tasting, including the ready-to-fill barrel sample of the cool 2021. It held its own better than expected against the power and strength of the great 2020—and not every vintage is as successful as 2020... "The season began in March with very mild temperatures," reports young enologist Delphine Dubuis-Riand. "They continued to rise in April and accelerated the vegetation. The year continued with a particularly hot summer with numerous episodes of thunderstorms, which fortunately had no impact on the health of the grapes." The grape harvest began on September 11 under excellent climatic conditions and lasted until the beginning of October. Then the rain set in. The Cayas was harvested from October 2 to 7, giving a Syrah of remarkably spicy fruit intensity. Among the white wines, the "second" wine is the wonderfully intense, concentrated and alpine Heida Reserve from calcareous gypsum marl soils. The 2020, which had already been bottled, tragically fell victim to a terrible fire (100,000 bottles lost in all), but the 2021 makes up for it and combines intensity, complexity and freshness with ageability. The Fendant Balavaud is a Vétroz classic already, but the red Rebbio, whose 2022 assemblage combines Gamay with Gamaret, Syrah and Pinot Noir, is simply irresistible and becoming a kind of favorite wine for everyday and little money. Published: Jan 25, 2024
With their latest vintages, enologist Gilles Besse and Jean-Rene Germanier once again underline the exceptional position of the Vetroz domaine, which proves like no other that great wines can be produced from many hectares of vines. The most famous is Cayas, a powerful, intense and long-lasting yet elegant and fresh Syrah from the slate slopes of Balavaud, Vétroz, Chamoson and Fully on the right bank of the Rhône. It is aged for over two years in small barrels. Gilles had brought three vintages to the tasting, including the ready-to-fill barrel sample of the cool 2021. It held its own better than expected against the power and strength of the great 2020—and not every vintage is as successful as 2020... "The season began in March with very mild temperatures," reports young enologist Delphine Dubuis-Riand. "They continued to rise in April and accelerated the vegetation. The year continued with a particularly hot summer with numerous episodes of thunderstorms, which fortunately had no impact on the health of the grapes." The grape harvest began on September 11 under excellent climatic conditions and lasted until the beginning of October. Then the rain set in. The Cayas was harvested from October 2 to 7, giving a Syrah of remarkably spicy fruit intensity. Among the white wines, the "second" wine is the wonderfully intense, concentrated and alpine Heida Reserve from calcareous gypsum marl soils. The 2020, which had already been bottled, tragically fell victim to a terrible fire (100,000 bottles lost in all), but the 2021 makes up for it and combines intensity, complexity and freshness with ageability. The Fendant Balavaud is a Vétroz classic already, but the red Rebbio, whose 2022 assemblage combines Gamay with Gamaret, Syrah and Pinot Noir, is simply irresistible and becoming a kind of favorite wine for everyday and little money. Published: Jan 25, 2024
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