What are we drinking this week? Domaine Giachino Persan AOP Savoie

Persan

We always try to drink some different wines out of season and last night enjoyed this Persan from Domaine Giachino.

Persan is a rare local grape variety grown in the Savoie region of France and there are only tiny amounts planted (around 10 hectares in total). It’s a tricky grape that is disease prone and needs plenty of sunshine to achieve full ripeness. I love discovering obscure wines so it was a treat to try this wine from bio-dynamic producer Domaine Giachino based in the Chartreuse regional park in the department of Savoie.

With peppery notes, quite present tannins and bags of sour cherries it had good acidity and freshness. Not a heavyweight wine but with decent body and structure that could take it forward a good few years. Persan was widely planted in the region before the ravages of phylloxera but its trickiness saw replanting on a much smaller scale.