Didier Grappe

Savagnin Rose 'Traminer Champs Rouge' 2022

Name: Savagnin Rose 'Traminer Champs Rouge' 2022
Brand: Didier Grappe
SKU: GRAPPEtraminerrouge22
Price: 47.0 USD
Availability: InStock

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A former mechanic from Poligny, Didier Grappe came to wine through a deep-seated curiosity and an unrelenting drive to challenge convention. After studying viticulture in Beaune – where he crossed paths with future natural wine luminaries like Jean-Louis Tribouley and Bruno Duchêne – Grappe established his estate in the hamlet of Saint-Lothainc (an 8 minute drive south of Poligny) in 2001. By 2007, he had converted fully to organic viticulture, and soon after, eliminated sulfite additions entirely.

But what truly sets Didier’s wines apart is his commitment to hybrid grape varieties, or as he calls them, cépages résistants. Since 2016, he has been one of the Jura’s most vocal advocates for these historically shunned vines, seeing them as a necessary evolution in the face of climate change and disease pressure. Today, one of his four hectares is planted to hybrids – mostly Seyve-Villard and Seibel 5455 – alongside traditional Jura varieties of chardonnay, savagnin, and small plots of pinot noir, trousseau, and poulsard.

Grappe views working with hybrids as not a compromise but an opportunity. He farms them with the same care and precision as his vitis vinifera vines. They occupy the same prime terroir and steep slopes as the vinifera vines did before them. In the cellar, he embraces a minimal-intervention approach, allowing spontaneous fermentations to take their course. He finds that hybrid reds, while powerful on their own, excel when blended with whites, creating wines of unexpected complexity and harmony.

Beyond winemaking, Grappe’s philosophy can be seen as a rejection of what he views as the blind adherence to tradition. In a region where heritage is celebrated, he questions the logic of clinging to varieties that have struggled with disease for centuries. For him, hybridization is not a threat but a necessity, a natural process that fosters resilience and adaptation. As he said during an interview in 2022, “nature always wants to cross itself, over and over, to create a life form adapted to things like dryness and disease.”

As the domaine enters its fourth decade, Didier’s son Jules has joined him in moving the project forward and continuing the work of protecting and advancing the Jura’s fragile winegrowing ecosystem. We feel the wines are at their best they’ve ever been, and are honored to bring them into the US again after a long absence.

- Terrestrial Wine Co.

Savagnin Rose 'Traminer Champs Rouge' 2022

Savagnin Rose 'Traminer Champs Rouge' 2022

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