Domaine Carrel & Senger

About

Owner: Thomas Senger
Winemaker: Olivier Carrel
Vineyards: 30ha across many different plots
Vineyard management: Sustainable, reducing insecticides and herbicides
Soils: Marl limestone with stony topsoil
Grapes grown: Mondeuse, Gamay, Pinot Noir, Jacquère, Altesse, Chardonnay

Quick facts:

• This land has been in the Carrel family for six generations–first as a dairy and crop farm, and then focusing on wine since the 1970s. Thomas Senger joined as a partner in 2022.
• The climate here is moderated by the proximity of the Bourget Lake and the Rhone River, and the vineyards are found on extremely steep slopes with an average altitude of 300m.
• The local grape Altesse is also known as Roussette, because the grape clusters turn red (“roussir” in French) when fully ripe.

The Carrel family first settled in the Jongieux region in 1830, and they have been farming the land as a polyculture estate with cattle breeding and vine growing since then. In the 1970s, Eugène and Paulette, the parents of current winemaker Olivier, made the decision to focus on wine production–a novelty in the region at the time. Olivier took over in 1994, and over the years, he grew the estate from eight hectares to thirty hectares, while focusing on quality. In 2022, Thomas Senger, a native of the Savoie region, joined as a partner. After years of experience in the wine industry in other areas, he’d been dreaming of returning to his roots, at the same time as Olivier was considering who would succeed him at the winery. “The profession of winegrower, especially in Savoie, is tough and my children did not express the wish to take over after me,” he explains. It was a natural fit for the two men to join forces on their mission to express the best of Savoyard terroir.