The Jurassic wines deserve their own thread— not that the Natural thread is the wrong place to be, but seeing as it is it’s own geographic area with plenty of history I feel this is needed. The Natural thread is very needed too, but I’d prefer to post notes on VdF and dogmatic producers there instead.
I’m going to start;
My wife is doing a residency in a small town, and when I visited my friend who lives here, years ago, he opened a 2016 Labet Varrons and kicked off this illness I now call a ‘hobby’. So I thought it fitting to bring a '22 Varrons chardo over on this visit. He dug through the cellar and found a '17 Houillon Bruyere Chard/Sav blend.
The Labet was a monster. Very gentle reduction and a highly fragrant nose of green apple and meyer lemon zest. Medium yellow with a tiny grainy opacity. The mouth bursts with Granny Smith, gooseberries and lemonade. There’s a lot of ripeness in this warm vintage with some traces of chamomile and vanilla, but mainly a whole lot of acidity. Very tough to finish in a seating. A beast.
The HB was the ‘Arbois Blanc’ which is an assemblage, as '17 was marred by frost, so this is a mix of Tourillons and Croix Rouge.
A slight bit darker but not advanced at all. Very well within its means. It took a bit of time to wake it up, but it slowly got going with a bit more caramel tones than the Labet, and also a lot less ripeness due to the vintage. It unfortunately had a green streak through the finish. I was hoping for more here, but the '17s I’ve had in the recent years have really not aged well and lost a bit of steam.
Cool thread. I don’t drink lots of jura wines because I have almost none and I don’t know what to buy, but every time I have some in the glass I love it! I will be following this thread with great interest.
I recently brought a bottle of 2023 Pierre Girardin Chardonnay Les Abeilles to a local restaurant as their wine list was very bad. I believe the actual vinification is done by PVG in Meursault, so technically a Vin de France and not a Côte du Jura. PnP and drank over 90 minutes. Absolutely loved this. Great burgundian nose, definitely on the reductive side. On the palate this brings the Jura character with laser-like acidity. Very excited to see how this will be evolve with time.
Fantastic Nicolas. I hope you’ll find some things to your interest. You’re not the only one I heard liking the Girardin Juras— seems they’re great gateway wines. Keep it coming
Had Tissot’s 2020 savagnin at dinner last night with a friend. I love Tissot’s whites when they show cleaner nutty characteristics, but dammit they can be hit or miss and this one seemed to be drifting toward oxidation.
From the 2020 vintage Tissot started making two cuvées named Savagnin. Savagnin Ouillé and Savagnin Sous Voile. Before that the ouillé version was called Traminer and the sous voile version simply Savagnin.
Personally I really like the wines from Tissot when they are on, but I was burned from buying a large amount of the different 2016 Chardonnay cuvées and half of them had premox issues.
I’ve been a fan of Tissot for the better part of decade now. I really love his whites when they hit. I tend prefer Jura whites over the reds in general.
I still remember having Tissots’s 2014 Les Graviers back in 2018, it blew me away. Unfortunately I opened a 2019 Les Graviers this year and it was underwhelming. But that is the game we we play. I think patchwork is a great value wine. And the 2023’s are good!
It’s been crazy to see the prices increases on Domaine Labet the last few years. ( if you can even find it)
Lately I’ve been enjoying Michel Gahier Chardonnay, I think they are really well made and have that Tissot elegance.
