Jura
Emmanuel Houillon (Maison Pierre Overnoy)
Pupillin
Background
The name Pierre Overnoy is legend in France and the wines from his estate are revered.He was the pioneer of what have come to be called natural wines, especially in his avoidance of the use of sulphur.
Jules Chauvet, the Beaujolais négociant and wine researcher, was a mentor and a friend to Pierre Overnoy since the beginning. Overnoy’s goal was always to make wines of terroir, which would reveal the key of their soils and accuratley reflect their vintage. Diaphanous wines to the core.
Wine
The vines and the cellar are now solely in the hands of Pierre Overnoy‘s protégé, Emmanuel Houillon, who carries on the philosophy and each painstaking detail of his mentor. Without sulphur the quality of the grapes has to be exceptional and so everything in the vineyard is done totally organically - wines made this way can only eminate from healthy fruit. Yields are never more than 35hl/ha and Houillon turns the top six inches of soil, cutting the surface roots and thus depriving the plant‘s of the topsoil‘s potassium which otherwise combines with tartaric acid and lowers their acidity.
In the cellars the selected grapes undergo a semi-carbonic maceration in a covered vessel, with CO2 added at the start before the fermentation supplies its own. The temperature is held to about 8C for about ten days of maceration after which it is allowed to rise and so fermentation begins. The white grapes are immediately pressed and their juice is also protected with CO2. After the initial active phase some of the white wines continue to ferment a year or more, nearly all in old oak barrels of various sizes.
Houillon is opposed to adding anything to the wine. No new oak barrels influence their taste. Before bottling, the wines are neither filtered nor fined and they retain a lot of CO2, which has an antioxidant effect and helps to convey aroma.
These are living wines that are made by a modern day master ; each wine a soulful, rewarding experience. Unfortunately these wines are all incredibly rare with only a tiny number of bottles coming to Australia.
Jean-François Ganevat
'La Combe' Rotalier
Background
I never cease to be fascinated by the wines from France’s Jura region. This small winemaking area located to the east of Burgundy is home to some of the most remarkable and unique wines being made anywhere in the world.
La Combe; a tiny hamlet above the village of Rotalier is home to the larger-than-life Jean-François Ganevat. Jean-François came back to run the family estate in 1998 after ten years working Burgundy and he combines his passion for the Jura terroir – here ideal for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir - with a staunch defence of Burgundian techniques; low yields and most recently biodynamic methods for which he has now gained Demeter certification.
Rotalier is in the southern half of the Jura region and so all of the Ganevat's vines are located in the Cotes du Jura AOC, the biggest of the few AOCs in the Jura with 700 hectares. The winery produces a multitude of wines from Savagnin, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Poulsard, and Trousseau. The majority are produced using a method referred to in the Jura as “ouillé”.
Winemakers in the Jura make the choice of producing their white wines using either the “ouillé” or “sous-voile” method (Vin Jaune must be made sous-voile). “Ouillé” means that the barrels are topped up as the wine ages. This is the normal practice throughout the world of wine, and prevents the wine from slowly oxidizing in the barrel. In contrast, a wine made using the “sous-voile” method is not topped up in the barrel. As a result, a thin layer of yeast forms on the top of the wine, which the Jura winemakers refer to as the “voile” or veil. This prevents the wine from turning into vinegar in the barrel, and allows it to slowly age and develop a range of unique flavors, including the nuttiness and spices that are so pronounced in Vin Jaune.
Wine
In the case of Domaine Ganevat, most of the wines are made in the “ouillé” (topped up) style.
These wines are truly brilliant and have clarity and intensity as cornerstones – his Chardonnays are quite unbelievable in their intensity and vigour. His red wines from Pinot Noir, Trousseau and Poulsard are delicate, graceful and incredibly pure tasting with lovely harmony and dimension.
This is an amazing estate that can’t keep up with demand and like Emmanuel Houillon, these are incredibly rare. I have a reservation of a small quantity of the wines due to come in autumn and have also reserved ahead the next vintage but it is tough to battle for an allocation here when it seems that all the Sommeliers in Europe are also patiently waiting at the end of Ganevat's pipette...
Burgundy