Description
70 % Savagnin 30 % Chardonnay macerated on the skins. Whole bunch macetated (70%); 14 days of maceration in wooden vats; fermentation with indigenous yeasts; malolactic completed; not filtered; minimal addition of SO2 to bottling. Aged 65% in Clay and 35% wood.
Located in Rotalier in the Sud-Revermont, in the late 1970s Alain Labet was probably the first vigneron in the Jura to make and bottle wines from individual terroirs separately. And in the 1990s when he started making topped-up whites, there were only one or two winemakers making wines this way elsewhere in the Jura (Pierre Overnoy in Arbois being foremost).
The tradition in Rotalier and the rest of the Sud-Revermont was to age wine under flor, but Alain found that oxidative ageing of chardonnay masked the subtle terroir nuances present after fermentation and decided to top-up his barrels regularly, thus preventing the formation of ‘voile’ (layer of yeast forming on the surface of a wine when left in contact with oxygen) which tends to dominate the aromatic profile. His wines became much more precise as a result and showed an ability to express the subtlest variations in exposition and soil composition, revealing in the process one of France’s finest terroirs.
13.5% / 75cl
