Wine Producers

The number of vigneronnes or women winegrowers in the Jura is small, but they are all strong characters who have built up great respect for their wines. Managing her 4.5ha of vineyards from vine to sales as many do here, the last thing Marie-Pierre Chevassu-Fassenet, a mother of three girls, has time for is to build a website, hence you may not have come across her or her estate’s wines. But both are well worth getting to know.

She is very keen to keep the estate small, in particular so that she can take care of the vineyards personally, and everything is worked in a sustainable way. Marie-Pierre manually hoes 3ha of the vineyards.

The biggest change that Marie-Pierre has made since taking over has been with the two reds, which she makes in a resolutely modern Jura way. The resulting Pinot Noir is deliciously full of fruit. Whites are no less carefully thought out, but this time resolutely traditional, never topping up, yet for the excellent Chardonnay, aged in foudres or demi-muids, there is only a hint of the oxidative character: the process simply brings out the minerality of the marl soil.

If there was a Guild of Master Northern Rhône Wine Craftsmen, Pierre Gaillard would probably be the president. Be it a St Joseph, a Côte Rôtie or Condrieu, every time you open a bottle with his name on it you know you are going to get a thrilling, bristling expression of the site from where it came. That’s his thing. There is no dead weight in the Gaillard cellar and each wine offers precision and purity of fruit. This is not to suggest Gaillard is a technocrat. Far from it. He has great vineyards, infectious passion, makes good decisions and possesses a dirt under the fingernails grit which means that most of the hard work has been done before the fruit arrives in the cellar.

Gaillard is now reckoned in France to be among the Northern Rhone’s best winemakers.

The quality of fruit he harvests, allied with his fine touch in the cellar, results in some of the most evocative, flavoursome and stylish Northern Rhône wines going around.

Like at Jérôme Prèvost’s Le Closerie, Vouette’s almost incidental volume (in Champagne terms) and the singular, uncompromising approach of its vigneron, Bertrand Gautherot, have made it one of France’s most sought out artisan domaines. Aside from the fact that Prévost and Gautherot are close friends, the similarities between the two domaines are myriad. Both work very small Estates in under-appreciated sub-regions of Champagne. At just over 5.5 hectares, Gautherot has the edge on Prévost in terms of volume. Both these growers were mentored and compelled by Anselme Selosse to vinify and bottle their own wines (instead of selling their fruit to the large houses). Both exploit low yields, meticulous vineyard work (Gautherot is famous for having some of the most beautifully maintained vineyards in the Aube) and non-interventionist, Burgundian-inspired cellar-work to craft some of Champagne’s most strikingly original wines of place.

Benjamin Leroux, the gifted manager/winemaker of Domaine Comte Armand launched his own label with the 2007 vintage. He works from a brand new winery in the center of Beaune (just off the Boulevard) that he shares with Dominique Lafon and two other wine growers. The operation is very small and will eventually specialise, primarily, in Puligny and Volnay, but with many other appellations also covered. While there are over twenty terroirs produced, this is certainly a ‘micro negociant’ operation with only two to five barrels made of most of the cuvees. Leroux works with vineyards he manages, vineyards he owns and also buys fruit (never juice or wine) from growers with who he can work closely; growers that produce the quality of fruit to match Leroux’s exacting standards. Half of the vineyards that Leroux works with are currently organic or biodynamic (this percentage is growing) and 100% of the sites are ploughed with no herbicides or pesticides used at all in any of the sites.

Weil is widely seen as the jewell of the Rheingau and has reached well beyond cult status across the globe. Rheingau is practically one long hillside, a collection of south facing, sun trapping vineyards that slope down to the Rhine and Main Rivers along thei 30km east-west journey. It is shielded from the north and east winds by the Taunus Mountains giving the Rheingau its famous warm and dry climate. The steep stoney vineyards of Weil (Klosterberg, Turmberg and Grafenberg) are organically managed to maximize their terroir. Grapes are hand harvested with as many as 17 passes through the vineyard. All grapes receive a pre-ferment maceration typically bt 6 and 24 hours. Gentle pressing, natural fermentation and varying time on lees.

Pascal Lachaux, son-in-law of the late Robert Arnoux has run the Domain since 1987. In 2011 after wine school and stints in Oregon and South Africa, Charles Lauchaux joined his father and from 2012 is in charge of vinification. The Domain has 14.5 hectares across 15 appellations. With the exception of the Grand Cru Latricieres-Chambertin all vines are in Vosne Romanee, Nuits-Saint-George, Flagey-Echezeaux, Vougeot and Chambolle Musigny. The wines are layered, intensely aromatic with plush tannins. Under Charles, the wines of this Domain continue to soar and while employing organic and biodynamic techniques he chooses not to use such labels instead employing whatever techniques produce the best grapes and best wines.

A broker from New York ate at Bacash last year and had the Lamy ‘Clos des Gravieres’ Santenay 1er Cru 2014 and the St Aubin ‘En Remilly’ 2014. Not familiar with Lamy he emailed his broker at Berry Brothers who immediately sent a reply that went something like ‘this is all about the producer, Olivier is one of the most respected winemakers across the cote”

The wines of Domain Hubert Lamy are racey, intensely mineral and showcase the very best aspects of St Aubin’s rocky, boney & chalky soils. Olivier, son of Hubert, took over in 1995 and immediately stopped supplying negociants and the following year either sold of scrubbed underperforming vines and vineryard sites keeping only the best and oldest. The wines are refined and fresh. Yields are low and vinification is traditional. Wines are matured in large oak format (20-30% new) for 12-18months before light filtration and bottling. The majority of Lamy’s wines are in larger oak format as Olivier believes it protects the purity of the fruit.