2009 Jean-François Ganevat Cuvée de l'enfant terrible
Poulsard kicks arse…..
I have fallen head over heels for it’s funky, bucolic goodness…..it’s a large, thin-skinned, dark-skinned but lightly coloured, kinda goofy looking thing, but I love what it gives me in the glass when it is caressed by a thoughtful, light-handed vigneron.
And one of those thoughtful vignerons is Jean-François Ganevat…..Jean-François tends his vines in the tiny hamlet of La Combe which sits above the village of Rotalier in the Jura.
After some time in Burgundy he returned to the Jura to take over the family estate in 1998. The vineyards are now farmed organically and have recently been awarded Demeter certification. Jean-François produces many, many cuvees….sometimes up to 30 off his 8.5ha of vines and his work in the vineyard is meticulous to say the least…he is sometime known to cut each individual berry off the bunches with scissors, leaving a few millimeters of stem attached to the grape….this keeps the grapes intact with no juice seeping from the end.
This particular Poulsard vineyard was planted in 1959 and is hand harvested, receiving hands off treatment in the cellar to allow the terroir to shine through. Grapes de-stemmed, sometimes by the fruity method mentioned above……Natural ferments in old oak, with some carbonic it would seem….long ferments, elevage in old oak foudre, no SO2 (just a dab on bottling for the export stuff methinks) and no fining or filtration.
Light cherry red….quite pinot like with a watery, pink-tinged meniscus.
Heady, fragrant aromas of wild red cherry & redcurrant fruits woven with hints of cranberry and blood orange, mushroom broth, exotic spice, sous bois, black olives, rose petals, iodine, quince, earth and ash. There’s a Boosty Collins sized serving of funk onboard this terroir mothership also, with hints of sulphidy nuance, washed-rind cheese, duck confit, forest floor and the merest flash of vanilla bean.
On the palate there is initially a fair bit of CO2 present, which is nothing unusual with the wines of the Jura, but that dissipates quickly to show a wine with an energetic gait and savoury structure that is nimble on its feet and aches of somewhereness.
Light of body with wicked pure flavours of sour morello cherry, redcurrant, blood orange and sun-dried cranberry. It’s a complex little bastard with hints of Asian spice, dried flowers, game pie, forest floor and flashes of mushroom, earth and olive. It has a beautiful line across the palate……precise, focused and driven but it is grounded on a plinth of stony minerals.
It smells cool….and the palate tastes cool and perfectly balanced….it’s seamless….crisp, long and pure of finish, with a delicious, sapid sourness that segues into the fine, chewy, chalky tannins. It’s brilliant stuff….honest, of the earth and rustic. Screams out for food…..and don’t be afraid to serve it a bit cooler than normal….and give it a bit of a decant eh?
Again….these wines make it over to our shores in minuscule quantities so seek ‘em out.
Price: $75 – Closure: Cork – Alcohol:11.5% – Source: Cellar – Importer: Andrew Guard Fine Wines
Complex little bastard
