2018 Domaine de la Touraize Arbois Arces
VARIETAL: Chardonnay
REGION: Jura, FR
VITICULTURE: Organic
WINEMAKER: André-Jean Morin
100% Chardonnay from a 1.6ha plot called Arces. The vines are 40 years old, and grow on marl and very high content limestone. Aged in old 3000L foudre for 18 months on the lees. Topped up regularly. Quite yellow in colour. Beautiful clean nose, no reduction. Lovely notes of white flowers and stone fruits – nectarines and peaches. A smidge of butter, almond and macadamia. Very bright and lifted, and the notes are nicely refined. To taste it is clean and giving without being rich. Fleshy apple and nectarine. Quite juicy with lots of flavour – linear in delivery though. The acidity is long and fresh. There is a bit of texture here, but also a lot of drive. This is very well made, quite bright and rather impressive. Medium plus acidity – so long. Mineral finish becomes more apparent with air. An exciting Chardonnay!
André-Jean Morin only started making his own wines in 2010. However, his family have been growing grapes in Arbois for 8 generations, since 1704! Previously, he had sold his grapes to a cooperative, in the same way that his father and grandfather had, but in 2009 he decided it was time to start making wine himself. He sold a few hectares to make enough money to build a winery, and has been progressing ever since. In 2016, his wonderful wife Héléana left her nursing job to join him and work full time at the domaine as well.
Since 2010, A-J and Héléana have slowly converted all the vineyards to organic (completed in 2017, and they will obtain certification in 2019), and in Autumn of 2017, they also began experimenting with biodynamics, and are now currently in conversion as well. In the cellar A-J works with indigenous yeasts and without additives - with the exception of a small amount of sulfites. Élevage is either in stainless steel, old barriques of various sizes, or extremely old large Alsatian foudre (some over 100 years old). A-J is meticulously clean in the cellar, and this shows in the wines – they are of extremely high calibre, faultless, and can stay open for days without any issue. They are pure wines that truly express their terroir, and for me are some of the best wines coming out of the Jura.