Jonathan Pabiot: Wines
The various plots worked by Jonathan Pabiot are picked separately, according to ripeness, which obviously varies several scattered parcels of vines. Some are picked by hand, but a large part is harvested by machine; it depends on the nature of the vineyard. The obtained yields are generally around 50 hl/ha, although clearly this will depend on the vintage, especially as the vineyards are entirely organic. When I first visited the domaine in 2013, for example, the anticipated yields were 45 hl/ha, rot in the vines in the final stages prior to picking pushing the yield down just a little. Frost also can play havoc with yields, of course. In the 2016 vintage Jonathan lost 60% of the crop to frost, while in 2017 he estimated a loss between 30% and 40%. These figures are far from the worst in the appellation in this vintage which saw a very destructive frost hit in April.
After arrival at the cellars, the fruit is pressed and the juice allowed to settle, before the fermentations which are carried out on a plot-by-plot basis. Stainless steel is the vessel of choice, although some of the small-production cuvées see either cement or wood instead, and the active yeasts are indigenous, albeit selected in a novel fashion. Jonathan fills as many as eight small 500-litre vats of freshly-pressed juice, and gently warms these ‘starter vats’ in order to activate indigenous yeasts and get the fermentation going. Then he judges which of these small vats are fermenting well, and he uses those vats to inoculate the larger vats to get the main fermentations going.
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