Domaine de Montbourgeau L’Etoile Savagnin 2018
Three or four weeks ago I was sat in Vincent Carême’s courtyard, having just tasted through the dry cuvées in the 2022 vintage (now all in bottle) as well as the most recent sparkling, demi-sec and moelleux cuvées. And as far as I was concerned, we were finished.
But we weren’t.
“I’ve one more wine for you to taste,” said Vincent. And with that he produced a large key, with which he unlocked a rarely opened cellar door on the south side of the courtyard. I followed him into the gloom, down a flight of worn and cracked stone steps, rounded and dusted with gravel and grit, all ready to send the unwary flying. I nearly lost my footing at least once. Having survived the descent I found myself in a blind-ending tunnel, in almost complete darkness, the only light coming from the small torch on my mobile phone. This tunnel had once led through to the cellars beneath the château next-door, but it was bricked up many moons ago, in the process creating perhaps the smallest subterranean cellar imaginable.
In the centre of the passageway there sat a lone barrel, spotted with black mould. Vincent removed the bung, and peering inside I could just make out in the torchlight something shimmering across the surface, so thready and delicate it resembled the finest crusting of ice. It was the tenuous remains of a voile, a thin veil of yeast atop the wine. Vincent grinned. “I’ve made a vin jaune,” he declared.
Now while I enjoyed my taste of Vincent’s vin jaune experiment, it hardly seems fair to even talk about it here. First, because the wine currently remains in barrel, in that blind-ending cellar, where it has sat since 2018, and as far as I know Vincent has not yet branched out into en primeur sales. Secondly because Vincent revealed that, when he does finally bottle it, he has no plans to commercialise it at all.
“What do you plan to do with it then?” I enquired, inanely.
“Drink it,” was the straight-faced reply (Vincent must be used to stupid questions). “With some good Comte.”
As Vincent hinted with his yearning for Comte, vin jaune is a style inherently associated with the Jura. And having tasted Vincent’s wine I suddenly found I had a Jura itch that needed scratching. Unable to avail myself of a bottle of his vin jaune (this time, anyway) I looked into my cellar and pulled out this bottle; not quite vin jaune, but you know what they say – any port in a storm.
The Jura region has only a handful of appellations, one of which is the tiny L’Etoile, 75 hectares of vines centred around the village of the same name. Its lead grape variety is in fact Chardonnay, but Savagnin is also grown here, and the appellation allows for sparkling, dry, the sweet vin de paille, and of course vin jaune. The one style it doesn’t permit is red wine; growers of the region’s iconic red varieties, Poulsard and Trousseau, will use the Côtes du Jura appellation instead (although, unusually, Poulsard can be included in the white and vin de paille styles if desired).
Nestled in the heart of the appellation is Domaine de Montbourgeau, founded by Victor Gros in 1920 and currently run by his granddaughter, Nicole Deriaux. She turns out a surprisingly comprehensive range of wines from her 9 hectares (most of which is Chardonnay, but she has 1.7 hectares of Savagnin), including vin de paille and vin jaune, but also the curiosity featured here, a bone-dry monovarietal Savagnin. After fermentation in steel, the wine is aged in old barrels for about four years, without topping up, alongside the domaine’s vins jaunes.
In the glass the 2018 L’Etoile Savagnin from Domaine de Montbourgeau presents a fresh, straw-yellow hue which suggests this has been protected sous voile in the barrel, even if it is not labelled as a vin jaune. The aromatics tell the same story, presenting threads of preserved lemon, green olive and blanched almond, with a distinctive sous voile perfume. I can sense an electric energy to it and that is exactly what the palate delivers with layers of preserved citrus fruits, dried peel and apricot stone with a herby, green olive bite. There is an obvious aromatic impact from the yeast, but less so than the wine’s savoury nose suggested, and it comes with a grained cohesion which runs through the palate and on into the finish. A delicious style, absolutely fizzing with vigour, this would make a great aperitif wine, although I could see it working with a number of other dishes. Maybe even a slice of Vincent’s Comte. The alcohol on the label is 14.5%. 92/100
I am already looking forward to revisiting Vincent Carême and his very own Vernou-sous-voile. My only hope is that he doesn’t ask for my help carrying that barrel out of the cellar; I am not sure I can face those steps with one corner of a barrel in hand. (6/11/23)
Read more in:
- My profile of Vincent Carême
- My guide to Vouvray
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