With Their Traditional Sweet Wines out of Fashion, Jurançon Vignerons Are

Jurançon vineyards, south-west France With their traditional sweet wines out of fashion, Jurançon Secs Appeal vignerons are increasingly Words by Mark Andrew | Photographs by Tom Cockram making A dry style Life is good in Jurançon. You can start the day skiing village of Audaux, while sourcing Petit Manseng Damiens Sartori and Lionel Osmin of Clos Joliette in the Pyrenees, head off for a dip in the Atlantic and grapes from Jurançon for their dry white. “We Migné made the still be home for lunch. And what a feast that lunch considered buying vines in Jurançon,” remembers could be: the region’s produce is world renowned Jess, “but some fantastic growers were willing to and its sweet moelleux wines have been famous sell us Petit Manseng from complementary areas. Clos Joliette wine since the Middle Ages. Surprisingly, though, not The fruit from Monein is rich and high in alcohol and everybody is content with this idyllic status quo. on its own it makes unbalanced sec, so we blend and his formidable “The problem round here is that we don’t have any it with grapes from Lasseube where ripeness is problems,” says Lionel Osmin, an influential local lower but acidity is really high.” Their vibrant 2018 wine merchant. “Too many people are comfortable Domaine d’Audaux Petit Manseng, labelled IGP wife took care of business, just producing sweet wines for the older generation.” Comté Tolosan as the winery is outside the He’s right to be concerned. Sweet wine sales are in appellation, impressively demonstrates this selling every bottle for decline and wineries are over-dependent on local marriage of volume and cut. consumption – just 10% of production is exported, The balancing act is traditionally achieved cash and never writing compared to a national average of 30%. But if a by blending with Gros Manseng, an underrated solution is required, the Jurançonnais are in luck – variety that contributes salinity and crisp acidity, one has already existed for 45 years. “The answer as well as finesse when vines are sufficiently anything down. after is sec,” says Jamie Hutchinson, referring to the mature. Appellation rules also permit the lively Jurançon Sec appellation that was introduced in Petit Courbu, the aromatic Camaralet and the Migné’s death, his widow 1975, but whose output is rarely taken as seriously mineral Lauzet; but it’s Petit Manseng that has as the sweet wines. a genuine claim to nobility. Often compared Jamie and his wife Jess moved to south-west with Chenin Blanc, another grape with excellent continued to run the France to become vignerons after years working in texture, sugar and acidity, it remains a niche London’s wine trade; Jamie was co-founder of proposition; so how did the Hutchinsons become domaine off-the-books, independent merchant The Sampler and Jess still so enamoured? Jamie puts an empty wine bottle runs Vindependents from their adoptive home. After on the table and gestures towards it. “We tasted struggling with French bureaucracy, the pair have Clos Joliette,” he says. “They didn’t always get it allegedly paying some finally planted Syrah on a hillside vineyard in the right, but when they did, it was magnificent”. employees in sexual favours Jamie and Jess Hutchinson, Audaux You’d be forgiven for not having heard of Clos Since he died in 2015 various succession rumours Joliette, but just the mention of its name quickens have circulated with the uncertainty exacerbated the pulse of most that have. Yet even to the initiated, by rival inheritance claims from Renaud’s daughter it remains an enigma – seldom written about and and a son from an ‘extracurricular’ relationship. If almost impossible to find. The story begins in 1929, the court settles in favour of his daughter, her choice when Maurice Migné cleared some forest to plant to take over permanently is Lionel Osmin, whom she 1ha of Petit Manseng. The south-east-facing installed as estate manager two years ago. amphitheatre proved to be a prime spot on clay, iron “I’m from the area, so for me Joliette is very and limestone-rich soils dotted with galet stones special,” says Osmin, who introduced organic (known locally as ‘poudingue’). Migné made the farming to the vineyard after years of neglect but wine and his formidable wife took care of business, has no plans to radically alter how the wines are selling every bottle for cash and never, ever, writing made. “My father had numerous vintages in our anything down lest the taxman take his share. cellar”, he continues, “and many of them were After Migné’s death, his widow continued to run fantastic, but I believe that great wines were made the domaine off-the-books, allegedly paying some here in spite, not because, of the previous owners.” employees in sexual favours. Based on what Osmin knows of the archaic By the 1980s, Clos Joliette had attained methods employed by Migné and Renaud, cult status. Gérard Depardieu became a regular he might well be right. Each barrel was left to visitor and tried to buy the domaine in 1989, ferment at its own pace and, after five years, bottled claiming Migné’s widow wanted to sell to him. separately. As a result, the domaine would release However, the deal was sabotaged by local bottles from different barrels of the same vintage, authorities who preferred the bid of Michel labelled identically but with completely different Renaud, a Parisian caviste. After taking over, sugar levels. Some had fermented fully and were Renaud excavated terraces and planted another completely dry, others might be lusciously sweet 0.5ha of vines (bringing the total to 1.5ha), or somewhere in between. maintaining Migné’s medieval approach to While Russian roulette was considered winemaking and hoarding almost every bottle part of Joliette’s idiosyncratic charm, the extent in the domaine’s decrepit cellar. to which it prevailed became clear when Osmin 55 Noble Rot Clos Joliette investigated the contents of the cellar. Twenty vintages of wine were split into casiers (bins) of “Its enormous potential 300 bottles, each representing a different barrel. An experienced team was assembled to taste each bin and rank the wines for quality, before those deemed is the story of our lives. good enough for sale were analysed for sweetness and divided into three categories: those under 10g/l The best vineyards have of residual sugar were sealed with green wax, those between 10g/l and 30g/l with yellow, and those over 30g/l with orange. The results are as thrilling as they always been used for sweet are eclectic, veering from razor sharp, Sercial-like dry wines loaded with dried apricots and roasted nuts, wines. That needs to change” to lusciously exotic stickies that balance ripe mango with searing acidity. The texture and viscosity in the Lionel Osmin, Clos Joliette best examples – no doubt a combination of peerless terroir and the inherent quality of Petit Manseng – proves Clos Joliette is Jurançon’s preeminent wine. It’s ironic, then, that 90% of Joliette bottles should never have been labelled as either Jurançon or Jurançon Sec as most had over 4g/l of residual sugar, the upper limit for sec, and under the 35g/l threshold for moelleux. This means library stock has to be released as ‘Vin de France’ and it’s uncertain whether future vintages will be eligible for either AOC. Regardless, Osmin believes Jurançon Sec is the future. “Its enormous potential is the story of our lives”, he says, “but the best vineyards have always been used for sweet wines. That needs to change.” Right: Yvonne Hégoburu of Domaine de Souch A handful of local vignerons have long been excited by dry wines, such as Charles Hours of Clos Uroulat, where Osmin trained, whose ‘Cuvée Marie’ is considered a reference point for the appellation. Likewise, Jean-Bernard Larrieu’s dry wines from Clos Lapeyre – particularly ‘Vitatge Vielh’ – have been stalwarts of Noble Rot’s list since we opened. Elsewhere, high-profile domaines renowned for sweet wines are dedicating increasing energy to Jurançon Sec. At Domaine de Souch, 92-year old Yvonne Hégoburu and her son Jean-René built their reputation on moelleux cuvées such as ‘Marie Kattalin’ but its sec is well worth seeking out. The 2016 bursts with sumptuous grapefruit and rock salt, while the elegant 2012 demonstrates how well this wine can age. In nearby Aubertin, Loire legend Didier Dagueneau established Les Jardins de Babylone because of his passion for sweet Jurançon, allegedly staging a midnight raid on Clos Joliette for vineyard cuttings, and his son Louis-Benjamin has continued to improve its stunningly exotic moelleux wine. The sec, made from a tiny parcel of all five permitted varieties, is tense and mineral with succulent lemon fruit. Any region focused on sweet wines ought to have a back-up plan, but Jurançon Sec can be far more than that. Forward-thinking vignerons have proven that dry wines deliver on quality and complexity – hopefully it won’t be long before others catch on. After all, who’s got time for problems in paradise? 58 Noble Rot 59 Noble Rot.

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