Domaine de Montbourgeau: ‘Jura, the smallest, hippest wine region in France’ – Konstantin Baum MW

Domaine de Montbourgeau

‘Jura, the smallest, hippest wine region in France’
– Konstantin Baum MW

The Jura is known for its distinct, rare and characterful wines. Among them are ‘sous voile’ wines (made with a veil of flor) and ‘ouillé’ bottlings, which are topped up and without flor growth. If you like cheese, buy all the Comté you can get and pair it with these wines, especially the vin jaune.

Domaine de Montbourgeau is one of the flagship producers within the Jura’s L’Etoile AOC. Their L’Etoile En Banode 2020 is a 60/40 blend of Chardonnay and Savagnin and a mix of the region’s two famous styles. It spends just over a year in foudre with regular top-ups (ouillé), followed by another 32 months in large-format oak barrels under flor (sous voile). The result is a brilliantly complex, spicy, nutty, toasty, apple-y wine with a salty, chalky finish.

The 100% Chardonnay L’Étoile Cuvée Spéciale 2019 spends almost five years in oxidative conditions (sous voile). Peaty, powerful and concentrated with light floral notes, this is excellent and, like the Banode, will be sitting pretty a decade from now.

Finally, Montbourgeau’s L’Etoile Vin Jaune 2017 is one of my favourite wines this year. 100% Savagnin, sous voile (not topped) for seven years before bottling, this offers the best of the Jura. It’s nutty, salty and multi-layered with real power yet lots of finesse, showing a stony, smoky minerality and that signature Jura acidity, which will keep the wine going well beyond 2050. Some Comté cheese with bread or chicken and morels will sing with this.

Domaine de Montbourgeau was established in 1920 by Pierre Jeannin and is still family-run today, looked after by his granddaughter Nicole Deriaux and her two sons. Wine Cellar is honoured to import these extremely limited wines, and we now have about 5-10% of their total production here in South Africa!

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