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ACellars Newsletter 12th May, 2022 - Place Of Changing Winds + Fresh Jura Drops + Domaine Valette

by Annandale Cellars

Place Of Changing Winds

In-Store Tasting

This Saturday, May 14th

3pm - 6pm

Warekilla.

The Wurundjeri name could translate as "Happy Place".

Or "Place of Changing Winds".

Robert Walters searched for almost five years trying to find a sit for his warekilla. He eventually settled on the place, Bullengarook on the southern foothills of Mount Macedon, to establish Place of Changing Winds. Years of experience in the wine trade and visits to the best sites and winemaking practices around the world all culminated in Rob's decision to put down roots around Macedon. The changing winds create a high diurnal difference in temperature, embraced by the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir fruit. Their vines are grown at extremely high density, ten times the norm, to encourage a community or single body of the plants as they develop their collective canopy, and dig their vines deep through the gravelly soils in search of water and nutrients, anchoring them against the wind. Fruit is low-yielding.

And as is the nature of the wind, Warekilla was not the only place of Robert, as his head was turned to Heathcote for Syrah. We are excited this Saturday to bring you the wines from growers who follow the same ethos as Rob's Place of Changing Winds: the Syrah and the Syrah Number Two.

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Fresh Jura Drops

A selection of wines from favourites like Domaine Ratte, Les Dolomies, Champ Divin, Frederic Lambert plus the debut releases of Domaine des Notes Blueues and NoVice.

Jura: the birthplace of Louis Pasteur, unpasteurised Comté, and more organic and biodynamic farming than the goddess Demeter could throw a bread stick at, to go with all that nutty, unpasteurised cheese.

Located to the east of Burgundy, the Jura is one of the smallest wine regions of France, yet the most idiosyncratic. Whilst more conventional styles exist within the appellations, Jura is famed, like its cheese, for its oxidative and nutty white wines. Most notably is the Vin Jaune, the tangy and curry-spiced Savagnin "yellow wine", aged under a veil of flor (sous voile) in a similar way to a dry Sherry.

Our Jura section has been fully topped up! We've just received a huge selection of cuvées from some of the most exciting produces in Jura.

All are in small amounts and all are very sought after so don't hesitate to make your move!

Frederic Lambert
Their wines are mostly traditional and whites being (sous voile) oxidative with a few exceptions linking them to the slowly modernising movement in Jura right now. Every wine is carefully thought out in the cave which now resides in the old honey factory in the town of Toulouse. Production is now around 15000 bottles a year but they are continuing to expand now that their son Romain has finished his studies.

Domaine Ratte
In the town of Arbois, you will find the small Domaine run by husband and wife team Michel-Henri and Françoise Ratte. Vineyards have been in Françoise family for generations but they have always been under the shackles of a fruitier, selling their fruit under contract until now. In 2015 they broke free, not an easy feat considering you are usually signed for life here, and started making wine for themselves from some of the best terroirs in Arbois.

Hughes Béguet
Winemaker Patrice Béguet, born in Jura, gave up Paris city life and returned to the Jura countryside with his wife, Caroline Hughes. They purchased heritage vineyards on great terroir, and set up a small winery under their house in Mesnay adopting sustainable viticulture practices and winemaking techniques. In the cave, he is a keen experimentalist, making use of extended macerations and egg-shaped barrels. All wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts, with some fermentations lasting up to six months. The wines complete their élevage (or "upbringing") in a mixture of stainless steel tank, eggs, and various aged old oak barrels. No added sulphur, Patrice's wines are anything but predictable.

Patrice Béguet
Patrice Béguet's negotiant wines, sourcing organic fruit from the Jura and beyond, such as Alsace, the Rhône and the Loire. The blends are as colourful and as quirky as the labels, and offer great value and drinkability.

Champ Divin
They are methodical people, both of them former engineers, which you can see in their cave and their wines. The new cave was built in 2009, soon after acquiring the vineyards, and is clean, tidy and purpose built winery and probably one of the most well set out I have seen in Jura. Stainless steel vats are housed in the fermentation room and each wine has its own maturation vault housing the barrels for their Pinot, Chardonnay, Savagnin and sous voile wines. A lot of thought and care has gone into the planning of their winery and the care of their wines. Their wines are a window into the terroir that they were grown on. Rich fruited, focused, technical and precise with loads of Jurassic acid backbone carrying all the flavours. Their sous voile wines, perfect examples of what I love about Jura but forward enough to be able to be enjoyed very soon after bottling.

Domaine des Notes Bleues
They are methodical people, both of them former engineers, which you can see in their cave and their wine

NoVice
Advocates of organic and biodynamic farming, Yves Roy- Salomon, with his partner Christelle returned to his home town of Poligny to set up Domaine NoVice in 2019. The domaine's current releases come from Poulsard and Savagnin vines that have been rooted for up to 120 years, but in the coming years we should see the harvests of the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Trousseau all planted by the couple. A name to watch!

Domaine des Notes Bleues
Cédric Mottet left the Jura to study and pursue a professional career in music, but the call of the wine was louder than the music he was playing. Cédric returned to Mesnay in 2017, purchasing Stéphane Tissot's "Les Nouvelles" vineyard in Arbois, plus a number of holdings across the communes.

The first time Cédric's wines have graced our shores, his whites are traditional in styling with of course a Jurassien nod to all styles of jazz with its funk, electric acid, improvisation and salty characters. Cédric combines his passions with the cuvées and the domaine all taking their names from his love of jazz.

Click on the individual names above to explore each producer, or start digging through our Jurassic collection through the link below.

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Domaine Valette

 

The Valette family have been producing some of the finest wines in Mâcon for generations, with current winemakers Baptiste and Phillippe taking over from their father Gerard Valette. The wines have a cult following in France and are rarely seen outside of the country.

The family farms 17 hectares of vines, most of which are located in Mâcon-Chaintré. The soils here are a mix of clay and limestone, which enhances the minerality of the wines, and a lot of work is done in the vineyards to promote vine health whilst keeping yields low. This combination creates deeply concentrated wines, which are perfect expressions of their terroir. The vines are also farmed organically, with no systemic sprays, pesticides or herbicides used at all.

In the winery, there are zero additions... absolutely zero. Completely natural. A term that is probably overused and certainly used with too much fanfare. But when the wines are this good - pure, layered and elegant - then it's worth a mention. Maison Valette shows the power and presence great Chardonnay has to offer.

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