Vignerons Les Matheny 2019 Chardonnay, Arbois AOC

Vignerons Les Matheny 2019 Chardonnay, Arbois AOC

Item Number: 17769

UPC: None

Country: France
Region: Jura
Sub Region: Jura
Appellation/AVA: Arbois AOC
Estate Grown Wine: Yes
Vintage: 2019
Grape(s): 100% Chardonnay
Type: Wine - White
Bottle Size: 750 ml
Pack: 12
Closure: Cork
Alc by Vol(%): 13
Viticulture: Practicing Organic
Soil Type: White limestone-clay marls

Tasting Notes: Produced from vines averaging 45 years of age, the wine soars from the glass, a storm of ripe green apples, freshly blasted quarry, and musky honey. The palate is both firm and expansive, with a generous pinch of telltale Jurassic salt lengthening the complex, penetrating flavors of greengage and candied lemon. Emeric’s partial sous-voile approach shows in the wine’s gently oxidative edge—one that bows to the veil without making a virtue of it—and for such a bold and assertive wine to remain so straightforwardly delicious is a difficult balancing act.

Winemaking Notes: Following total destemming, the Chardonnay ferments spontaneously in fiberglass tanks. The wine is racked after malolactic and remains on its fine lees until assemblage prior to bottling. It ages a total of 48 months in 600-liter neutral oak demi-muids with occasional topping up. The wine is unfined and lightly plate filtered.

About the Estate: Few in the region are as talented as Emeric Foléat of the tiny Les Matheny domaine in Arbois. Emeric worked for eight years under the legendary Jacques Puffeney, who taught him the ultimate value in embracing risk and trusting the quality of his fruit to do its thing in the cellar without coercion. Emeric farms three hectares in Arbois without the use of synthetic chemicals and raises his wines in a small cinder block shed devoid of modern gadgetry. Minute additions of sulfites, and even then only sometimes, are the only adjustments he makes to his bold, assertive, deeply personal creations—wines that embody the exhilarating freedom Jura growers enjoy compared to many of their peers in more buttoned-up regions.