2018 Michel Gahier Arbois Chardonnay Les Crêts

WINEMAKER: Michel Gahier
REGION: Jura, FR
VARIETAL: Chardonnay
VITICULTURE: Organic

The grapes for this wine are also manually harvested and matured in old wood so that the wine can ‘breath’ but so that no new oak flavour dominates the wine. There is the trademark oxidative quality to this wine which provides a nutty spiciness and umami flavour that makes you want to sip more and more of it. This is Jura Chardonnay at its best! There are honey and pear and almond flavours in abundance and a long, lingering minerality that reflects the amazing terroir of the area around Michel’s village. We drank this wine over three days and it held up beautifully right to the end. This is common with wines that have some oxidative qualities. A little sulphite was added to this wine when it was bottled.

Michel Gahier lives in the centre of the village of Montigny-les-Arsures which lies near the central town of Arbois. The reason this is significant is that Montigny is regarded as the finest terroir for the Trousseau grape in the Jura. When we first tasted his wines we were very excited by their purity and their minerality. Michel is a quiet but talented vigneron who tends his vines meticulously and watches carefully over his wines as they are maturing. He likes to make his wine using the traditional techniques of the Jura. Michel tends 6 hectares of vines of which 3 hectares are given over to Trousseau and the remainder is split between Chardonnay and Savagnin.