Le Clos des Grives - Cotes du Jura Savagnin Ouille 'Draine' white 2020

Wine Region: Jura - France

Grapes: Savagnin

Tasting Notes:Intense with a light straw yellow colour. Aroma with notes of nuts, fine elegant fruit. The taste is round and silky, spicy with hints of saltiness, nuts and a very good length.

Story: 

The story of the Savagnin green grape begins with the Traminer grape, a green grape originating from the Tyrolean village of Tramin (now South Tyrol) that was cultivated between the 11th and 16th centuries. The famous ampelograph (ampelography = the study of the vine) Pierre Galet believed that Traminer was identical to the Savagnin blanc of the Jura.

Francisco in Austria, Heida and Païen in Switzerland, Formentin in Hungary and tramín bíló (brynšt) from Bohemia are all very similar to Savagnin blanc and probably represent clones of the Traminer family. The Rhône Valley's Viognier may be a more distant relative of Savagnin blanc.

Ouillé is the fruity style, you top off the barrels to prevent oxidation. But even this kind of fruitier style often takes on a special, oxidative character, which is Jura's typical signature.

About the winery:

It's always just as fun to represent a golden nugget of producer from one of France's smallest appellations – Jura. Owned by none other than area legend Benoît Mulin, Le Clos des Grives has flown under our radar, mostly staying away from international markets because volumes are so small that most sell out in France. Therefore, it is extra fun that Benoît - with a little persuasion - decided to give us enough allocation to make it possible to offer his wines to Jura wine lovers in Sweden.

Benoît Mulin was working as a banker in Lyon when he met his future wife. Both were born and raised in the Jura near the Swiss border, and decided to move back. In 2009, Benoit started working for the Tissot family, well-known in the area, and its trading business Le Celliers des Tiercelines, where he assisted with business acumen and was joined by Jerôme Arnoux, who was appointed assistant winemaker. In 2013, Benoît became head of the entire operation and at the same time began to actively step into winemaking himself when he decided to lease land adjacent to Tissot's vines where he successfully cultivated his own grapes and launched his own wines under his own name.

In 2017, Benoît had the opportunity to purchase Le Clos des Grives. The company was founded by one of France's pioneers in organic viticulture, Gaston Charbonnier, who ensured that in 1968 it became the first organically certified company in the Jura. In 1982, his son took over with the same philosophy as his father, but since he had no children, he sold the company to Benoît, who runs it together with his cousin and with his enormous experience has ensured that today it belongs to the elite in Jura - of course with continued focus on organic farming.

Le Clos des Grives has 4 hectares located in the small village of Chille in the heart of the Jura planted with all five official Jura grapes: Chardonnay and Savagnin for the white wines and Pinot Noir, Poulsard and Trousseau for the reds. The farm is alone on a hill without neighbors with an incredible view of the town of Lons-le-Saunier, far in the southern Jura.

The vines grow on slopes at a height of just over 300 meters above sea level in an optimal south and southwest position with a soil consisting of marl, which is a calcareous clay.

Wines are made both in the rustic oxidized "sous voile" style that made the area famous, where, just like in Jerez, the wine is allowed to oxidize under a protective layer of yeast, and in the fruity, conventional "ouillé" style that is being adopted by more and more the area's leading producers, as the minerality of the wines is highlighted more clearly, while the wines become more accessible. And of course they make the famous Vin Jaune wines, which are allowed to oxidize during 7 years of storage, as well as the sweet Vin de Paille from dried grapes.

Throughout, they only harvest by hand and use only natural indigenous yeasts and a minimum of sulphur. The company's "Nada" wines are completely unclarified and unfiltered, and here no sulfur has been added at all during any part of the process from harvest to bottle.