Domaine de Sainte Marie Côtes du Jura Savagnin Ouillé 2022

The Savagnin Ouillé from Domaine de Sainte Marie comes from the Côtes du Jura appellation, on the slopes overlooking the Bresse plain, around Saint-Germain-lès-Arlay, not far from Château-Chalon. The vineyard, covering some fifteen hectares, rests on clay-limestone and marl soils typical of the Jura Revermont. The semi-continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers, is perfectly suited to Savagnin, the region’s emblematic grape variety.

Unlike vin jaune, this Savagnin is made in the ouillé (topped-up) style: the vessels are regularly topped up to compensate for evaporation, so that the wine is never in contact with air. It is aged for two years in large 4,000-litre oak vats (foudres). This method preserves the freshness and fruit of the grape variety, far from the traditional oxidative style.

This wine reveals notes of vine peach, pear, quince, candied lemon, acacia blossom, fresh hazelnut, sweet spices and chalk. The nose combines ripe fruit with a floral touch and a mineral hint. The palate is fresh and straight, carried by lively acidity and a light salinity, before a long, flavourful finish.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.