France - Jurançon

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3 products

Argile White 2020
Chateau Lafitte

Argile White 2020

€49,00

Le Litre Arbitre White 2020
Chateau Lafitte

Le Litre Arbitre White 2020

€39,90

The Jurançon appellation is located in the southwest, in Béarn and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department. This small vineyard in the Pyrenean foothills stretches over a thousand hectares between the Gave de Pau and the town of Oloron-Sainte-Marie. It takes its name from the village of Jurançon, near Pau, and has always had a strong identity, celebrated at least since Henry IV. The vines are planted on hillsides, between 300 and 400 meters above sea level, on puddingstone or clayey sandstone soils. The grapes are commonly trained in a high-altitude manner, with foliage reaching up to 2.5 meters in height.
Jurançon is best known as a sweet wine under the Jurançon AOC appellation (one of the first AOCs in France, classified in 1936). There is also a dry Jurançon, a white wine classified as AOC in 1975. The reds and rosés produced in the region are AOC Béarn.

Jurançon has five grape varieties, all white. The two main ones (more than 50% of the blend) are Petit Manseng and Gros Manseng, the only ones permitted in so-called late harvest wines. Courbu Blanc, Camaralet de Lasseube, and Lauzet serve as complementary grape varieties. It is said that Petit Manseng is more specific to sweet Jurançon and Gros Manseng to dry Jurançon (because it produces less acidity), but this is not a strict rule. Blends vary depending on ripeness and the plots.
Sweet Jurançons can be exceptional wines. They improve with age, revealing notes of black truffle after about ten years. Due to their rich flavor, some can be considered sweet. They are complex, tangy, and honeyed, with notes of white flowers and tropical fruits. They become more mineral and sweet with age, taking on notes of mushroom, undergrowth, and truffle, especially in the case of late harvests. Dry or sweet, they are excellent as an aperitif but can accompany an entire meal. Sweet Jurançon wines pair well with foie gras, confits, charcuterie, and dishes from the Southwest. Dry Jurançon is an elegant and complex wine that pairs well with fish (salmon and Adour trout), seafood, and goat and sheep cheeses (Ossau-Iraty) from the western Pyrenees.
What grape varieties are used to produce Jurançon wines? White wines with the Jurançon appellation, located in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, whether sweet or dry, are made from Petit Manseng and Gros Manseng as the predominant grape varieties. They must represent more than half of the blend for the wine to merit the appellation. The two grapes are locally sourced and related, but clearly differentiated within the appellation. Gros Manseng, producing slightly less sugar, is more often associated with dry white wines, and Petit Manseng with sweet wines. The latter has superb aging potential and acquires subtle and complex notes with age, often reminiscent of black truffles. In reality, blends are determined by maturity and the plot, so their proportions vary.

The other three grape varieties are Courbu Blanc, which is early ripening and somewhat fragile but appreciated for its acidity; Camaralet de Lasseube and Lauzet, which are used in a minority. Camaralet brings spicy notes to dry white wines, while Lauzet enhances their minerality.
Why is Jurançon wine considered a royal wine?
Since at least the 14th century, Jurançon has been a favorite wine of the noble families of Foix and Navarre, but it was not until the baptism of King Henry IV of France (December 1553) that this wine entered French history, never to be forgotten. Henry of Navarre, the future king's grandfather, is said to have rubbed a clove of garlic on the lips of the baptized man before giving him a little Jurançon wine to drink. Jeanne d'Albret, Henry IV's mother, carefully tended the vineyard her father had bought in Jurançon, and the region's wine was renowned throughout France. Since this royal baptism, Jurançon wine has had various destinies but has never ceased to be associated with royalty. At the beginning of the 19th century, a monarchy in search of restoration and symbolism reproduced the ceremony of the royal baptism, propelling Jurançon once again into a prosperous period. However, it was from the second half of the 20th century and the attribution of an AOP (1936) that the Jurançon vineyard regained its strength. Reconstituted and restored after the difficult passage of phylloxera and various vine diseases, it has since experienced a progression that makes it today a vineyard of reduced size but of great prestige.