2010 Cotes du Jura Grusse en Billat

I tasted both lots that will become Ganevat’s 2010 Cotes du Jura Chardonnay Grusses En Billat, from schistic but clay-rich soils situated on a high plateau and then from the steep slopes around it in the village of Grusse immediately east of Rotalier. The former portion displays pungent aromas and bright, mouthwatering, juicy palate persistence of salt-tinged tangerine and lemon with their pips; Chablis-like chicken and herb broth; and musky rose radish. There is a smoky, dusty, crushed stone overtone one also finds in Chablis, though the illusively mineral and musky aspects to the finish also put me in mind of a great, Grenache Gris-based Roussillon white, even though the present dense, sappy elixir boasts vibrant acidity. The steep slope lot from En Billat is almost single-mindedly chalky, stony, and smoky, but also a source of even more electro-charged acidity than its betrothed, as instantly demonstrated by an impromptu trial marriage in the glass that delivered positively shimmering persistence. This will be exciting to follow for at least a half dozen years. (At around $45, the 2009 version was set to retail for little more than its sibling Cuvee Florine ... that is, of course, if one can get one’s name put on a few bottles.) Jean-Francois Ganevat – known locally and affectionately as “Fanfan” – farms biodynamically 18 acres at Rotalier in the deep South of the Jura growing area. From these, he bottles an array of wines mind-boggling both in diversity and quality. In fact, I’m willing to bet that he is the most accomplished French vigneron of whom most of my readers have never heard – and I write that in humility, because until two years ago I had never heard of him either. As Ganevat is, however, quick in pointing out, so as to put his achievements into perspective, there is one full-time person on staff here per hectare (2.5 acres) and even just watching, as I did, the process of immediately post-bottling packing and record-keeping revealed the meticulousness with which even the seemingly most mundane tasks are carried out at this domaine. So numerous are Ganevat’s cuvees that during my first visit here last November I did not get much beyond concentrating on his 2010 vintage, and even that could not be tasted complete. Time (or was it sheer scarcity?) precluded my experiencing a rare late-harvested sweet Savagnin that is labeled as “Sul Q” or any of the extremely (as in: close to a decade!) late-bottled Savagnin “Les Vignes de Mon Pere,” alluded to in my tasting note on the 2010 Les Chalasses that originates from the same vines. (I’ll try to eventually supplement the present notes on Ganevat 2009 whites with a more complete set; that collection was just arriving stateside as this report went to “press.”) Ganevat’s vineyards are all in close proximity, many within the amphitheatric combe for which his home hamlet (officially part of the commune Rotalier) is named. While picking tends to be late – in the case of 2010, largely only in the second half of October – alcohol levels of the finished white wines vary anywhere from 13-14.5%. “Each year, though, levels keep going up,” notes Ganevat, “so we have to work to keep down the alcohol. But in 2009 for example, until 14% (especially with Savagnin) the phenolic maturity just wasn’t there; much material tasted vegetal and unripe.” All of this estate’s whites – far and away the majority of which are Chardonnay and topped-off – are raised for two or more years in small, mostly used 500 liter. barrels and without sulfur, their precision, clarity, and stamina once opened being quite remarkable considering that even at bottling most remain un-sulfured. (I must admit, though, to speculating about longevity largely on the basis of hearsay, as no Ganevat wines with significant bottle age have thus far come my way.) Ganevat is proud to claim that he represents the 14th generation of his family to grow wine, though it was his father who in the late 1970’s began shedding milk cows to focus almost exclusively on viticulture, and from whom Jean-Francois took extended leave in the mid-1990s to work with Jean-Marc Morey of Chassagne-Montrachet. A Jeffrey Alpert Selection, Tenafly, NJ; tel. (201) 803 5624, with various importers including V.O.S. Imports, New York, NY; tel. (212) 967-6948, also Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524