Ganevat Les Billat 2022
145,90 €
| Year | 2022 |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Ganevat |
| Typology | Red Wine |
| Format | 75 Cl |
| Origin | Francia |
| Regione | |
| Grape Variety | Pinot Noir |
| Magazzino |
En Billat 2022 – Jean-François Ganevat
Dubbed by the Wine Advocate “the Romanée-Conti of the Jura”, En Billat 2022 is Jean-François Ganevat’s most chiselled and rarest Pinot Noir.
Overview
En Billat 2022 is a pure Pinot Noir from Domaine Ganevat, in the Côtes du Jura AOC, born from a single parcel vinified separately. It is one of the rarest and most sought-after reds in the whole Jura, made in microscopic quantities, and it embodies the equation that turned Fanfan into a legend: Burgundian freshness and finesse married to the absolute purity typical of the Jura. It is a high-toned, floral and finely structured Pinot Noir, far from powerful reds and much closer to the idea of elegance and transparency. A collector’s bottle, instantly recognisable for its grace.
The story of the wine
“En Billat” is the name of the cru from which this wine comes, one of the parcels Ganevat vinifies on its own to highlight its micro-terroir. Alongside Cuvée Julien, which is earthier and more red-fruited, En Billat is one of the estate’s two top Pinot Noirs, and the more vertical and chiselled of the pair. Trained in Burgundy as cellar master at Jean-Marc Morey in Chassagne-Montrachet, Jean-François Ganevat brought the logic of the Burgundian cru to the Jura, so much so that critics have compared him to names like Coche, Jayer and Dagueneau. The Wine Advocate has called his Pinot Noirs “the Romanée-Conti of the Jura”.
Philosophy in the vineyard
The En Billat parcel sits on the marl and limestone soils of the southern Jura, around Rotalier, on vines of a certain age with yields kept deliberately very low. Ganevat works biodynamically, with an almost obsessive care that translates into around one person per hectare and a strictly manual harvest. Pinot Noir is a fragile, transparent variety that forgives nothing: every berry must reach the cellar perfectly healthy. For Fanfan, it is in the vineyard, not the cellar, that the quality of a great wine is decided.
Approach in the cellar and grape varieties
The variety is pure Pinot Noir. In the cellar Ganevat’s touch is feather-light: destemming is done by hand, berry by berry, followed by a whole-berry fermentation in the old way, with a carbonic-style maceration close to Beaujolais and indigenous yeasts only. Ageing takes place in neutral wood, with no new oak at all, so as not to mask the fruit and the terroir. Sulfur is used in minimal doses. The result is a living, digestible Pinot Noir of rare finesse, where the transparency of the variety and the parcel remains intact.
Tasting notes
Colour: clear, bright ruby red, of medium to light intensity, with luminous reflections typical of cool-climate Pinot Noir.
Nose: high-toned and floral, on raspberry, redcurrant and cherry, with hints of violet, fine spices, undergrowth and a mineral note.
Palate: taut and elegant, with a silky texture, very fine tannins, crunchy red fruit and a savoury acidity that lengthens the finish and keeps it thirst-quenching.
Food pairings
An elegant, gastronomic Pinot Noir, best served cool. It pairs with white meats and poultry, duck, mushroom and truffle dishes, salmon and structured fish. It is excellent with medium-aged cheeses, starting with the Jura’s Comté. Its finesse makes it perfect with refined, understated cuisines, where the wine’s delicacy can express itself without being covered.
Technical sheet
- Producer: Jean-François Ganevat (Domaine Ganevat, Rotalier)
- Appellation: Côtes du Jura AOC, France
- Type: Natural red wine
- Grapes: Pure Pinot Noir
- Farming: Organic and biodynamic
- Winemaking: Hand destemming, whole-berry fermentation with carbonic maceration, ageing in neutral wood, minimal sulfur
- Alcohol: around 12% vol. (estimate consistent with the style of Ganevat’s Pinots; no source figure for the 2022 vintage, to be confirmed on the label)
- Serving temperature: 14–16 °C (recommended for this style of fine Pinot Noir; not a producer figure)
- Sulfites: Contains sulfites
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Jean-François Ganevat (Domaine Ganevat)
Fourteen generations, just over a dozen hectares and more than forty different cuvées every year: Domaine Ganevat is the beating heart of natural wine in the Jura.
The story
Jean-François Ganevat, known to everyone as “Fanfan”, is the fourteenth generation of a winegrowing family rooted in Rotalier, in the hamlet of La Combe, in the southern Jura. The estate’s sources trace the family’s viticulture back to 1650, when grape-growing went hand in hand with a dairy that produced milk for Comté cheese until 1976. After years of apprenticeship at his father’s side, Jean-François trained at the oenology school in Beaune and became cellar master at one of Chassagne-Montrachet’s most prestigious estates, Jean-Marc Morey, in Burgundy. It was there that he developed his devotion to Chardonnay and to single-parcel winemaking. In 1998 he returned to the Jura to take over the family cellar, converting it to organics immediately and to biodynamics from 2006. Today he works alongside his sister Anne. In little more than two decades he has turned a small rural estate into one of the most revered names in the world for natural wine lovers.
Philosophy in the vineyard
Ganevat considers vineyard work by far the most important part of his craft, and proves it with almost obsessive numbers: one person per hectare to ensure that his biodynamic farming is carried out to perfection. The vines climb the marl and limestone slopes around La Combe, between 300 and 400 metres of altitude, on a mosaic of soils that shifts from one parcel to the next. Many vines are over fifty years old, some more than a century, with historic plots dating back to the early 1900s. No herbicides, no synthetic chemistry, extremely low yields and strictly manual harvesting. Alongside the Jura’s classic varieties, Chardonnay, Savagnin, Poulsard, Trousseau and Pinot Noir, Ganevat stubbornly safeguards dozens of almost-forgotten native grape varieties, such as Béclan, Enfariné and Portugais Bleu, rescuing them from extinction. Each parcel is tended and vinified separately, following a micro-terroir logic he brought back from Burgundy.
Approach in the cellar
In the cellar the rule is simple: intervene as little as possible and let the terroir speak. Fermentations start spontaneously, with indigenous yeasts only, and are famously long. For his Chardonnay and Savagnin whites, Ganevat favours the Burgundian “ouillage” style, with barrels kept constantly topped up, to bring luminosity and elegance where the Jura would choose oxidation, without entirely renouncing the traditional sous voile style. Ageing lasts two years or more in old demi-muids and neutral barrels, sometimes in amphorae or large casks. For his Pinot Noir, Trousseau and Poulsard reds, he destems completely and then ferments whole berries in the old way, with a carbonic-style maceration close to Beaujolais, before ageing in neutral wood. Sulfur is used in minimal doses, or none at all depending on the vintage, a choice that explains the purity, transparency and energy that make these wines instantly recognisable.
Style, cuvées and the négoce
The most disorienting trait of Ganevat is the sheer number of labels: often more than forty different cuvées every vintage, each with a precise identity. The domaine wines, with their two-part labels, come only from the oldest estate vineyards and culminate in icons such as Les Grands Teppes and Les Chalasses Vieilles Vignes, up to the legendary Les Vignes de Mon Père, a Savagnin aged for around ten years from vines his father planted in 1930, among the rarest and most expensive wines of the Jura. To defend against the frosts that regularly devastate the harvests, in 2013 Jean-François and Anne launched a négoce line under the name “Anne et Jean-François Ganevat”, with grapes leased or bought from growers in the Jura and other French regions, from Burgundy to Beaujolais and Alsace. It is this dual track, an extremely rare domaine alongside a more accessible négoce, that has made Ganevat a cult name on the wine lists of the world’s best restaurants.