Ganevat Savagnin Sous Voile 2017
165,00 €
| Year | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Ganevat |
| Typology | White Wine |
| Format | 75 Cl |
| Origin | Francia |
| Regione | |
| Grape Variety | Savagnin |
| Magazzino |
Savagnin Sous Voile 2017 – Jean-François Ganevat
Four years under a living veil of yeast: Savagnin Sous Voile 2017 by Ganevat is oxidative Jura in its noblest form, between walnut, curry and saline tension.
Overview
Savagnin Sous Voile 2017 is a pure Savagnin by Jean-François Ganevat, vinified in the traditional oxidative style of the Jura. Aged for around four years under a natural veil of yeast, it develops the famous “goût de jaune”, that unmistakable signature of walnut, dried fruit and spice that makes the Jura a region like no other in the world. It is a dry, saline and deeply taut white, made in small quantities, that marries the region’s oxidative tradition with the search for finesse typical of Fanfan. A great wine for meditation and for the table, with very long persistence and remarkable ageing potential.
The story of the wine
“Sous voile” is the historic method of the Jura’s whites: the wine rests in un-topped barrels, protected by a thin veil of yeast that oxygenates it slowly, the same principle that governs Sherry and the legendary Vin Jaune. Unlike Vin Jaune, which requires more than six years of ageing and the 62 cl clavelin bottle, this Savagnin is released after a shorter period and in a standard format. Although he is celebrated above all for his Burgundian-style “ouillé” whites, Ganevat masters this oxidative register with equal skill, while seeking greater lightness and elegance than the average of the genre.
Philosophy in the vineyard
Ganevat’s Savagnin grows on the marl soils of the southern Jura, around Rotalier, on vines tended biodynamically with low yields and a strictly manual harvest. Savagnin is the region’s signature white variety, late-ripening, hardy and rich in acidity, qualities that make it perfect for long ageing under veil, where less structured wines would not hold up. The almost obsessive care in the vineyard, with around one person per hectare, ensures perfectly healthy grapes, an essential condition for a wine destined to spend years in barrel before release.
Approach in the cellar and grape varieties
The variety is pure Savagnin. Fermentation takes place with whole clusters, with indigenous yeasts only, followed by a full malolactic fermentation. The wine then rests for around 48 months under veil, with no topping up or pumping over, letting the so-called “angels’ share” evaporate while the yeast veil slowly develops the oxidative character. Sulfur is added only at bottling, in minimal doses, in line with the estate’s low-intervention approach. The result is a taut, deep Savagnin, where the oxidative complexity never masks the freshness.
Tasting notes
Colour: deep, bright gold, a clear sign of the long oxidative ageing under veil.
Nose: complex and penetrating, on walnut, almond and curry, with hints of dried fruit, baked apple, bread crust and a spicy note.
Palate: dry, saline and taut, with a full “goût de jaune”, great salinity and a very long finish recalling walnut and spice.
Food pairings
A gastronomic wine par excellence, best served slightly cool. It is the classic match for aged Comté and hard cheeses, as well as for great regional dishes such as chicken in cream and vin jaune sauce with morels. It pairs beautifully with mushrooms, curry, dried fruit and rich or smoked fish. Its intensity also makes it perfect on its own, as a meditation wine at the end of a meal.
Technical sheet
- Producer: Jean-François Ganevat (Domaine Ganevat, Rotalier)
- Appellation: Jura AOC (to be confirmed on the label: Côtes du Jura or Arbois)
- Type: Natural white wine, oxidative sous voile style
- Grapes: Pure Savagnin
- Farming: Organic and biodynamic
- Winemaking: Whole-cluster fermentation, full malolactic fermentation, around 48 months under veil with no topping up, sulfur added only at bottling
- Alcohol: around 14% vol. (estimate consistent with the style of sous voile Savagnin; no source figure for the 2017 vintage, to be confirmed on the label)
- Serving temperature: 13–15 °C (recommended for this style of oxidative white; 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.