Wine of France / Southwest / Jurançon

Jurançon

Undoubtedly the king of Southwest white wines, Jurançon was historically known as the noble wine of French kings. Many of the vineyards here are carved into the hillsides, creating what looks like amphitheaters curving along the slopes and giving them maximum sun exposure.  Because of its higher altitude (vineyards are often at 300 to 400 meters above sea level), wines from this area tend to have the highest acidity in the region.  Soils are arid, with layers of baseball-sized pudding stones embedded into the soil.  These provide excellent drainage for the vines, and also help promote considerable structure and acidity. The vines usually face south and are trained six or seven feet high. As in Madiran and Iroulèguy, all grapes must be harvested by hand. Jurançon is influenced by both an oceanic climate (with some 1,200 mm of annual rain) and a mountainous climate (with warm winds from North Africa traversing the mountains during the autumn).  These winds allow growers to leave fruit on the vines late in the season until it shrivels and concentrates the grapes’ sugar, creating some of the world’s finest dessert wines.  About 60% of Jurançon’s production is for sweet wines (released as Jurançon), while 40% of the grapes are vinified dry (and released as Jurançon Sec). From our highly regarded Jurançon domaine, Lapeyre, we bring in a Jurançon Sec (100% Gros Manseng) and an older vine Jurançon Sec called Vitatge Vielh (Vieilles Vignes in the local dialect), a blend of Gros and Petit Manseng and Petit Courbu. We also carry their world class sweet Jurançon, the Magendia, made with 100% Petit Manseng.