Alexandre Jouveaux

(Rosé in Zalto Burgundy)

With the risk of repeating my appraisal for the wines of Alexandre Jouveaux I bring you an update on his latest releases, which includes a new white, red and rosé.

Let’s however kick of with two wines you have read about before in the current vintage: 2010. 

2010 Préty

The 2010 Préty are pretty insane stuff. There are some obvious resemblance to the previous vintages, but still the 2010 vintage are even more avant garde. It oozes and flirts with flor yeast notes, which are typical for Vin Jaune and it even have notes of sherry, ammoniac (what you sometimes find in brie cheese), sherry, fennel, liquorice and tarragon. With air – which it’s really in need of – it becomes more linear and although these characteristic flor notes are still present they take a step back.  What also appears are more citrus fruits, flowers and butter in sync with an enormous intensity. The taste is ultra sleek, clear, bone dry - with nerve wrecking energy, acidity and mineral spine. Despite I have already had it twice I am confident it’s better in 2 years time. Possibly the best release I have tasted of this wine. 

2010 Le Mont

Le Mont also flirts with these flor notes, but it’s somewhat different glass of wine. Le Mont might not have the same depth as Préty, yet it offers a more direct attack with even more energy, purity and higher acidity. Le Mont is so political incorrect, filled with personality and  The 2010 are a beautiful specimen and equal with the stunning 2008 vintage. 

A fresh update on Le Mont, which I have just tasted 12^th of May-2012. With this bottle, there was a different string of stronger minerality, lime, white flower and crushed rocks. It was ultra clear without any of these flor yeast notes. Beautiful wine and so direct and energetic.  

2010 Combarnier

A new realse and consider to be a kind of entry-level wine. It’s less complex than the Préty and Le Mont, but offers and splendid flowery spectrum, citrus, lime and are filled with Jouveaux’s signature of tense freshness, clarity and acidity. Loved it.

2010 Rosé

When it comes to rosé – both still and Champagne – I often find temperature decisive and an individual parameter. Some do better by always being cold and preserving a mouth-watering freshness. Other has more red wine character and structural base and really do much better in the range of 14 <> 16 degrees. I most often start from 10 degrees and see what happens with warmth.

Here the lower temperature presents some dilemmas, as the wine gave away some rather strange aromas of rifle oil (don’t ask) - mixed with far better notes of red salted fruits. With warmth the profile completely changes and when reaching *14,5 degrees the wine enters a magic zone and becomes one of the most sophisticated still rosé I have ever tasted. The oily aromas are more a dark herbal touch and the salted red fruits now get companionship of strawberry, rosehip, cranberries, iodine and chicken skin. Taste is ultra sleek, tight, salted and with immensely beautiful red perfumes adding a lovely inner warmth.

*To measure the correct temperature I use this little gadget. Highly recommended.

2008 Rouge

The red was the only offering I wasn’t ecstatic about. It’s still a fair wine, but holds some earthed notes of wet forest floor, becoming a bit rustic and lowers the energy and purity a few gears down for my taste.