Nicolas Jacob Vin de France Rouge 'X' 2020

Interplanted hybrid varieties, unknown

Biodynamic

Jura, France

This cuvée is taken from one tiny parcel in the ‘Au Mouiller’ site; it’s a tiny pocket of interplanted hybrid varieties, most of which Jacob himself hasn’t identified. All of the varieties are red-skinned and red-fleshed, so it’s vinified as a white, but the juice is red. 2020 is relatively ‘orange’-looking. Cofermented in stainless steel, aged 10-11 months. Unfined, unfiltered, zero SO2.

We’re super happy to offer our annual droplets of Ganevat star pupil Nicolas Jacob, working without ceremony or fuss on his roughly 5 hectares of vines in the southern Jura, in the village of Cesancey. Jacob is a focused, detail-oriented winemaker in his way, working on tiny micro-cuvées where the variations in each wine are very much about terroir, usually variations on type and age of the limestone marls for which the Jura is rightly famous. However, Jacob’s winemaking could also be called simple: barrel fermentations, nothing added or taken away, long élevage. It’s a farmer’s style, but the wines that result are both powerful and elegant. Whites are the star of the show, but there’s gumption in the reds, too. Please decant!