Jean Luc Mouillard Chardonnay Jura 2021

$29.99

Only 2 left!

Alcohol: 14.5%

Grape(s): 100% Chardonnay

Localization: Jura, France

Tasting Notes: Rich, mineral Chardonnay, freshness emerges from this elegant vintage. Nose of white flowers and citrus fruits.

Food pairing: Accompanied by seafood, fish, hors d'oeuvres and white meats

The Domain: Jean-Luc Mouillard was born in Nevy-sur-Seille at the foot of the oft-photographed Château-Chalon. The château has morphed into a village as well as into Jura’s most respected appellation for vin jaune, and it occupies the top of a huge limestone outcropping. Nevy-sur-Seille, as the name suggests, sits far below on the valley floor along side of the small Seille River. An old stone bridge crosses the Seille at Nevy, and it’s this bridge that graces the labels of Jean-Luc’s wines.

Jean-Luc grew up on the family’s dairy farm, which happened to have a few vineyard parcels on the side whose harvest was sold to the local co-op. After enology school, he established Domaine Jean-Luc Mouillard in 1991, renting several parcels and planting several others. Today he farms twenty-seven acres of vines (up from the twenty stated on old back labels that may still be seen on bottles) in three appellations: Côtes du Jura, L’Etoile, and Château-Chalon, and normally 80% of his production is in white wine. The bulk of the vines are in the AOC of Côtes du Jura for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Poulsard and Trousseau, and all of his vines grow right around 1,000 feet in elevation. The farming ethic had been one of lutte raisonnée, or pragmatically sustainable (the use of herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers were abandoned many years previously). Then the domaine embarked on organic farming in 2020 and became certified in 2023.

In 1997 Jean-Luc moved north from Nevy-sur-Seille to the village of Mantry upon buying a sixteenth-century house that originally served as a stagecoach stop. The motivation was the building’s stone cellar, an arched underground affair that became a place of beauty once Jean-Luc stripped off all of the stucco that had been applied to the stone at a later date. Here is where he ages wine in barrel. In 2005 he constructed a one-story building across the street for his fermentations, and in 2014 he built a facility to house a bottling line and to store bottled wine.

Thus, through dint of focus and hard work, Jean-Luc has created a serious artisan domaine that produces up to 55,000 bottles or 9,000 six-pack cases per year. His wife Annie runs the office and their son Mathieu has joined the domaine. Mathieu did an internship in the Mâconnais and then at Pierre Gaillard’s domaine in Faugères following his enological studies, and officially started with his father in 2018.

The Jura is sandwiched between Switzerland and Burgundy, and its vineyard area is the first upland between the Bresse Plain and the Jura Mountains. The lower slopes have more clay to go with marl; the higher slopes have more limestone, much like Burgundy’s Côte d’Or on the other side of the vast plain (unlike Burgundy, however, the Jura’s vineyards have a treasure trove of tiny star-shaped fossils, scattered like star dust upon the ground.). The influence of the Alps ensures that Jura’s climate is decidedly more continental than Burgundy’s, and winters can be quite cold. Vines are trained high for added protection against frost. Harvest typically runs well into October.