Featured Producer
Domaine Bru-Baché
In a tiny stone cellar in the mountain town of Monein, Claude Loustalot continues the tradition first started by his charming uncle, founder Georges Bru-Baché. Although the Bru-Baché-Loustalot clan has been making wine in the Pyrénées since the 1960s, it was not until 1973 that they first began to bottle under their own label. Like many smaller wine regions that were decimated by phylloxera from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth, Jurançon was one of the first to receive A.O.C. status, but has been very slow to recover its production. Since taking over the family domaine in 1994, Claude Loustalot has been bringing pride back to the Jurançon appellation and has taken steps to restore these specialized wines to their former glory.Claude farms ten hectares of terraced vineyards along steep slopes surrounded by breathtaking views of the snow-capped mountains that crown the Basque country. The majority of his holdings are planted to the indigenous varietals, Gros Manseng and Petit Manseng, the former producing a dry, crisp white genetically linked to the Albariño of Spain, and the latter producing an exquisite sweet wine. Claude has implemented biodynamic viticultural practices in the vineyards since 2006 (receiving certification in 2009), which has helped him achieve both purity of expression in his grapes as well as a completely interdependent ecosystem virtually right out of his front door, where sheep graze between vineyard rows. In his garage, he can often be seen blending herbal teas (or tisanes) like Domaine Arretxea, creating his own natural remedies for the vines.
Claude bottles six spectacular cuvées. In his bottlings of Gros Manseng, Claude plays with both tank and wood-aging. Laden with citrus notes and stony minerals (from the schist and limestone soils), these cuvées have terrific complexity for wines so refreshing and easy-to-enjoy. His Petit Manseng bottlings are simply divine. Through the process of passerillage, the grapes achieve an intense raisin-like ripeness by extended hang time on the vines. Their thick skins retain the sugars while preventing rot. They are harvested successively in November and December, concentrated and ready to press. Claude has carried the torch with such success that even the impartial reference manual, The Oxford Companion to Wine, continues to recognize the domaine’s Jurançons as among the best in the appellation.
Bruno Colin
Michel Colin was the third generation in his family to grow grapes in Burgundy within the prestigious Côte de Beaune. When he retired in 2003, he handed the property over to his sons, Philippe and Bruno, who split the holdings between them to bottle under separate labels. With the help of his wife, Stéphanie, Bruno farms eight hectares of land, in thirty different parcels scattered over five communes, with sometimes as little as just a few rows per parcel. To farm under these circumstances is quintessentially Burgundian, where the old Napoleonic codes of inheritance (evolved from Roman law) divide property equally among offspring. Parcels farmed by any one family continue to get smaller and smaller as they are distributed among relatives.He bottles Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet, Saint-Aubin, Santenay, and Maranges. In the old family winery in the center of the village of Chassagne-Montrachet, he vinifies nineteen cuvées separately, twelve of which are premier cru! He uses traditional vinification methods and ages his wines anywhere from twelve to eighteen months in barrel, though he tends to vinify each parcel in a similar fashion. Bruno’s style shows beautiful balance, both aromatically and texturally, while showcasing the delicate minerality and nuanced complexity of each vineyard.
Régis Minet
One could easily consider Régis Minet the Loire Valley’s answer to an action hero. He may play it cool on the outside, but at closer look, one sees a man of brooding intensity on an insatiable quest for adventure. It may just be in the blood. His grandfather, Robert Minet, was an artisan tonnelier, or barrel-maker. At the beginning of the last century, Robert kept a mere three hectares of vines in the eastern Loire town of Pouilly-sur-Loire—just enough to make the family’s wine. He, too, was very independent, living autonomously off his own livestock and fresh vegetables from his farm. When he passed away in 1976, Régis left his studies to continue the work of the domaine without giving it a second thought. Since then, he has made this tiny farm a full-time domaine, and has succeeded in adding an additional eight hectares of vineyards to the holdings. It is certain that his love of his native terroir translates into his wines, although one sees it in many other aspects of his character as well. Watching him fervently serve a plate of crottins de chevre to guests, seeing his latest fossilized finds after a day of diving into the bottom of the Loire River, or watching him tinker with his motorcycle after an epic ride is proof enough that Régis shares both his grandfather’s rogue-ishness and love of the land.Pouilly-sur-Loire produces one of the greatest Sauvignon Blancs in the world. Régis’ vineyards sit at 750 feet, surrounded by hills on the far east of the Loire River, and centered proudly on the prized limestone and clay of the Kimmeridgian chain. The scattered flint in these vineyards imbues the wines with a character quite distinctive from the neighboring village of Sancerre. In the eloquent words of KLWM Store Manager, Steve Waters, “You couldn’t ask for a cleaner, fresher, flintier, or truer expression of Sauvignon Blanc. Its mouth-watering acidity, depth of flavor, and fleshy texture will have you racing back for more.”
Domaine Monier
Jean-Pierre Monier is as happy and as grateful a vigneron as one finds. His small production wines certainly have not made him wealthy (far from it), but his effortless calm, natural sensitivity, and quiet conviction give him an enviable air of simplicity. He is the third generation of his family to be farming in Brunieux, a lieu-dit in the hills above the village of St-Désirat in the Northern Rhône appellation of Saint Joseph. Like his forefathers, wine is only part of his farm’s overall production. Apricot orchards complement the vineyards, and everything is farmed biodynamically. Between 1977-2001, Jean-Pierre sold his fruit to the local cave cooperative in St-Désirat, but the noticeable quality his vines were producing was enough to encourage him to bottle wines under his own label. Heavily influenced by the teaching and research of the German biodynamic guru, Maria Thun, Jean-Pierre earned certification in 2006.Northern Rhône expert, John Livingstone-Learmonth has developed a category for select vignerons of the region called STGT (Soil to Glass Transfer), of which Domaine Monier is a part. He explains, in his definitive classic, The Wines of the Northern Rhône,
This is a numerically small group, one that has survived the onslaught of marketing campaigns, press hype, fashions in winemaking, and wine school orthodoxies. There are a few other domaines that occasionally turn out unfettered wines in the STGT vein, but without the consistency. A sincere wish, of course, is that this group should grow in the coming years. (xiv)
With only five hectares of land to farm, all on gentle, higher altitude slopes, one might question the interest in working by such stringent standards. For a joyful artisan like Jean-Pierre, purity and authenticity are paramount, and his viticultural methodology is merely the most genuine manifestation of these ideals.
Domaine Dupeuble
In the hamlet of Le Breuil, deep in the southern Beaujolais and perched above a narrow creek, the Domaine Dupeuble has been running almost continuously since 1512. The name of the domaine has changed just three times in its history, most recently when the last heir, Anna Asmaquer, married Jules Dupeuble in 1919. Anna’s son Paul, and her grand children Ghislaine and Stéphane Dupeuble, manage the domaine. Kermit first met Ghislaine and Stéphane’s father, Damien, for lunch in Paris in the late 1980s, and thus began the annual tradition of blending the KLWM Beaujolais Nouveau.Tradition runs deep in the family, but each generation has also managed to add something new, including increasing the property. Today it is comprised of one hundred hectares, about forty percent of which is consecrated to vineyards. Strong advocates of the lutte raisonnée approach to vineyard work, they tend their vines without the use of any chemicals or synthetic fertilizers. The vineyards, planted primarily to Gamay, face Southeast, South, and Southwest, and about two thirds of the property is on granite-based soil. The grapes are harvested manually and vinified completely without SO2. The wines are not chaptalized, filtered, or degassed and only natural yeasts are used for the fermentation. The wines of Dupeuble represent some of the best values in the Beaujolais today and are widely regarded for their very high quality and eminently reasonable price.
Domaine Achard-Vincent
The countryside known as the Diois is located in the Drôme Valley around Die (pronounced “Dee”), east of the Rhône in between Valence and Montélimar. It is also the home of the appellation Clairette de Die, derived from its former name, Dea Augusta, during the Roman Empire. The great historian Pliny the Elder was the first to record the greatness of the Clairette and Muscat here, celebrating a pétillance and freshness widely believed to predate those of Champagne. Among the most well-known of Clairette de Die’s producers today is the tiny Domaine Achard-Vincent. Jean-Pierre Achard, and his son, Thomas, descend from five generations of growers. The domaine has farmed organically since Thomas’s grandparents were directing it, although it is now officially certified as both organic (since 1982) and biodynamic (since 2007). Though French certification agencies have stricter criteria than those of the United States, incompatible legislation between the two countries, believe it or not, has forced all mentions of their methodology off labels imported into the U.S.Though the name Clairette de Die suggests the emphasis of the Clairette grape which goes into the blends, it is actually the Muscat à petits grains for which the appellation is best known. The Clairette de Die “Tradition” uses the méthode dioise, an ancestral method that allows a secondary fermentation in the bottle without dosage, because the wine is bottled with residual sugar remaining, typically at 6% alcohol. The bottles are then decanted off of their lees and rebottled under pressure following the secondary fermentation. The Clairette de Die “Brut” is made using the méthode champenoise, or méthode traditionnelle. The “Tradition” is slightly sweet and benefits from low alcohol levels around 7%. The “Brut” is comprised of 100% Clairette and is fermented dry at only 11% alcohol. The delicate liveliness of the wines from Domaine Achard-Vincent makes them refreshing, delicious, and perfect as an aperitif, dessert, or brunch wine. The Brut has become a staff favorite, and Kermit selected it to begin a big Thanksgiving feast this year.
Château Fontanès
Cyriaque Rozier, the highly acclaimed winemaker and vineyard manager at Château La Roque, makes his own wine under the label Château Fontanès in Pic St-Loup in the Languedoc. A charming man with a strong sense of vocation and relentless drive, Cyriaque often works sixteen-hour days between the two domaines. He first started his domaine in 2003, and undertook the ultimate labor of love in the Languedoc—planting a vineyard. For many years, this plot of land was best known for olive trees, until the great frost of 1956 decimated groves by the hundreds. The land is hard as a rock, quite literally, and composed primarily of limestone and clay. To plant a vineyard here is a game of patience and incredibly hard work. Over the last few years, Cyriaque has been slowly building stone terraces to better protect this challenging terrain from erosion. In addition, he has taken to farming biodynamically, a noble task that forgoes the shortcuts that most vignerons have at their disposal today in favor of producing organic grapes in a rich, healthy soil. In total, he works 4.5 hectares, which are planted with forty-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon vines, as well as Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Carignan and Cinsault. He cannot help but love his plantings, as the original cuttings for his vines were all selected from his favorite domaines in Côte-Rôtie, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and Bandol.Though Cyriaque is within the boundaries of the appellation Pic St-Loup, the lion’s share of his production is Cabernet Sauvignon, a grape varietal that is outside of the constraints set for the A.O.C. in the Languedoc. This means that in lieu of getting an A.O.C. cru status, he must take a Vin de Pays d’Oc designation. The trade-off for Cyriaque is that he gets to make his wines his way, and we, in turn, get an incredible price—a mutually beneficial trade-off. Being rebellious seems to come naturally to a man of such innate talent, and the elegance of his wines are proof enough in a region where bigger is often considered better. Make no mistake, raw terroir and spicy garrigue abound in these wines, with rich, juicy fruit and silky tannins.
Dupéré Barrera
Unlike so many of our producers who were born into the trade, Emmanuelle Dupéré and Laurent Barrera did not start their careers in wine. Emmanuelle was, and still is, a professional singer, and Laurent a geological engineer on the island of Réunion, near Madagascar. In 1998, Laurent decided to change direction and enrolled in viticultural school in the Var. Emmanuelle already had a degree in Wine Commerce, but went back to school to learn the production side of the business. Their studies brought them together with great winemakers from various regions of France, and as they learned from these experienced producers, they gained a deep respect for the unadulterated expression of the fruit so prevalent in naturally-made wines.There is nothing average about this husband-and-wife team of enologists: they consider every detail with both brainy enthusiasm and heart. These eco-conscious artisans could never be accused of not walking their talk, either. They adhere to organic methods in the vineyards and are now also incorporating biodynamic practices, adding even stricter discipline to their intense workload. Their winemaking process allows the natural character of the wine to speak for itself, with minute doses of sulfur, no fining or filtration, and bottling during optimal weather conditions when the atmospheric pressure is just right. With one cuvée of Côtes de Provence, they take it to the next level: everything is done by hand with absolutely no machinery – earning the name Nowat (no watt=no electricity). Consider their “Cuvée Très Longue Macération” for some très long aging, too. The Dupéré Barrera team captures the essence of their region beautifully: rich, sun-kissed fruit, savory herbes de Provence, and long, lingering finishes. Travel to sunny Provence with the pop of a cork.
Domaine du Joncier
The feisty, vivacious Marine Roussel took her time finding her place in the family domaine. Her father, Pierre, was an agronomist and started Domaine du Joncier in 1964. However, as a young graphic artist, Marine was seeking adventure beyond her small, sleepy town in the Southern Rhône. After living in both Marseille and Paris, Marine eventually felt a strong pull to return home. She joined the domaine in 1989, and has since taken on her new vocation with the zeal that only a true artist could possess. Marine aims to achieve balance, purity, and minerality in her wines—a noble, if not challenging, goal given the sunbaked terroirs she farms. On the right bank of the Southern Rhône, Lirac shares many similarities to both neighboring crus Tavel and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Her terraced vineyards of alluvial soil and galets roulés mirror Châteauneuf’s terraces right across the river. Maximum sun exposure and ripeness like that of Tavel must be tempered, and that is where both nature and Marine’s artistry comes into play.Her terraces benefit from the persistent mistral, whose regular gusts purify the vines of parasites and mildew throughout the entire year. The galets roulés in the soil provide good drainage and insulation, preventing the roots from getting too hot or too cold at any given time. In addition, Marine achieved organic certification in her vineyards in 2000 and biodynamic certification in 2011. Her soils are alive with microbiotic activity, lending a hand in both the long-term sustainability of her land and in the mineral expression of her wines. Since the vines naturally achieve such low yields, Marine seeks a gentle tannin extraction, too, an important step that provides balance to the final blends. She makes two impressive Lirac Rouges, the first a classic blend with a majority percentage of Grenache, and Cuvée Les Muses, an inky blend made predominately with Mourvèdre.
Domaine Roland Lavantureux
With a sharp eye, natural instinct, and solid, Burgundian pragmatism, Roland Lavantureux is making no-nonsense Chablis that has come to be one of the most reliable of the old reliables here at Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant. He farms nineteen hectares of Chardonnay vines in Lignorelles, about four miles northwest of Chablis. Upon his completion of wine school in Beaune, Roland founded the domaine in 1978. Today, he is joined by his two sons, one who works with him in the vineyards and cellar, while the other takes the lead in marketing and sales. In addition to making a stunning Chablis, the Lavantureux family also bottles a mouth-watering Petit Chablis, which, depending on the vintage, can easily rival their more highly pedigreed bottling—only proving the unwavering consistency of the Lavantureux family that has kept our relationship with them so strong for over thirty years.The region is best-known for the Kimmeridgian soils, a highly-prized terroir of limestone and clay infused with tiny, fossilized oysters. The intense chalk and sea-shell minerality lends deep complexity to whites, making this region an ideal home for the Chardonnay grape. The Portlandian soils in the extension of the Chablis appellation, known as Petit Chablis, may not enjoy the same reputation as the Kimmeridgian, however they imbue the wines with a crisp, lively freshness and zesty, citrus aromas that speak to the deep mineral component of northern Burgundy. There is no accounting for these imaginary boundaries, because the pedigree of his wines is palpable. As Roland once told Kermit, “I don’t know why the INAO named some vines ‘Chablis’ and others ‘Petit.’ When I stand in the middle of my vineyard, the row to my left is Chablis, to the right it is Petit Chablis, but you can’t see any difference.” His wines display show-stopping nerve, to be enjoyed as easily before dinner as they are with a piece of grilled fish or oysters-on-the-half-shell. These wines drink as honestly as the man who makes them; they are staff favorites year after year.
From the Blog
A Guide to the Jura Through the Wines of François Rousset-Martin
By Anthony Lynch
The Jura wine world is a fascinating, mysterious, and at times confusing one. The region’s recent surge in popularity on American wine lists lies in stark contrast with how strange its wines come across to the uninitiated, with many of its indigenous production methods and quirky winemakers requiring more than an introduction for one to fully savor their virtues. We firmly believe, however, that the pleasure at stake is well worth a slight detour to study the wild world of Jura, so we’ve put together a quick crash course to the region’s wines with a focus on a single producer to guide the way.
François Rousset-Martin, the newest Jura vigneron to join our team, crafts a number of cuvées covering a range of styles, from the more conventional to texturally baffling wines laced with exoticism. With a creative artistry, François honors the Jura’s traditions while exploring the full spectrum of possibilities provided by terroir, grape, and élevage. He organically farms primarily Chardonnay and Savagnin on grey marl from the family vineyards beneath the stunning cliff-top town of Château-Chalon, then brings the wines to any of his many scattered small cellars dug out of the limestone bedrock. Each cellar, he reveals, is in a sense its own terroir: with variability in temperature, humidity, and native microorganisms, it can cause an entirely unique evolution in identical wines.
This evolution in barrel will be the main determinant of the resulting style of wine. Jura tradition calls for aging whites sous voile, or under a fine “veil” of yeast that grows over wine in barrel that has not been topped-off (non ouillé) to compensate for evaporation. The voile effectively slows the process of oxidation, while chemical reactions between these microorganisms and the wine below give rise to a highly distinctive and complex set of aromas. Often hinting at walnuts, beeswax, oriental spices, cheese rind, and brine, wines aged sous voile can come as a shock to the unhabituated palate. Their textural and aromatic singularity naturally sets them in a category of their own at table, perhaps the best setting in which to gain an appreciation for such wines. High in umami, they truly shine alongside the Jura’s rich local cuisine. Wild mushrooms, creamy chicken dishes, or smoked charcuterie can be a revelatory pairing; a slab of aged Comté may be the epiphany.
Many Jura producers also produce more conventional whites in an ouillé, or topped-off style, as is practiced in Burgundy—or for that matter, in essentially all the white wines we are accustomed to. This method preserves fresh fruit flavors without the rather rustic, often funky oxidative notes typical of wines aged sous voile. Rather than being limited to one style, François opts to have a foot in both camps: by manipulating the duration of sous voile aging and blending ouillé wines with non ouillé wines, he creates cuvées that combine attributes of both. Strangely enough, even some of his fully ouillé wines express what seem to be oxidative traits. “The voile yeast is so prolific in my cellar that it will often begin to grow on wines that have been topped off,” he explains. This uniquely Jurassic phenomenon endows his wines with a goût de terroir that no other combination of grape, soil, climate, and native microflora could achieve.
With this guide in mind, explore the creations of Rousset-Martin for a mouth-watering adventure through the Jura’s wacky world of wine.
per bottle
2014 Côtes du Jura
“Mémée Marie” >
$37.00
2014 Côtes du Jura Chardonnay
“Terres Blanches” >
39.00
2014 Côtes du Jura Chardonnay
“La Chaux >”
39.00
2013 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Veine Bleue de Bacchus–Clos Bacchus” >
44.00
2013 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Cuvée du Professeur–Sous-Roche” >
44.00
2014 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Clos de Trus” >
48.00
2008 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Clos Bacchus Sous-Voile 7 ans” >
74.00
2005 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Sous-Roch Sous-Voile 10 ans” >
89.00
By Anthony Lynch
The Jura wine world is a fascinating, mysterious, and at times confusing one. The region’s recent surge in popularity on American wine lists lies in stark contrast with how strange its wines come across to the uninitiated, with many of its indigenous production methods and quirky winemakers requiring more than an introduction for one to fully savor their virtues. We firmly believe, however, that the pleasure at stake is well worth a slight detour to study the wild world of Jura, so we’ve put together a quick crash course to the region’s wines with a focus on a single producer to guide the way.
François Rousset-Martin, the newest Jura vigneron to join our team, crafts a number of cuvées covering a range of styles, from the more conventional to texturally baffling wines laced with exoticism. With a creative artistry, François honors the Jura’s traditions while exploring the full spectrum of possibilities provided by terroir, grape, and élevage. He organically farms primarily Chardonnay and Savagnin on grey marl from the family vineyards beneath the stunning cliff-top town of Château-Chalon, then brings the wines to any of his many scattered small cellars dug out of the limestone bedrock. Each cellar, he reveals, is in a sense its own terroir: with variability in temperature, humidity, and native microorganisms, it can cause an entirely unique evolution in identical wines.
This evolution in barrel will be the main determinant of the resulting style of wine. Jura tradition calls for aging whites sous voile, or under a fine “veil” of yeast that grows over wine in barrel that has not been topped-off (non ouillé) to compensate for evaporation. The voile effectively slows the process of oxidation, while chemical reactions between these microorganisms and the wine below give rise to a highly distinctive and complex set of aromas. Often hinting at walnuts, beeswax, oriental spices, cheese rind, and brine, wines aged sous voile can come as a shock to the unhabituated palate. Their textural and aromatic singularity naturally sets them in a category of their own at table, perhaps the best setting in which to gain an appreciation for such wines. High in umami, they truly shine alongside the Jura’s rich local cuisine. Wild mushrooms, creamy chicken dishes, or smoked charcuterie can be a revelatory pairing; a slab of aged Comté may be the epiphany.
Many Jura producers also produce more conventional whites in an ouillé, or topped-off style, as is practiced in Burgundy—or for that matter, in essentially all the white wines we are accustomed to. This method preserves fresh fruit flavors without the rather rustic, often funky oxidative notes typical of wines aged sous voile. Rather than being limited to one style, François opts to have a foot in both camps: by manipulating the duration of sous voile aging and blending ouillé wines with non ouillé wines, he creates cuvées that combine attributes of both. Strangely enough, even some of his fully ouillé wines express what seem to be oxidative traits. “The voile yeast is so prolific in my cellar that it will often begin to grow on wines that have been topped off,” he explains. This uniquely Jurassic phenomenon endows his wines with a goût de terroir that no other combination of grape, soil, climate, and native microflora could achieve.
With this guide in mind, explore the creations of Rousset-Martin for a mouth-watering adventure through the Jura’s wacky world of wine.
per bottle
2014 Côtes du Jura
“Mémée Marie” >
$37.00
2014 Côtes du Jura Chardonnay
“Terres Blanches” >
39.00
2014 Côtes du Jura Chardonnay
“La Chaux >”
39.00
2013 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Veine Bleue de Bacchus–Clos Bacchus” >
44.00
2013 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Cuvée du Professeur–Sous-Roche” >
44.00
2014 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Clos de Trus” >
48.00
2008 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Clos Bacchus Sous-Voile 7 ans” >
74.00
2005 Côtes du Jura Savagnin
“Sous-Roch Sous-Voile 10 ans” >
89.00