Rougissime, Guillaume Overnoy Cotes-du-Jura

ORGANIC / VEGAN 

A blend of all of Guillaume's red grapes: Trousseau, Pinot Noir and Poulsard, bottled together in years when yields are too low to bottle the three varieties separately. He painstaking de-stems the grapes by hand, using an old local tool known as a crible (famously employed by his great uncle Pierre in Pupillin): a wooden plank with grape-sized holes over which the harvested bunches are rolled back and forth until the fruit falls through, meaning the grapes are not crushed and the flavour and colour can be extracted from the skins gently over the course of two weeks. After this, the wine ages for 9 months in oak and a further 3 in steel, and is then bottled unfiltered with a very light addition of sulphur. An ethereal pale ruby red in colour, it has an aromatic bouquet of roses and violets and plenty of red fruits, such as raspberry, strawberry and cranberry. On the palate the tannins come through producing a medium body, and the red berry and sour cherry flavours are met with earthy notes and a pronounced minerality. Easy drinking but complex enough to stand up to most foods, this will also drink well over the next 20 years or so.

Grand-nephew of the legendary Pierre Overnoy, Guillaume took over the estate in 2014 at the age of just 21, after his father had himself converted the family polyculture farm to winemaking in the early '80s. Guillaume tends to just 5.5ha of vines scattered amongst the varied soils of the Jura, trying to work as naturally as possible in accordance with organic principles, and preferring lengthy lees aging in his underground cellar (a minimum of two years for the whites, one year for the reds) rather than heavy usage of sulphites. He cultivates Chardonnay and Savagnin for the whites, alongside Trousseau, Pinot Noir, and Poulsard for the reds, all of which enjoy a variety of terroirs and produce wines that are remarkable in their purity, fruitiness, and tautness. A rising star to be watched very closely.

Origin: Jura, France
Vintage: 2021
Grape varieties: Trousseau, Poulsard, Pinot Noir
Food pairings: Charcuterie, Game and Venison, Comté
Bottle size: 75cl
ABV: 11%