Winemaker Notes
This cuve´e has been made since the beginning of Domaine du Pe´lican, in 2012. It is sourced from several different parcels of vineyards located in Arbois and Montigny-les- Arsures. The vineyards sit mostly on hill tops, over marly soils. Their altitude is the highest of the estate - close to 400m in elevation. After harvest, the grapes are lightly crushed and then immediately pressed. Fermentation takes place in barrels and foudres. Aging is in 350L and 500L barrels (of which 5% are new ) for about 30% of the crop. The balance is in foudre and vats.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
An intriguing style, with smoke hanging over a mix of flinty mineral, poached pear and bitter almond skin. Silky in feel, offering a hint of sweet honeycomb on the toasty yet elegant finish, which is round and oily. Drink now through 2028. 850 cases made, 140 cases imported.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
On the foothills of the Jura Mountains, just east of the Cote de Beaune on the Switzerland border, the Jura wine-producing zone is recognized for its unique reds, as well as its particular and diverse styles of whites.
Though borrowed from their neighbor Burgundy, Chardonnay and Pinot noir have been growing in Jura since the Middle Ages. But here the altitude, topography, climate and clay-rich, marl soils support a different style of Pinot noir, not to mention its other deeply-colored, full-bodied indigenous reds, Poulsard and Trousseau.
Considering area under vine, growers here favor Chardonnay for its consistency and reliability; it comprises almost half of Jura's vineyard acreage. However, Jura Chardonnay is anything but boring; its many offbeat styles are part of what make region’s wines so distinctive. It is used for Cremant (sparkling), Macvin (a fortified wine), as well as fine examples at the quality level of Burgundy.
Jura also has a unique oxidative style for Chardonnay but is better recognized for its similarly-styled “vin jaune,” meaning ‘yellow wine,’ which is made from the indigenous variety, Savagnin. Vin jaune is made using techniques similar to those used to make Sherry.
For all of its wines, Jura favors a traditional, natural and often organic style in viticulture and winemaking.