Description
The Gahier family has been resident in the Jura since 1525. The family domaine is 6.5 hectares with the vineyards concentrated in the village of Montigny-les-Arsures, the place recognized as the home of Trousseau. Michel Gahier has learned from the best. Gahier is a neighbor and friend of Jacques Puffeney, both living in Montigny-les-Arsures, a viticultural district that is acknowledged to produce some of the finest wines of the Arbois appellation. His observations and ongoing dialogue with Puffeney have instilled skills and sensibility that produce undeniably outstanding wines that clearly express the very particular terroir of this corner of the Jura.
Gahier harvests and vinifies his wines parcel by parcel. Each wine ultimately is derived exclusively from a single vineyard site. His whites are produced sous voile; the reds are as mineral-driven as one could expect from the Jura, with a freshness and length that are compelling. The viticulture is organic (although not “certified”). The reds are destemmed; the yields are quite low (averaging 30 hectoliters per hectare). There is a period of cold maceration followed by a cuvaison of approximately one month with some pigeage done in the initial parts of the process. The wines, both white and red, are aged in old foudres and barrel. The wines are bottled without filtration.
Gahier’s Vin Jaune is a tour de force. He selects his finest plots of Savagnin to produce his Vin Jaune. The wine ages “sous voile” in old oak barrels for around seven years before bottling. Gahier believes the best of his Jaunes need twenty years to develop fully and surely at least ten years in bottle.
