Some upstarts just seem to get better and better with each new release, and that’s most definitely true in the case of Jean Bouteille. (Not that JB’s first wines back in 2017 was anything to scoff at.) This is hardly a shock, of course, given the handsome Basket Range-based Frenchman has plied his trade brewing beer and sake, pouring wine as a sommelier in Tokyo and making lots of it with the likes of Lucy M, Limus and Gentle Folk. Simply put, this guy just gets it, and while the wines always have a real sense of frivolity, they’re underlined by Old World sensibility and a genuinely holistic understanding of How Things Work.
Ronin and Ruckus, two old favourites, are back for the 2024 release. YASSS. The former makes very fine use of pinot gris, given the carbonic maceration treatment and left to rest on skins for three months; think red-apple skins and cores, dried roses, musky spice and blood-orange zing. The latter is old-vine semillon, treated almost the exact same way and even more invigorating for it, adding honeyed roundness to a palate of lemongrass, hay and green herbs.
A coupla new wines, Bene and Bastion, have also entered the chat this year. Arneis, that eternally underrated Piedmontese white of whites, is what Bene’s all about. You want ripe pears, cider apples, a whisper of chamomile, all in a slurpy, granular-textured frame? You got it. While Bastion was formerly a pinot noir, it’s now become a trousseau. Huzzah! Carbonic maceration gives the redcurrant and raspberry flavours real amplitude, but there’s savoury depth in the fold, too – violets, bramble, charcuterie. Jura by way of the Vine Vale, all the way.