It’s one of the most anticipated allocations of the year, and we’re super excited and no doubt lucky to be offering a huge line-up of wines from France’s holy grail Domaine of Jean-François Ganevat, without a doubt always some of Jura’s most precise and consistently exquisite.
Based in the village of Rotalier in Jura’s south, ‘Fanfan’ Ganevat is one of Jura’s most charismatic winemakers. He comes from a long line of vignerons dating back to the mid-seventeenth century. Like many agricultural families in the region, they supplemented their grape growing with dairy farming until the mid-1970s. Fanfan cut his teeth in winemaking with his father, though also learned from Burgundian master Domaine Jean-Marc Morey before returning to the generational family property. He has judiciously converted viticulture to biodynamics, and has fine-tuned winemaking with a gentle hand, focusing on ouille (topping up) techniques and singling out unique plots and vineyards to build the domaine’s stellar reputation.
Back in the day one could easily find a multitude local grape varieties (17 to be precise) growing on the original family plots, but now, the domain is focused on the major grape varieties of the Jura – poulsard, trousseau, pinot noir, chardonnay and savagnin. The brilliant, crystal cut wines of Ganevat have become legend, and allowed Fanfan and family to expand beyond their original holdings into cuvees from other parts of Jura, and, indeed, from wine regions further afield. The cornucopia of wines are incredibly pure, vibrant and delightful, from old vine expressions through to creative, expressive wine styles, providing drinkers with one of the most diverse and intriguing wine collections on earth – cult wines of the highest order.