Domaine de Juchepie - La Jarre de Juchepie 2018
Domaine de Juchepie is located in Bellevigne-en-Layon, in Anjou, in the Loire Valley. The owners, Eddy and Mileine Oosterlinck-Bracke, are originally from Belgium. In 1985, whilst visiting France on holidays, they discovered a traditional farmstyle house on top of a hill planted with old vines; the “longère” was supposed to become their holiday-home. The property had no infrastructure and a small 0.35-ha vineyard on the beautiful slope of Juchepie in Coteaux du Layon. The couple decided that when Eddie would turn 50 years-old, they would trade their life to become winegrowers in France. It gave them 15 years to establish the domaine and its small structure and extend the vineyard to 6 hectares. On the 1st of October 2001, they moved permanently to Juchepie. The vines at Juchepie have been grown organically since 1994, and biodynamics have been implemented from 2007.
La Jarre de Juchepie 2018 is made from Chenin Blanc, cultivated on a soil of sandstone schists and volcanic rocks (spilite, rhyolite and phtanite). After the manual harvest in small crates, the grapes are pressed manually in a vertical press to extract all the concentration present in the berries. This process can take more than 24 hours. Spontaneous fermentation begins with native yeasts and no inputs are added. Aging lasts 11 months in a sandstone jar and 1 month in a tank.
Grape variety: 100% Chenin Blanc