Vignerons Les Matheny 2022 Poulsard, Arbois AOC

Item Number: 21011

UPC: None

Country: France
Region: Jura
Sub Region: Jura
Appellation/AVA: Arbois AOC
Estate Grown Wine: Yes
Vintage: 2022
Grape(s): 100% Poulsard
Type: Wine - Red
Bottle Size: 750 ml
Pack: 12
Closure: Cork
Alc by Vol(%): 13
Viticulture: Practicing Organic

Poulsard tends to get characterized as a pale, light-bodied wine, and while many do fit that mold and are produced in a manner that emphasizes it, Emeric’s—like his mentor Puffeney’s before him—has real depth, real texture, and a rarely encountered boldness. It is the product of ancient vines, wild fermentation, and long maceration, and, like its distant cousins to the west in Burgundy, it combines grace and power in seemingly paradoxical fashion.

Winemaking Notes: From meager-yielding vines in Arbois planted in 1943, Emeric produces but a single cask of Poulsard even in a full harvest like 2022—a 15-hectoliter barrel whose grungy exterior (it has been used for almost 40 vintages, after all) belies the enchanting wine held within. Vinification and aging are straightforwardly anti-tech: full de-stemming, spontaneous fermentation with no temperature control, three-week maceration, aging for 18 months, and bottling without fining or sterile filtration.

Tasting Notes: Emeric’s 2022 Poulsard dazzles with its nose alone: cardamom, rose petals, roasted root vegetables slathered in cinnamon; earthy but pure, and overflowing with the kind of spice whose siren song led men to treacherous sea voyages in centuries past. The palate, sappy and succulent, echoes the nose in its complexity, yet it glides, lifts, and swells effortlessly, leaving clinging, cleansing stoniness in its wake. It’s a wine that made us fall in love with Poulsard all over again.