Domaine Labet
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One of our favorite Jura producers is Labet - forgive us for having such a wide array as Julien produces small amounts of hand-crafted wines from individual plots that can routinely change based on the vintage. Trained at Domaine Ramonet, Julien has quite the ability with whites but his eye for delicate reds should not be overlooked. Now that he's fully overtaken his family's land, he has a broad palate of soil types and varietals to work with from the vines which are largely 60+ years of age. He will follow all organic methods in the vineyard and avoid sulfur whenever possible. True to form, Julien’s wines are laser-like in their clarity, and he follows in suit by clearly labeling each wine with its cepage, the unique parcels’ mineral nature, and even the levels of acidity! Nothing is hidden, and with the dedication to smart viticulture and avoidance of chemicals, nothing is added or taken away.
A family domaine born in 1974, Domaine Labet was an early adopter of what was then an exceedingly "modern" approach to Jura winemaking: topping up, creating the "Ouillé" method that would be fresh, less oxidative and more energetic wines. This was not to denigrate the traditional methods of the Jura, but rather to show just how compelling Jura whites could be, and eventually helped them to secure a foothold among the top white wines in the world.
Julien Labet spent time with Domaine Ramonet and further learned how to create white wines of great quality, as Ramonet classically favors small-barrel aging on the lees, letting the results of phenomenal viticulture create tremendous energy and complexity in conjunction with the classic Burgundian methods.
Julien took the process a step further, as he was one of the first in the Jura to adopt single-plot fermentation and bottling, rather than blending everything; that still occurs for some of his wines, but he found many of the old-vine plots to be so phenomenally interesting in their own right that they screamed for their own bottles.
Julien's wines will be both traditional and modern (ish) - he creates mostly whites that are topped up and non-oxidative - these are made a la Burgundy, in neutral 228L barrels on the fine lees - but will occasionally release the "vin de voile" style that is more traditional of the Jura, aged in ancient foudres. Reds will be mostly de-stemmed and aged in barrels, except the Trousseau wines which are aged in ancient foudres.
