Cavarodes Arbois Pinot Noir Lumachelles 2020

Domaine des Cavarodes is the project of Etienne Thiebaud, a young Jura grower who trained at Domaine de la Tournelle before starting out in 2007 at Cramans, along the Loue river. He farms just a few hectares of old vines organically and works in a natural, low-intervention style that has made his wines sought after. The Jura is a cool continental region, and the Lumachelles name points to the limestone marl the vines sit on, a soil full of fossil shell fragments that gives Pinot Noir freshness and a mineral tension. The wine is fermented with wild yeasts and aged for 12 months in used French oak barrels, which add gentle roundness and oxygen without new oak flavour, while malolactic fermentation softens the naturally high acidity of the cool climate. The colour is a pale, bright ruby. The nose shows small red fruits, cherry, spice and a floral rose note over a stony minerality. The palate is light, fresh and precise, with fine tannin and a savoury, mineral finish. Serve at 15 to 16 degrees. It suits roast duck, poultry and mushroom dishes.