Poulsard, Arbois, 2018
Deceptively light in colour as this has great intensity of flavour. Savoury notes of spiced meat and pink peppercorn married to perfumed rose petal and wild strawberry flavours. Vibrant, delicate and lifted. A unique and very elegant character. The Domaine started producing a separate cuvée of Poulsard in the 2015 vintage, from vineyards taken over from Jacques Puffeney. Poulsard, sometimes also called Ploussard, is an old-established, emblematic Jura grape varietal that produces a deceptively pale wine, with a lot of personality. Their Poulsard vineyards are located in Arbois and in Montigny-les-Arsures. Their age varies between 25 and 60 years, and they grow on marly and sometimes sandy limestone soils. Poulsard is a fairly fragile grape, that needs to be harvested within a short window, between underripe and overripe. Vinification is similar to that of Pinot Noir or Trousseau. They destem the entire crop and gently pump-over the juice without punching down. After fermentation, the Poulsard is stored in a large foudres until bottling.
critic reviews
I like the purity and profile of the 2018 Arbois Poulsard, which, like the sample I tasted before, is quite expressive and agreeable, bright and lively, aromatic and open, quite elegant, with some tannins. It's not as funky as many examples of the grape can be. They picked a little early, and the wine is somewhat herbaceous (in a positive way) and only 11.5% alcohol.
The 2018 Arbois Poulsard is striking. Crushed rose petal, savory herbs, mint, chalk, sweet red cherry, sweet tobacco and pine give the 2018 a brilliant aromatic upper register, while bright acids lend a palpable sense of energy. Readers will find a focused, ethereal red with striking translucence that shares some similarities with wines such as Carema that have a similar alpine character.