Grapes: Roussanne
Region: Cotes du Rhone, France
Vintage: 2024
Viticulture: Organic
Soils: Clay + Loam with Limestone base
Vinification: Manual harvesting. Complete destemming, two months of maceration with daily punch-down or pump-over.
Aging: 7 months in tinaja (Spanish terracotta jars) of 1000 litres
Fining or Filtering: None
Notes from the Importer: Matthieu Barret has been making wine at Domaine du Coulet since 1998. It was Stéphane Tissot, one of Jura's most famous vignerons, who first gave Barret the nickname "Petit Ours Brun" (little brown bear), and it quickly caught on among his vigneron peers, and even found its way onto his wine labels, such as his red and white cuvées Petit Ours Brun and Petit Ours Blanc. The estate’s 10 hectares represent a superb terroir made up of very decomposed granite or "Gore" and a swathe of clayey/loamy soil. As for Matthieu, he seeks a natural equilibrium in his vines: "Great wines are simply made from grapes,” he says. “No vinification, flawless as it might be, can create what you can obtain naturally. The grape holds this magic within. So it's up to us not to destroy it. I stay flexible in my approach to vinification, to allow each wine to come into its own in its own way, and best express its terroir and its vintage." This bear will protect his nectar tooth and claw! Luckily for us, he’s also more than happy to share.
