The Return of Jura's Old Wiseman
2009 Macle Côtes du Jura
An Important Vintage for a Jura Benchmark
"[Macle's wines] seem to rifle through a repertoire of the natural world as you sniff and sip."
- Andrew Jefford, The New France
We've been offering Macle's benchmark Jura wines for the past five years and have begun an almost embarrassing number of our offerings with Jefford's quote.
The reason is that Jefford's quote cuts right to the heart of the matter - Macle captures the unique flavors of the Jura with amazing acuity.
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Over the past five years, for wine geeks, the wines of the Jura have gone from curiosities to center stage. The amount of Jura wines that we have available to us these days is amazing. For me, Macle's wines remain the region's finest, the most elegantly mineral.
Jean Macle, who has largely passed the torch to his son Laurent, is an old wiseman of the Jura.The style of the wines is classic, steadfastly traditional. In this sense, Macle should be included with great traditionalists like Vatan, Verset, and Trollat. The wines are quietly soulful and deeply complex, almost mysteriously so.
For fans of Macle, for fans of the Jura, the 2009 vintage is a particularly strong vintage for voile (oxidative) style wines, and for Macle's Côtes du Jura in particular. There's really good concentration and power along with Jura's classic zippy acid tang. In 09, there's a sense of completeness to Macle's wines on a very grand scale.
This may be a good time for the compulsory disclaimer: For those of you unfamiliar with the oxidative wines of the Jura, these are beautiful, compelling wines, but they are also intensely unique in their tanginess. If you haven't experienced Jura's oxidative wines before, it's probably best to try a bottle before you go deep.
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What makes us such big fans of Macle's wines is how they blend the richly complex and somewhat wild flavors of the Jura into such an elegant weave.
Part of the reason for this is very attentive winemaking, but it's also an issue of terroir: the Chardonnay and Savagnin vines for Macle's Côtes du Jura are from a choice plot that was part of Château-Chalon until the appellation’s boundaries were redrawn in the 1980s. When it comes to oxidative wines, Château-Chalon is the pinnacle.
Macle's 09 Côtes du Jura offers some of the round notes of mirabelle plum and Meyer lemon that the 06 had, but the fruits are saturated in spices, pine needles and minerals; and all of this is cast against a backdrop of moss and mushrooms. This all happens with an effortless focus and for all the blazing acidity, a feeling of calm.
This combination of power, balance and focus bodes very well for how the wine will age. In any vintage, Macle's wines can see their fifteenth birthday without breaking a sweat. The 2009 has an easy twenty years ahead of it.
Macle's wines really shine at the table. Having a bottle of his Côtes du Jura with some Comté cheese or Chicken with Morels, Vin Jaune and Cream has the potential to make you a devout believer in these wines. Also, try it with umami-rich Japanese foods and discover a whole different dimension of the wine.
There's not much else to say here: Macle is one of my favorite Jura producers and 09 is a great vintage. It's pretty much as simple as that.
To place your order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits